The Primary History as Museum Exhibit: Rethinking the Recovery of the Hebrew Bible’s Artifacts

The “Primary History” is the scholarly term for the biblical narrative spanning Genesis through Kings, created largely through the combination of pre-existing texts and traditions. This narrative has played a central role in scholarly reconstructions of the history of Israelite and Judahite traditio...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Method & theory in the study of religion
Main Author: Tobolowsky, Andrew 1985- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Brill [2020]
In: Method & theory in the study of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Text / Conservation / Israel (Antiquity) / Israelites / Jews / History
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
HA Bible
TC Pre-Christian history ; Ancient Near East
Further subjects:B narrative theory
B Biblical Studies
B museum theory
B Israelite history
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:The “Primary History” is the scholarly term for the biblical narrative spanning Genesis through Kings, created largely through the combination of pre-existing texts and traditions. This narrative has played a central role in scholarly reconstructions of the history of Israelite and Judahite traditions more generally because it is often possible to recover these pre-biblical traditions apparently intact. However, the recovery of pre-biblical traditions is a more complicated problem than typical approaches—which focus on the reconstruction of original texts—allow. Scholars also need to consider how the combination and arrangement of traditions has altered our perception of them, even when we can recover their original form. This article employs contemporary theoretical approaches to museum exhibits in order to explore how the combination and presentation of artifacts reshapes what they seem to mean, without physically altering them, and applies those lessons to the study of reconstructed pre-biblical texts.
ISSN:1570-0682
Contains:Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341479