From time-bound to timeless : the rhetoric of lamentations and its appropriation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study postulates a unifying rhetorical function for the book of Lamentations during thePersian period. After the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE, the people of Judah weregeographically scattered and religiously and culturally fragmented. Lamentations, with itsahistorical, timeless character, its acrostic form, its posture of protest, and its totalizingreferences to all the different classes and groups of Judahites, became a rallying point forJews seeking restoration after the exile, as well as a perpetual reflection on YHWH's role inhuman suffering for oppressed Jews in many places and at many times through history.The historical component of this study seeks to establish the fragmentation of Judahand the goals of the various Judahite groups during the Persian period. The literarycomponent attempts to demonstrate Lamentations' suitability as a portable, timelessexpression of suffering before YHWH, and as a source of imagery and motivation for Jewishrestoration hopes.This study contributes to the understanding of the formation of Jewish identity, whichsince the destruction of the first temple has been shaped by minority status in nearly everycultural context, and by the evolution of a portable, textual religion. This study concludes thatthe preservation of the book of Lamentations was both a reflection of and a contribution tothese two aspects of Jewish identity.This study also contributes to the interpretation of Lamentations-and the genre ofcommunal lament-as literature and liturgy. It also explores the possibility of literaryconnections between Lamentations, Isaiah 40-55, and the genre of penitential prayers.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University