Doren G. Snoek evaluates social and cultural memory in biblical research and offers a new approach to one biblical history, Chronicles, a book often considered derivative of its biblical sources, revealing it to be a robust, independent story of ancient Israel and Judah.
Doren G. Snoek translates current theory in memory studies to textual production in antiquity. Focusing on textual and material scribal processes that contribute to the formation of historical knowledge, especially for the biblical book Chronicles, he describes how scribes respond to social conditions and existing texts as they generate new »media offers,« that is, new scrolls and the new narratives they contain. He argues that Chronicles creates new social, political, and religious possibilities and, in some cases, may have caused the loss of historical knowledge. The study contributes to scholarship by characterizing Chronicles as a literarily autonomous and materially independent national history for Yehud.
Table of contents:
Introduction
1 Social Memory in Studies of the Hebrew Bible1.1 Terminology in Memory Studies
1.2 Memory Studies and the Hebrew Bible: A Very Brief History
2 Social Memory, Scribalism, and Revisionary Composition2.1 Memory Theory, Media Offers, and the Problem of Reception
2.2 Scribalism, Media Offers, and Social Memory
2.3 A Brief Application of the Model: Some Scribal Processes in the Hebrew Bible
2.4 Conclusion: A Model for the Study of Social Memory and Biblical Texts
3 Scribal Processes and Mnemonic Potential in 1 Chronicles 1–93.1 Scribal Processes in the Chronicler’s Genealogies
3.2 Scribal Reception and Mnemonic Potential
3.3 Conclusion
4 Solomon’s Accession, from Intertextuality to “Forgetting”4.1 Intertextuality and Solomon’s Accession: Two Approaches
4.2 Solomon’s Accession in Samuel-Kings and in Chronicles
4.3 Beyond Intertextuality: Production, Potential, Reception
4.4 From Intertextuality to Cultural “Forgetting”
5 Frames and Fields of Reference, the Story of Joash, and the Source Citations5.1 2 Chronicles 24 and 2 Kings 12: Texts and the Question of Sources
5.2 The Joash Account in 2 Chronicles 24 and Internal / External Fields of Reference
5.3 The Mnemonic Potential of 2 Chronicles 24
6 Conclusion6.1 Social Memory Theory and Biblical Studies
6.2 Social Memory and the Writing and Reception of Chronicles
6.3 On Reading Chronicles
Appendix: 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 24
