Encountering the Divine

An examination of the literary and theological dynamics of the divine-human encounter as reflected in theophany narratives in the Hebrew Bible. The point of departure for this study is a type-scene analysis which reveals a common structure to theophany narratives. Beginning with the separation of the protagonist from human society, the text moves to a visual and verbal revelation by the Deity, and records a range of human reactions to the experience. Each of the texts concludes with a description of a more externalized reaction, which marks the carrying over of the experience into a larger societal framework. The analysis develops the underlying structural and contentual similarity among texts which have traditionally been understood as belonging to different literary genres. The discussion offers a nuanced treatment of the range of literary strategies employed by the narrative for addressing these elements. In addition to a detailed analysis of each of the above components of the type-scene, there is discussion of issues such as the idea of the lethal nature of the encounter and intertextual relations between the narratives.

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