The Art of Biblical Performance

Biblical Performance Criticism and the Drama of Old Testament Narratives

by Travis West

(Glossa House, 2023)

For centuries the Bible's essential identity “as a book” has been taken for granted by scholars and lay people alike. Over the past hundred years or so, the oral transmission of biblical material has been researched and advanced with great rigor, and today many scholars accept the oral origins of the Hebrew Bible. However, for many of these scholars their acceptance seems to be primarily intellectual as opposed to practical—orality has not been integrated at a methodological level. This volume is one attempt to address that oversight. It argues that, with respect to the narratives, the ancient crafts of drama and performance are evident in the received texts, that they reach their fullest interpretive potential when they are (re)enacted through body and voice in space and time before a gathered audience. A fuller understanding of Israel's performance tradition—the art of biblical performance—will lead to a greater appreciation of Israel's dramatic and theological achievement.