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Tri-Dishonoring Pattern in the story of Abimelech

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2017, 23(3), pp.38-74
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2017.23.3.38
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : June 28, 2017
  • Accepted : July 26, 2017

Park Kyung-Sik 1

1목원대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Re-reading Abimelech’s story (Judg 9:50-54) with the literary approaches, such as narratology, structural criticism, honor/shame study, and gender criticism interprets and multiplies the text’s own meaning that seems to be hidden by narrator’s literary strategy. This re-reading, especially with gender criticism, provides a counter explanation through ‘gender-based shame,’ explaining how honor and shame are described by gender preference. My reading suggests a further approach toward the focalization in which the narrator employs the method of removing hyper-heroization, and to emphasize an intention to dishonor characters step-by-step. As a result, the narrative exposes its concentration on the approaches employed to catch readers’ attention effectively. In other words, the author uses highly-constructed methods of transmission and communication in the narrative. This study employs a scheme of three terms (hyper-heroization, de- heroization, and trans-heroization), which I call a tri-dishonoring pattern. The pattern continually occurs in Judges 9 with Abimelech, the unnamed woman, and the young man, whether the character is male or female, until they are removed/veiled from the text. Even though each character appears to have committed a violent action, he/she is just hyper-heroized, de-heroized soon, and then trans-heroized. Therefore, all characters are victimized for the purpose of generating a constant focus toward the next character, continuing to the end of the pattern. One might see Judges 9 as a valid model of the retribution theme resulting from the Deuteronomistic viewpoint in order to judge the final end of the sinfulness of the wrongdoing. The inglorious end of Abimelech appears as retaliation for his cruel beginning. Others might interpret that the final text explains that the Babylonian exile was inevitable due to the disobedience of Israel. In this case, the text could be blaming Abimelech’s attempt to seize what should have been a divine initiative. However, my reading suggests a possibility of reading a literary pattern that alludes to the realization that God is at the end of the pattern. This theological approach describes the fact that, even though Judges continues to illustrate how to rule/lead the people, the people could not rely on the political systems which they experienced as having bitter ends. Further studies of this pattern should be considered throughout the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Such a reading contributes to figuring out how the narrator manipulates the characters and employs their own resources by using ambiguity as a literary technique. The presence of such a pattern suggests that all characters are potentially limited in reputation and agency, and that these limitations are crucial for the production of meaning.

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