2002

Introduction

This article continues the discussion I began in my article on the Pentateuch and reiterative history writing in my contribution to the last Copenhagen Forum, a study which dealt with the ideological polarity of the mythological motifs of creation and destruction in a discussion of the motif ‘cosmic desert’ as it has been used in the narratives of biblical story. It became clear that the syntax of motifs in polarity, such as that of creation and destruction as expressed in the contrast of Genesis l:2's tohu wa-bohu to ruah 'elohim, first becomes clear in the many variants of tohu wa-bohu that are used in the stories about old Israel in the Pentateuch and the Prophets. In pursuing what I defined as the biblical genre of reiterative narrative collected within a secondary use of tradition and viewed as an alternative to historiographical composition, it became clear that defining the function of motifs – and not merely their significance – was essential. In furthering this goal, I examined how stories recounting the destruction of Jerusalem past had been used to illustrate an intellectual discourse, which evokes a mythical perception of a repentant and reborn Israel within the functional ‘symbol system’ accessed through biblical literature. Its past, in turn, is recounted as reflective of a recurrent and transcendent struggle, leading to the violence, destruction, and nothingness from which this ‘new Israel’ was created.