Sunday, May 17, 2015

Review of Breed, Nomadic Text

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Breed, Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History (Krista Dalton).
Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History
Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature (2014), by Brennan W. Breed.
... Readers may differ with Breed about the mutual exclusivity of his approach and standard reading practices of the Bible and also may be left wanting a lengthier illustration of method than 3 verses from Job. Nevertheless, Nomadic Text offers an innovative poststructuralist theory of textual reception that dismantles the typical tools of textual work in order to deflate the prestige of the “original” and instead consider nomadic potential.
I haven't read the book, but the review does make it sound as if its approach goes too far in dismissing attempts to get at something resembling an "original" text or meaning. Such things are unattainable ideals, but are still worth trying to approximate as one aspect of the scholarly study of ancient texts.