Towards an Aesthetic Reading of Hebrew Bible Poetry : “My Heart is Astir with a Good Word”

This volume takes the observation of a severe lack of aesthetic theory and an aesthetic understanding of the Hebrew Bible as a starting point, to explore an unfulfilled need in Hebrew Bible scholarship. Those who have contributed aim to develop a new approach based on textual studies, conceptualizing them as an aesthetic that “was never written" and closely examining the implicit second-order thought about aesthetics expressed through the poetic forms and language found in the Hebrew Bible.

The contributors focus upon the poetic material of the Hebrew Bible; the Book of Proverbs, Book of Psalms, Song of Songs. Based on the assumption that form and content cannot be separated when appreciating (ancient) poetry and its performative potential, the chapters explore how the ancient poets understood their craft and the world around them; whether they had an aesthetic self-awareness and what the aesthetic scribal practices were; and how biblical poetry performs and constructs reality. For the first time in the history of scholarship on the poetry of the Hebrew Bible, this collection combines formal considerations with aesthetic effects and reading strategies, thereby reframing the way that readers look at biblical poetry and take seriously insights into Hebrew poetry’s performative power.