From Fratricide to Forgiveness
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From Fratricide to Forgiveness: The Ethics of Anger in Genesis by Matthew Richard Schlimm Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ James L. Crenshaw, Supervisor ___________________________ Ellen F. Davis ___________________________ Anathea Portier-Young ___________________________ Randy Maddox ___________________________ J. Robert Cox Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in Religion of the Graduate School of Duke University 2008 ABSTRACT From Fratricide to Forgiveness: The Ethics of Anger in Genesis by Matthew Richard Schlimm Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ James L. Crenshaw, Supervisor ___________________________ Ellen F. Davis ___________________________ Anathea Portier-Young ___________________________ Randy L. Maddox ___________________________ J. Robert Cox An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in Religion of the Graduate School of Duke University 2008 Copyright © 2008 by Matthew Richard Schlimm The photograph found in §8.7.2 (Fig. 5) of the Lion Orthostat from Hazor is from www.holylandphotos.org Copyright © 2008 by Carl Rasmussen. Used with permission. BWHEBB, BWHEBL, BWTRANSH [Hebrew]; BWGRKL, BWGRKN, and BWGRKI [Greek] Postscript® Type 1 and TrueTypeT fonts Copyright © 1994-2006 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These Biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from BibleWorks, software for Biblical exegesis and research. Abstract In the first book of the Bible, every patriarch and many of the matriarchs have significant encounters with anger. However, scholarship has largely ignored how Genesis treats this emotion, particularly how Genesis functions as Torah by providing ethical instruction about handling this emotion’s perplexities. This dissertation aims to fill this gap in scholarship, showing both how anger functions as a literary motif in Genesis and how this book offers moral guidance for engaging this emotion. After an introductory chapter outlining the goals, methods, and limitations of this study (ch. 1), this dissertation draws on works in translation theory, anthropology, and cross-cultural psychology to lay a theoretical framework for analyzing emotion described in another language by another culture (ch. 2). Next, it appropriates the findings of cognitive linguistics to analyze the terminology, conception, and associations of anger in the Hebrew Bible (ch. 3). The following chapter evaluates the advances that have taken place in the field of Old Testament ethics in recent decades, supplementing them with insights from philosophical, literary, and critical theorists to formulate an understanding of ethics and narrative that aligns with the contours of Genesis (ch. 4). The next chapter employs a rhetorical-literary approach to examine how texts in Genesis provide a conversation with one another about anger and its moral perplexities (ch. 5). Various themes from this study are then collected and summarized in the concluding chapter (ch. 6). This dissertation concludes that understanding Genesis’ message about anger requires laying aside traditional Western assumptions about both emotion and ethics. iv Genesis does not, for example, provide a set of ideal principles for engaging anger. Rather, readers who experience Genesis’ narratives view anger from a variety of perspectives and in different lights, gaining wisdom for diverse encounters with anger they may face. They acquire a deep sensitivity to human frailty, an acute awareness of anger’s power, and a realistic range of possibilities for engaging this emotion. v To Melanie Joy vi Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ IV LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... XI LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................. XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. XIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. XVIII 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 THE VALUE OF STUDYING EMOTION ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 GENESIS AND ANGER ............................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 THE PRIMARY AIMS OF THIS PROJECT ................................................................................................. 11 1.4 METHODOLOGICAL OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 15 1.5 LITERARY APPROACHES AND HISTORICAL CRITICISM ......................................................................... 17 1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY .............................................................................................................. 23 1.7 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 27 2. TRAVERSING FOREIGN TERRAIN: THE TROUBLES OF TRANSLATING EMOTION ....... 29 2.1 THE VIOLENCE OF TRANSLATION ........................................................................................................ 29 2.2 THE VULNERABILITY OF TERMS CONVEYING EMOTION ...................................................................... 33 2.3 LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY ...................................................................................................................... 45 2.4 IMPOSING WESTERN ASSUMPTIONS ON THE TEXT: IRRATIONALITY AS SENSELESS VIOLENCE ............ 53 2.5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 69 3. ENVISIONING ANOTHER LANDSCAPE: BIBLICAL ANGER’S ASSOCIATIVE NETWORKS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 72 3.1 PROTOTYPE THEORY ........................................................................................................................... 72 3.2 THE PROTOTYPICAL UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN ANGER IN THE HEBREW BIBLE ............................. 80 3.2.1 Causes of Anger .......................................................................................................................... 81 3.2.2 Objects of Anger ......................................................................................................................... 86 3.2.3 Those Who Become Angry .......................................................................................................... 88 vii 3.2.4 Outcomes of Anger ...................................................................................................................... 90 3.2.5 Evaluation ................................................................................................................................... 94 3.2.6 The Prototypical Script ............................................................................................................... 98 3.3 WORDS THAT COMMONLY APPEAR WITH ANGER .............................................................................. 100 3.3.1 Jealousy (anq) ............................................................................................................................ 100 3.3.2 Evil / Calamity ([r, h[r, [[r) ..................................................................................................... 102 3.3.3 Extreme Violence (grh, dmv, ~rx, hlk) ....................................................................................... 104 3.3.4 Fire (va) .................................................................................................................................... 106 3.3.5 Pouring Out ($pv, $tn) ............................................................................................................... 108 3.3.6 Rulers ($lm, rf, lvm) .................................................................................................................. 111 3.3.7 Contend, Dispute, and Other Speech Words (byr, !yd) ............................................................... 112 3.3.8 Turn (bWv) .................................................................................................................................. 114 3.3.9 Qualifiers .................................................................................................................................. 115 3.3.10 Terms for Anger ...................................................................................................................... 116 3.4 CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR .................................................................................................................. 117 3.5