Hi, George!
Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I agree with you, and your reply made me
think about whether there are many other instances in which the biblical
writers try to get at a certain literary effect but ultimately fail to
accomplish it. Usually, and I think for good reasons, scholars focus on the
successul uses of literary devices by the biblical writers, as Robert Alter
does in his wonderful book. However, failed attemps at producing a given effect
may also turn out to be interesting, if for no other reason because they reveal
something about the writer's mindset.
This is, however, admittedly subjective, cause being sucessful or not in this
regard also depends on which audience is being addressed. In the case of
Ezekiel, though I think that despite the euphemisms those passages are quite
rude, maybe even gross, one could argue his target audience would have thought
otherwise.
Best regards,
Norman Cohn
São Paulo - Brazil.
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
