Hezekiah and the Dialogue of Memory
- Biblical Studies & Commentaries
- Publisher: Fortress Press (Augsburg Fortress)
- Published: 2015
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Publisher's Description
Hezekiah is a critical figure in the Hebrew Bible, which credits him with major political, social, and religious reforms in Judah’s history and the weathering of a major crisis in the invasion of the Assyrians under their emperor, Sennacherib. Examining the different accounts of Hezekiah’s reign in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah, Song-Mi Suzie Park describes a “Hezekiah complex” that developed over a long time, in which the figure of Hezekiah served as a symbol for the vicissitudes of Judah’s history. The king could be understood as a positive reformer of the “pagan” ways of the country, or as a sinner, at least partly responsible for the threats and disasters that befell Judah, from Sennacherib’s invasion through the Babylonian exile more than a century later. By showing how the stories about Hezekiah developed over time through a process of response and counterresponse, forming at the end a dialogue of memory, Park elucidates the ways in which biblical stories in general function as loci of continual dialogue, dispute, and discussion.
Endorsements (3)
“Park's work is first and foremost a historiographical study, concerned to connect the accounts of Hezekiah's reign with real-life situations in the history of Judah. It makes a serious contribution to understanding not only the figure of Hezekiah but biblical historiography as a whole.”
“Professor Park provides an insightful and judicious study of the memory of Hezekiah as recorded in the biblical accounts of his reign. By selecting three events recorded concerning this king of Judah and tracing out the changes in their reporting in the biblical texts of Kings, Chronicles, and Isaiah, she reveals not only a redactional process in Hezekiah memory but a rapidly changing context in which the king’s memory is useful. The detailed, while completely readable, investigation of texts rereading earlier texts provides a view into the scribal labor of ancient Judah. This is a masterful work that should inform scholars in biblical history and literature for years to come.”
“Through the deft blending of historical and narrative methods of analysis, Dr. Park traces the character development of King Hezekiah through multiple levels of interpretation. Though the data is complex and explanations are often elusive, her understanding of the growth of tradition in terms of each generation’s struggle with theological questions left unanswered by an earlier generation produces a trajectory that is both exegetically convincing and hermeneutically suggestive.” —Paul D. Hanson Harvard University “This exceptionally clear and careful study sheds valuable light not only on the history of ancient Israel but also on the evolution of its theological thinking. It has much to offer to a wide range of readers—laypeople interested in the Bible, members of the clergy (Jewish or Christian), and scholars of the Hebrew Bible alike.”
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