Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study postulates a unifying rhetorical function for the book of Lamentations during the Persian period.After the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE, the people of Judah were geographically scattered and religiously and culturally fragmented.Lamentations, with its ahistorical, timeless character, its acrostic form, its posture of protest, and its totalizing references to all the different classes and groups of Judahites, became a rallying point for Jews seeking restoration after the exile, as well as a perpetual reflection on YHWH's role in human suffering for oppressed Jews in many places and at many times through history.The historical component of this study seeks to establish the fragmentation of Judah and the goals of the various Judahite groups during the Persian period.The literary component attempts to demonstrate Lamentations' suitability as a portable, timeless expression of suffering before YHWH, and as a source of imagery and motivation for Jewish restoration hopes.This study contributes to the understanding of the formation of Jewish identity, which since the destruction of the first temple has been shaped by minority status in nearly every cultural context, and by the evolution of a portable, textual religion.This study concludes that the preservation of the book of Lamentations was both a reflection of and a contribution to these two aspects of Jewish identity.This study also contributes to the interpretation of Lamentations-and the genre of communal lament-as literature and liturgy.It also explores the possibility of literary connections between Lamentations, Isaiah 40-55, and the genre of penitential prayers.
Author: Benjamin D. Giffone
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2168624844