Forgetting to Remember
Cultural Memory, Intertextuality, and Scribal Agency in the Hebrew Bible
by Jenna Kemp
Hardback (Published)
(August 2025)
ISBN: 9783161639951
6.06 x 9.09 inches
Price: $149.00
Out of stock
Jenna Kemp theorizes the formation of the Bible as a process of cultural memory in which forgetting is central. By examining secondary additions, it situates biblical scribes as figures who mediate the memory of texts. They remember text, add to it, and change how it can be remembered in the future.
Forgetting is central to processes of cultural memory. It allows for synthesis to occur so that “sites of memory” can form and be transported over time. Jenna Kemp conducts three case studies of instances of scribal activity, drawing from theories of cultural memory and intertextuality to theorize the formation of the Bible as a process of cultural memory. As scribes inherit texts, they receive a wide range of potential meanings; they activate and change the texts in ways that change those potentials, eliminating some and unleashing new ones. This process allows the texts to signify in new presents – the texts are remembered – and at the same time, it relies on the forgetting of earlier meanings. From this perspective, forgetting is not necessarily about loss. It is a generative force that makes new meaning possible. Without forgetting there is no memory.
- By (author) Jenna Kemp
Other Titles in this Series
Der leidende Gottesknecht
Jesaja 53 und seine Wirkungsgeschichte mit einer Bibliographie zu Jesaja 53
Erzahldiskurs und Redepragmatik im Alten Testament
Unterwegs zu einer performativen Theologie der Bibel
Volume 46
Trugende Prophetenworte
Zum Umgang mit falscher und unerfullter Prophetie im Alten Testament im Kontext altorientalischer und antiker Divination
Volume 165
Gottes himmlische Wohnstatt
Transformationen im Verhaltnis von Gott und Himmel in tempeltheologischen Entwurfen des Alten Testaments in der Exilszeit
Volume 119
The Post-Priestly Pentateuch
New Perspectives on its Redactional Development and Theological Profiles
Volume 101
Die Ägyptenworte im Ezechielbuch
Eine literarhistorische und religionsgeschichtliche Analyse von Ez 29–32
Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions
Identity Perspectives from Egypt, Transjordan, Mesopotamia, and Israel in the Second Temple Period
Schriftgelehrte Traditionsliteratur
Fallstudien zur innerbiblischen Schriftauslegung im Alten Testament
Volume 77
Die JHWH-Religion und die Vorstellung göttlicher Gesetzgebung
Überschneidungen zwischen der Rechtsentwicklung und der Sphäre der Religion in der Geschichte des antiken Israel und Juda
Gezahlte Geschichte
Systematik, Quellen und Entwicklung der synchronistischen Chronologie in den Konigebuchern
Volume 142
Studien zum Dodekapropheton II
Gesammelte Aufsätze zu Joel, Obadja, Jona, Micha und Nahum
Volume 133
Die Josephsgeschichte im Pentateuch
Ein Beitrag zur Uberwindung einer anhaltenden Forschungskontroverse
Volume 153
Similar Books
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Jüdische Musikerziehung im Preußen des 19. Jahrhunderts
Gesangunterricht an jüdischen Reformschulen als Facette bürgerlicher Akkulturation
Volume 21
Parola di Dio, di uomo e di Re
L'assoluta verità della Bibbia nella dottrina cattolica di Bacchisio Raimondo Motzo
Wie JHWH spricht
Die temporelle Steuerung von Verbalaussagen in den Reden nach den Gottesspruchformeln
Breaking New Ground in John
Imagery, Parables, Characters, Christology, and Ethics in the Fourth Gospel
Volume 531
But the Wise Shall Understand
Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12
Co-production of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Artefacts, Rituals, Communities, Narratives, Doctrines, Concepts
Volume 1
Creation Concepts and Creation Care
Perspectives from Early Judaism, Early Christianity, and Beyond. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics XVII
De-colonising the Biblical Narrative. Volume 4
The Colonial Worldview of the Book of Joshua
Volume 4
