Beyond Orality

Central to understanding the prophecy and prayer of the Hebrew Bible are the unspoken assumptions that shaped themâtheir genres. Modern scholars describe these works as âœpoetryâ but there was no corresponding ancient Hebrew term or concept. Scholars also typically assume it began as âœoral literatureâ a concept based more in evolutionist assumptions than evidence. Is biblical poetry a purely modern fiction or is there a more fundamental reason why its definition escapes us? Beyond Orality: Biblical Poetry on its Own Terms changes the debate by showing how biblical poetry has worked as a mirror reflecting each eraâs own self-image of verbal art. Yet Vayntrub also shows that this problem is rooted in a crucial pattern within the Bible itself: the texts we recognize as âœpoetryâ are framed as powerful and ancient verbal performances dramatic speeches from the past. The Bibleâs creators presented what we call poetry in terms of their own image of the ancient and the oral and understanding their native theories of Hebrew verbal art gives us a new basis to rethink our own. . Language: English