144 - Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty

Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty
By J. Cheryl Exum
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 206 pp. $49.95.

Readers of a review usually begin by asking themselves if the book under consideration is worth purchasing. When any book of over 200

145 - Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty

pages lists at fifty dollars, the question becomes particularly pressing. In this case, however, the answer is a ringing affirmative. Exum has obviously worked long and hard on thinking through the relationships between tragedy and the biblical tradition. Not only is she in thorough command of the classical Greek, Shakespearean, and modern tragedies, she also knows the theoretical discussions as well. When moving into an adjacent field beyond straight biblical scholarship, it is very tempting for biblical scholars (including myself) to form a grid of what has been learned from the supplementary reading and then to process the biblical material through that grid. At no point does Exum succumb to that temptation. The literature on tragedy remains in the background, enriching her discussion of the biblical texts, but her focus at all times is on the stories she has chosen to discuss. And her thorough familiarity with the most recent scholarship on these particular biblical stories produces a work that is mature, rich with insights, and enjoyable to read.

The first major section treats Saul as a tragic figure. To anticipate your wondering if there is any possibility of breaking new ground in this fairly well-worked area, the answer is yes indeed. Exum's earlier work on Samson informs her discussion of Saul. She has absorbed both stories totally into her system, and the comparisons and contrasts she makes between the two figures are very helpful, even to readers who think they know both of these stories well.

The second section, on Jephthah and his daughter, is equally well done. This story has received considerable recent attention from scholars using feminist, literary, and anthropological approaches, but Exum advances the field, not only by situating her discussion within the framework of tragedy but also by looking much more closely than others at the Jephthah tradition as a whole.

Exum's other two chapters are on the house of Saul (Michal, Jonathan, Abner, Ishbosheth, and Rizpah) and on David. Parts of these chapters are a bit uneven. Because of the greater possibility of reader unfamiliarity with people like Ishbosheth, Rizpah, and Shimei, Exum is, now and then, forced to recount the basic story. And one might wonder at her choice to insert the Jephthah story into the Saul-David sequence. But these chapters are still very much worth reading closely, and Exum's choice does make good structural sense. Saul, as the prototypical tragic figure of the Bible, must come first in order to provide a figure against which all other characters are to be measured. Jephthah must be played off against Saul, just as Saul was against Samson. And it is most appropriate to end the book with David, the character who, at times, approaches a tragic stature that cannot be sustained. The Saul/David bracketing permits Exum to conclude with a wonderful section that contrasts the two as figures of tragedy.

To close this review with one minor quibble, I wish that Exum had chosen to broaden the scope of this book so that the Job story could have been included. There is some discussion of Job in the book's

146 - Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty

introduction, and the term "narrative" in the book's title may justify the decision not to have a chapter on Job. Based on the thoughtful and sensitive analysis Exum has produced on what she has chosen to cover, however, I have every confidence that readers would have greatly benefited by an analysis of Job within this larger biblical context.

James S. Ackerman
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN