Date

12-19-2023

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Chair

Joseph R. Cathey

Keywords

Lamentations, imprecation, curse, compositional seams, biblical theology

Disciplines

Christianity | Religion

Abstract

Since the rise of redaction criticism as an area of scriptural exploration, much scholarship has centered on the composition of discrete biblical texts. Recently, research has expanded into treatments of canonical composition, determining how individual books unite into the larger Old Testament, New Testament, or biblical corpus. Given the lacuna surrounding these areas of research into the Old Testament Writings, this dissertation will explore compositional strategy and theology in the book of Lamentations. The thesis of this dissertation proposes that the imprecations of the book of Lamentations function textually as compositional seams to unite the poems into a cohesive whole while also functioning theologically to encapsulate the core message of the book, the binding and ongoing nature of Israel’s covenant with Yahweh. To determine the validity of this thesis, multiple avenues of research are required. First, a survey of contemporary scholarship concerning Lamentations as a whole will establish parameters for the subsequent work in this dissertation. Curse texts were common in the ancient world, and, given that Lamentations is a product of its environment, it is both helpful and necessary to determine the form and function of ancient Near Eastern (ANE) imprecatory texts for comparative purposes. Following an analysis of the nature and theology of ANE imprecations, grammatical-historical exegesis will combine with biblical-theological and canonical-theological methodologies to examine canonical imprecations of both Testaments. With literary, cultural, and canonical context firmly established, the study turns to an exegetical treatment of the imprecations within Lamentations specifically. The discussion is bipartite, focusing first on the exposition of the imprecatory texts themselves (1:21–22; 3:64–66; 4:21–22) before moving on to an exploration of their compositional value in the book as a whole. Other canonical works are examined for indications of canonical seams before demonstrating the usage of imprecation as compositional strategy in Lamentations to unite the five poems into a cohesive whole. Moreover, as will be demonstrated, the imprecations contain the larger theology of Lamentations in microcosm, and they serve as a potential theological key to the book as a whole, providing in brief the major themes of the poems.

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