Talking animals in parables: a contradictio in terminis? -Presentation
Transcript of Talking animals in parables: a contradictio in terminis? -Presentation
Moab and Midian And the LORD said [to Moses, saying]: Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites (Num 31:1-‐2). [...] Of the Midianites. See, the Moabites were the beginning of the maFer, as it is said: The eldest of Moab and the eldest of Midian went [... to Bileam] (Num 22:7). Since their days they never made peace with one another, and when they came to fight Israel, they made peace with one another and fought with Israel. A parable. To what is the ma2er similar? To two shepherds that were with the herd, and they competed with one another. A caFle thief came to take a lamb from the herd, and one of them was fighPng against him. His companion said: If I [don’t] go and support him now, he will kill him, and he will come aSer me and kill me. They made peace between them and fought with the thief. So Moab and Midian. Since their days they never made peace with one another, as is said: who smote Midian in the field of Moab (Gen. 36:35). But when they came to fight with Israel, they made peace with one another and fought with Israel.
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Parable by NT and rabbinic scholars NT • Type of comparison (Simile,
parable, exemplary story etc.) • FicPonality • Realism • Topic, theme • Original/oral form • Rhetorical funcPon
– Message – Effect
rabbinic • Formal characterisPcs
– Introductory formulae – 2 stages: mashal/nimshal
• HermeneuPc funcPon – embedding in midrash – InterpretaPon of base text
• Rhetorical effect – EducaPonal, polemical,
ethical, consolaPon…
Yet most agree that NT parables and rabbinic meshalim can be compared 2
Example definiPon: Zimmerman “Eine Parabel ist ein kurzer narraPver (1) fikPonaler (2) Text, der in der erzählten Welt auf die bekannte Realität (3) bezogen ist, aber durch implizite oder explizite Transfersignale zu erkennen gibt, dass die Bedeutung des Erzählten vom Wortlaut des Textes zu unterscheiden ist (4 ). In seiner Appellstruktur (5) fordert er einen Leser bzw. eine Leserin auf, einen metaphorisch en Bedeutungstransfer zu vollziehen, der durch Ko -‐ und KontexPnformaPonen (6) gelenkt wird.” R. Zimmerman, ‘Parabeln—sonst nicht. GaFungsbesPmmung jenseits der KlassifikaPon in „Bildwort“, „Gleichnis“, „Parabel“ und „Beispielerzahlung” in R. Zimmermann, Kern, G., (eds.), Hermeneu@k der Gleichnisse Jesu: Methodische Neuansätze zum Verstehen urchristlicher Parabeltexte. WissenschaSliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 231 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 383-‐419
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Issues
• ComparaPve parable research iniPated by NT scholars
• Different (religious) agenda’s • Nature of corpora is very different – rabbinic is much larger; more parables – Different purpose/genres
• Chronological discrepancy – 1st cent CE vs. 3rd-‐10th cent. CE
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3 disPncPons by Jülicher
Jülicher 1. Parable vs. allegory 2. Division within ‘Parables’
1. Similitudes (Gleichnisse) 2. Parables 3. Exemplary Stories
(Beispielerzählungen)
3. Parables and Fables (related)
Recep=on (NT) 1. Flusser, Boucher a.o.: false
opposiPon 2. Zimmerman: “Parabeln-‐
sonst nichts!”
