[MUSIC] Until now what we've done is we've tried to highlight some the indirect characterizations that appear in the Bible. As a means to highlight some of the characteristics of some these individuals whom we're focusing on. Now what we're going to do is, we're going to actually look at different types of literary tools. That the Bible provides us with in order to give us an additional level of understanding of how the Bible provides us with glimpses into the worlds of these biblical characters. So, we're going to start with a series of different types of literary tools. And how they help us gain a deeper understanding of the characters. So first we have the tool that we call a lead word, a lead word is, it's a leitmotif. This was first coined by Martin Boober and it's a word that appears more than usual in a specific period of time in the text. In other words it could be the word itself or a root of the word which repeatedly appears and there's a purpose behind this in order to express a certain type of sentiment. An example of that would actually be from the text that we looked at earlier from Chapter 18, where it says, and the Lord appeared unto him, unto Abraham. And then in the second verse it said, and he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, these three men stood over against, and when he saw, he ran to meet them, etc. The Hebrew root [FOREIGN], to look in different forms appears here three times in these two verses. And, there's a clear message here that the text wants to draw our attention to the importance of viewing, of looking, from different perspectives. The first when is, where the three people appear to Abraham, he views them. And then he goes out, he lifts his eyes, and once again, he looks, and then he sees them in different context. This is a clear example of the use of a lead word that helps us gain greater understanding into Abraham's character. The next tool that we're going to look at is what we call superfluous words. And I say superfluous in the sense that at first view they appear to be unnecessary. We know from different texts, more specifically from the outstanding work by Eric Aweber in his book Nemesis. He shows there how the Biblical text is in his words, they are stingy, in terms of this presentation, it doesn't go into flowery descriptions. But rather it just conveys the basic facts in contrast to different types of Greek works, and when we have in the Bible what we would call superfluous words, which we don't really need in order to understand the story. That should raise question marks in our mind, well, why does this appear, then, what is the role of these superfluous words? To give an example, in Chapter 16 of Genesis, it said And Sarai Abram's wife took Hager the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. Now, there's so much repetition here, Sarah Abram's wife, we know that Sarai was Abram's wife, why is it the text take paints to point this again? So Hagar the Egyptian her handmaid this is really added information which we may not need. After Abram had dwell of ten years in the land and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. Once again, the story could have been told in much more succinct, in much fewer words without all of these addeds. The next example we're going to look at is what we call concentration of word formations. And what we mean by that is, concentration of word formations appears when you have a concentration of either verbs or adjectives or adverbs in a very concentrated point in the text. In other words, when you have many descriptions which you don't really need, but it adds a certain element. Let's look at an example that appears in the first chapter of of Exodus the classic verse here says, and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly. And multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filed with them. Well, you have in the Hebrew [FOREIGN] these are all saying the same thing. There is a concentration hear of verbs that describe the same phenomenon, what's the purpose of this concentration of verbs? Well, what we think this is trying to do is, in fact, just to emphasize for us how prolific the Israelites were. How much they invested in terms of growing, because that will set the stage for what goes on in the next portion of this story. And, that's why you have a concentration here of verbs. The next one that we have is next literary tool is gaps in the text. So here, the text tells us a certain story but leaves out certain types of information, why? So, what I believe or what the Madraesh does in this case, is it takes full advantage of these gaps and inserts different types of interpretations. It allows us to add our own interpretations, our own understandings, our own creative ideas and to insert them into the text, and this is something wonderful with a lot of educational potential. Let's take a look at example, clear example is in Genesis 4:8, and Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. So this is a story, all about these two brothers Cain and Abel. And all of a sudden it says they were in the field, and then the next piece is that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. But there's something missing here, what was their conversation about? He rose up against Abel's brother and slew him. But, they spoke according to the beginning of the verse, but what did they say to each other? And this is a critical question, because in fact this is the first murder in human history, and we don't know what provoked it. What did they say to each other that in fact triggered this very violent and drastic response by Cain in terms of killing his brother, Abel. And finally, we have the example of parallel Biblical stories. And what we mean by that is, that you can take different stories in the Bible, this is called intertextuality. And you can compare them, because perhaps they have a common type of theme, they have a common type of sequence, they have common types of characters. And when you look at the two stories in comparison ,then what you discover is that, in fact, that you understand better the contrast, and you also understand each story individually. A clear example of this is the stories of Joseph in Egypt, and the story of Ester. The story of Ester in the book of Ester in Persia, and in those stories the parallels are very striking. In other words, you have the Isrealites moving up the latter in the foreign empire, and using all different types of means. To promote their personal, as well as their national ambitions, and how they always have different types of trials and tribulations. In both stories, the idea of, the notion of dreams plays a role, the notion of festivities and banquets play roles. All of this helps us understand the parallels, the similarities, as well as the differences between the various characters. And this is an opportunity for us to think of different types of parallel Biblical stories, and how can we use them in educational settings. In order to invite our students to actually engage in this kind of activity and thereby gain a deep understanding of the bible core characters in the stories.
