Michal's Moral Dilemma: A Literary, Anthropological and Ethical Interpretation

Description

Michal's Moral Dilemma proposes that attention should be paid to the moral goods that feature in the text, before arguing that the family, a central feature of Old Testament morality, should be understood as a set of practices rather than an institution. Jonathan Rowe discusses the use of "models" of social action to comprehend the social world of the Bible, and suggests a modified version of Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can help readers appreciate how authors present a moral vision by approving some characters' actions whilst undermining others. The discussion of Michal's moral dilemma adduces anthropological theories and ethnographic data concerning violence, lying, and the relationship between fathers and daughters. Given that the conflicts of moral goods are "resolved" by characters choosing to act in a certain way, Rowe enquires after the author's assessment of each character's moral choices, arguing that Michal's loyalty to David and deception of Saul was counter-cultural. By approving of her choice the author affirms the importance of loyalty to the Davidic dynasty.

Dr Jonathan Y. Rowe (PhD, St Andrews) is Director of Development and Staff Tutor, South Western Ministry Training Course, UK.

Michal's Moral Dilemma is a significant contribution to the understanding of ancient Israelite and Old Testament ethics. Rowe effortlessly combines recent research in ethics, anthropology and literary studies to provide a sophisticated and persuasive interpretation of Michal's ethical dilemma in 1 Samuel 19. A major advance in the area of Old Testament ethics, it also heralds the arrival of an important new voice in the field. --Dr Nathan MacDonald, Reader in Hebrew and Old Testament, University of St Andrews and Sofja-Kovalevskaja Group Leader, Georg-August Universitat Jonathan Rowe opens up a familiar moral dilemma in a not-so-familiar biblical text with fresh analysis and insights drawn from anthropological and wider biblical resources. Not only does he thereby shed welcome light on an old question, challenging much received wisdom en route, but also he takes the discipline of Old Testament ethics to a level of granular textual study that should encourage further fruitful research of the same high quality in this field. --Revd Dr Christopher J.H. Wright, International Director, The Langham Partnership, International, Author of Old Testament Ethics for the People of God Review in Review of Biblical Literature [Rowe's] focus on practice theory fi ts nicely into the world behind the text, his use of a pseudo Bakhtinian theory has a world of the text focus, and the rationale for the study itself comes from the modern concerns (a desire to 'provide new perspectives upon contemporary value conflict) and hence of the world in front of the text. -- Ellen White, Assumption College * Biblical Interpretation *