Seeing Signals, Reading Signs: The Art of Exegesis (Hardcover)

For Antony Campbell, exegesis is an artistic endeavour, requiring sensitivity to the literary signals in the text and an artist's eye for 'reading the signs'. Literary signals are like signposts. As he notes in his 2003 commentary on 1 Samuel, 'several signposts, pointing in different directions to the same destination, invite reflection...Several routes can lead to the same goal'. His experience of the biblical text 'suggests that reflection is being invited constantly'. A biblical text can appear disarmingly simple or profoundly challenging. The Bible forms a rich and varied tapestry.
This volume of essays is a fitting testimony to Campbell's contribution to biblical scholarship. Here, leading scholars take up the challenge of applying their own exegetical skills and sensitivity to seeing signals and reading signs in the text.
Brian Peckham contributes an analysis of punctuation in the Hebrew text, Norbert Lohfink tracks textual variants of Deut 1.39 that reveal how the canonical text was shaped. Five essays are devoted to the Pentateuch and Former Prophets: the priestly material (Suzanne Boorer), Exodus 6-7 (Mark O'Brien), Deuteronomy (Mark Brett), Joshua (Wonil Kim), 1 Kgs 16.34 (Marvin Sweeney). Four essays are devoted to the Former Prophets: Howard Wallace on the imagery of the vineyard, John Hill on Jeremiah 40:1-6, John Wright on Ruach in Ezekiel 37, and Steven McKenzie on the genre of Jonah. Sean McEvenue and Rolf Knierim conclude the volume with reflections on the theological implications of how we read biblical texts.