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The Song of Songs as a Hebrew “Counterweight” to Hellenistic Drama

2017; Brill; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.13109/jaju.2017.8.2.208

2196-7954

Matthias Hopf,

Freedom of Expression and Defamation

The Song of Songs as a Hebrew "Counterweight" to Hellenistic Drama 1 Introduction "Neither biblical nor Talmudic literature contains anything which can be described as 'theater' or 'drama' in the modern sense of these terms." 1 Thus the Encyclopaedia Judaica informs us in its entry on theater-and this is completely in line with the mainstream view on the Hebrew Bible in general, as well as the Song of Songs in particular. 2 We do not find too many recent commentaries on the Song that advocate the so-called drama theory.The last major commentators who did so (and were acknowledged for that) were probably Delitzsch, Ewald and Ginsburg. 3 Even so, Stefan Fischer only recently called for a new effort to analyse the Song by using a performance centered methodology. 4 In line with the latter, I will argue that the Song of Songs actually needs to be described as a dramatic text-especially in its modern sense.This classification as a dramatic or rather a performance text might even help to understand and reevaluate the process of canonization of this book.The Song of Songs might actually have been included in the biblical canon as it was viewed as a Hebrew "counterweight" to Hellenistic drama. 5 Yet, as the mainstream still maintains that there is no Hebrew drama, everything seems to hinge on the key question:2 What Is A "Drama"?At this point, a remark on the term "drama" is needed: In fact, it seems advisable to be very careful in the use of this expression, when speaking about the Song of Songs, as well as the Hebrew Bible in general.The reason for this is that "drama" is very easily misunderstood.