3. Zimmerman a.o.: talking animals and plants = not realisPc ! no parable
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Rabbinic studies: mashal and fable
− Parable, fable, proverb = משל – Talking plants and animals in meshalim – Bar Kappara recited 300 fox fables during each course dinner party (LevRab 28:2) – Many studies in fact deal with fables, not parables (because of term (משל – “mashalized” fables
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R. Akiba says: With all thy soul (Deut. 6:7): even if He takes away thy soul. Our Rabbis taught: Once the wicked Government issued a decree forbidding the Jews to study and pracPce the Torah. Pappus b. Judah came and found R. Akiba publicly bringing gatherings together and occupying himself with the Torah. He said to him: Akiba, are you not afraid of the Government? He replied: I will explain to you with a parable. A fox was once walking alongside of a river, and he saw fishes going in swarms from one place to another. He said to them: ‘From what are you fleeing?’ They replied: ‘From the nets cast for us by men’. He said to them: ‘Would you like to come up on to the dry land so that you and I can live together in the way that my ancestors lived with your ancestors?’ They replied: ‘Art thou the one that they call the cleverest of animals? Thou art not clever but foolish. If we are afraid in the element in which we live, how much more in the element in which we would die!’ So it is with us. If such is our condiPon when we sit and study the Torah, of which it is wriFen, For that is thy life and the length of thy days, (Deut 30:20) if we go and neglect it how much worse off we shall be! […] He said to them: All my days I have been troubled by this verse, 'with all thy soul', [which I interpret,] 'even if He takes thy soul'. I said: When shall I have the opportunity of fulfilling this? Now that I have the opportunity shall I not fulfill it? – BT Ber. 61b 8
And the LORD said [to Moses, saying]: Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites (Num 31:1-‐2). [...] Of the Midianites. See, the Moabites were the beginning of the maFer, as it is said: The eldest of Moab and the eldest of Midian went [... to Bileam] (Num 22:7). Since their days they never made peace with one another, and when they came to fight Israel, they made peace with one another and fought with Israel. A parable. To what is the ma2er similar? To two dogs that were with the herd, and they competed with one another. A wolf came to take a lamb from the herd, and one of them was fighPng against him. His companion said: “If I [don’t] go and support him no, he will kill him, and he will come aSer me and kill me.” They made peace between them and fought with the wolf. So Moab and Midian. Since their days they never made peace with one another, as is said: who smote Midian in the field of Moab (Gen. 36:35). But when they came to fight with Israel, they made peace with one another and fought with Israel. -‐-‐ Sifre Numbers 157
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Consensus?
(1) A parable contains a comparison between two situaPons
(2) one of these is the ‘base’ situaPon that will be explained by the other
(3) the second situaPon is the one with which the ‘base’ situaPon is compared
(4) The second situaPon is chosen for its capacity to shed light on the ‘base situaPon’
(5) The second situaPon is presented in the form of a short ficPonal narraPve.
Ad (2): can be a biblical verse ; something related in a biblical text; a conflict in real life; a vision of a future or beFer life, etc. Ad (4) : can be realisPc or unrealisPc (talking dog)
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Selected Bibliography • A. Jülicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu (I & II) (Darmstadt: WissenschaSliche BuchgesellschaS),
19632 • D. Flusser, Die rabbinischen Gleichnisse und der Gleichniserzähler Jesu, 1. Teil, Das Wesen der
Gleichnisse, Bern, Peter Lang, 1981. • A. Goldberg, "Das SchriSauslegende Gleichnis im Midrasch, in A. Goldberg, Rabbinische Texte
als Gegenstand der Auslegung. Gesammelte Studien II, ed. Margarete Schlüter and Peter Schäfer, Tübingen, 1999, 134-‐198 (originally Frankfurter Judais@sche Beiträge 9 (1981) 1-‐90
• M. I. Boucher, The Mysterious Parable. A Literary Study (CBQ Monograph Series 6), Washington 1977; M.I. Boucher, The Parables ( New Testament message ; vol. 7), Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1981
• D. Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash, Bloomington, Indiana, 1990, esp. p. 80-‐92, and 105-‐116
• D. Stern, Parables in Midrash: Narra@ve and Exegesis in Rabbinic literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 1991
• Y. Frankel , “Ch. 11: hamashal” in his Darkhe ha-‐aggadah vehamidrash, Jerusalem, 1996, 323-‐393
• R. Zimmerman a.o. (ed.), Compendium der Gleichnisse Jesu, Gütersloh, 2007 • A. Samely, “The mashal as model or analogy for a biblical event” and “The mashal as form
with a hermeneuPc funcPon” in his Forms of Rabbinic Literature and Thought. An Introduc@on, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2007, 188-‐192
• R. Zimmermann, Kern, G., (eds.), Hermeneu@k der Gleichnisse Jesu: Methodische Neuansätze zum Verstehen urchristlicher Parabeltexte. WissenschaSliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 231 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009)
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