The Birth Report Genre in the Hebrew Bible

Timothy D. Finlay integrates the disciplines of form criticism and narrative criticism in an analysis of the birth report genre in the Hebrew Bible. He first establishes the standard structure of the birth report as containing an introductory setting, a conception element, a birth element, a naming element, and an etiological element. There are typical formulae associated with each element. He then analyzes how the genre of the surrounding material - genealogical list, annunciation type-scene, account of prophetic symbolic actions - modifies the standard form of the birth report. Finally, he re-examines each individual narrative containing a birth report, paying particular attention to how the marked deviations from the standard pattern of a birth report contribute to the specific narratological aims of the larger passage.