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MARK RONCACE, Jeremiah, Zedekiah, and the Fall of Jerusalem (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 423; London/New York: Clark, 2005). Pp. x + 193. $125.
Roncace's revised dissertation (Emory University) offers a narratological and intertextual analysis of Jer 37:1-40:6 in an effort to provide one of the first literary studies of a portion of Jeremiah 37-44, the longest biblical narrative about the life of a prophet. He correctly maintains that the overwhelmingly diachronic approach to these chapters has left interpreters without an adequate synchronie literary understanding of this material. Unfortunately, R.'s lack of full methodological clarity and reflection undermines his work, leaving readers with the impression that it is based on observations that are not taken far enough and that lack the coherence of a full literary interpretation.
Roncace begins his methodological discussion by observing that the widespread acceptance and employment of narratological method render an explanation and defense of the method unnecessary. This leaves readers uncertain as to how he understands the overall method, although he does provide brief overviews of key elements, including characterization, point of view, contextual analysis, and intertextual theory. Characterization draws on a variety of literary, psychological, and social-scientific techniques to construct a portrayal of characters in a narrative from their conversations and from their interactions with other characters. Jeremiah and Zedekiah emerge as complex and ambiguous characters in this narrative. Point of view involves especially the perspective by which events are perceived (or portrayed?) in a narrative. Here Jeremiah's point of view is absent, although the narrator emphasizes in Jer 37:1-2 that the king and the people did not listen to the word of Yhwh and employs dialogue among the characters throughout the narrative to make this point. Contextual analysis refers specifically...