Bilhah the Temptress: The Testament of Reuben and "The Birth of Sexuality"

Rosen-Zvi, Ishay

doi:10.1353/jqr.2005.0098

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…and the T. Reu. are often compared to one another, each gives a distinctly different understanding of the two parties who are involved (Rosen-Zvi 2006;Kugel 1995;Shinan and Zakovitch 1983). Jubilees goes to great lengths to exculpate Bilhah who cries out loudly as a raped woman is supposed to do according to the laws of Deuteronomy (22:24,27).…”

Section: Enactive Reading: An Arresting Narrative Framementioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at the Shepherd of Hermas through the experience of lived religion

Harkins¹

2020

Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

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This essay examines the first four visions in the Book of Visions found in the early Christian work known as the Shepherd of Hermas wherein Hermas reports having had a visionary experience happen to him. These are highly mediated and thoroughly edited literary reports that draw upon the emotional contours of foundational narratives and myths. Despite their highly constructed elements, literary features of the visionary reports can nevertheless give some insight into how flesh and blood readers may have experienced the reading or hearing of these texts. With the help of the integrative approaches associated with the cognitive literary theory, this essay considers how the process of imagining the scenes in the Book of Visions participates in the formation of the self.

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Section: Enactive Reading: An Arresting Narrative Framementioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at the Shepherd of Hermas through the experience of lived religion

Harkins¹

2020

Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

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“…This spirit is discussed in much detail in the Testament of Reuben, based upon Reuben's fornication with Bilhah-his father's concubine. 25 In the Testament of Reuben, we learn that Reuben saw Bilhah bathing in a secluded place (T. Reu. 3:11).…”

Section: Physically Evil: Nature or Nurture?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Manifesting evil: Demons and physical monstrosity in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

Bruin

2019

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

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The interplay between spiritual evil and physical monstrosity plays a large role in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The Testaments are structured around the understanding of a human spirit, the mind, which stands between good and evil spirits, and in general it is the mind that forms the focus of the text’s exhortation. The evil spirits influence the mind, causing a person to think unrighteous thoughts and ultimately commit unrighteous acts. The role of the mind, however, is so large that it even plays a dominant role in the physical appearance of a person. In this article, I examine three distinct cases where someone’s ethical and spiritual evil results in physical monstrosity. First, we see that when someone’s mind follows the temptations of an evil spirit, they become disabled. Second, we see that an evil spirit has the power to poison someone’s own neutral spirit, which ultimately leads the poisoned person to manifest themselves in a monstrous way. Finally, women bear monstrous giants as a direct result of their mental lust for the angelic Watchers. These three cases show the close relationship between external appearance and internal demeanor in the Testaments. Thus, humankind functions as a means through which the invisible monstrous manifests itself in the visible world. This realization helps clarify some early Christian understandings of humankind’s natural and monstrous states, as well as their ideas about ethics and social conduct, the nature of evil, and how the manifestation of evil in the physical world is influenced.

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“…Given the surfeit of later interpretation and spare detail in (R2), modern scholars largely focus either on the later materials or on the apparent textual allusions to (R2) in Gen. 49.4 (e.g. de Hoop, 2007; Gevirtz, 1971; Grossfeld, 2006; Kugel, 1995; Rosen-Zvi, 2006). They thus entirely overlook the fundamental literary import of the episode: its role as a reflection story condemning Jacob’s passivity following the recent rape of his daughter Dinah.…”

Section: Six Reflective Episodes One ‘Reflection Complex’mentioning

confidence: 99%

The literary roles of Reuben and Judah in Genesis narratives: A ‘reflection complex’

Kraut

2018

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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Scholars have long perceived a relationship among Genesis narratives involving Reuben and Judah. Most treatments, historical in orientation, focus on the authorial and editorial processes that produced two episodes in which 'competing' Reuben and Judah narratives are preserved: the sale of Joseph (Gen. 37) and the guardianship of Benjamin (Gen. 42-3). Even literary studies of the Reuben and Judah characters typically address only some of the relevant narratives and reach limited conclusions about the characters' import. This study, in contrast, contends that all of the Reuben and Judah narrative passages in Genesis-whatever the processes leading to their inclusion-comprise a latent complex with a literary purpose. Reuben and Judah compel Jacob to reconsider behaviors from his own life, reminding their father-respectively-of his failings and his nobler aspects. I dub this dynamic a 'reflection complex', consisting of multifarious intertextual links, including multiple instances of the 'reflection stories' described by Yair Zakovitch.

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Bilhah the Temptress: The Testament of Reuben and "The Birth of Sexuality"

Cited by 15 publications

References 32 publications

Looking at the Shepherd of Hermas through the experience of lived religion

Looking at the Shepherd of Hermas through the experience of lived religion

Manifesting evil: Demons and physical monstrosity in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

The literary roles of Reuben and Judah in Genesis narratives: A ‘reflection complex’

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