Revisions of the Night: Politics and Promises in the Patriarchal Dreams of Genesis

Revisions of the Night: Politics and Promises in the Patriarchal Dreams of Genesis......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Abbreviations......Page 9
A Survey of Recent Literature......Page 10
E.L. Ehrlich......Page 11
A.L. Oppenheim......Page 14
M. Lichtenstein......Page 18
R.K. Gnuse......Page 19
M.G. Robinson......Page 21
J.M. Husser......Page 25
Abimelech's Dream (20.1-18)......Page 26
Jacob's Dream at Bethel (28.10-22)......Page 28
Jacob and the Speckled Flock (31.10-13)......Page 31
The Covenant of the Pieces (15.1-21)......Page 32
Some Sign Posts......Page 33
The Wife-Sister Narratives: Treading the Textual Minefield......Page 36
The Central Themes of the Wife-Sister Texts......Page 41
Interpreting Chapter 20......Page 49
Reading Chapter 20 in Context......Page 51
Royal Dreams in the Ancient Near East......Page 53
And God Came to Abimelech in a Dream of the Night......Page 56
Thematic Links......Page 62
Introduction......Page 64
The Significance of the Dream for Jacob......Page 67
And Behold a Ladder......Page 69
Dreams and Divine Approval......Page 70
Kingship, Dreams and Temples in the Ancient Near East......Page 81
Some Evidence from Post-biblical Readings of Genesis 28......Page 93
Bethel and Babel: The View from Another Tower......Page 100
The Significance of 'The Place'......Page 105
Thematic Links......Page 114
3 Jacob and the Speckled Flocks (Genesis 31.10-13)......Page 116
The Dream as Rhetoric......Page 122
The Passage of Time......Page 131
The Dream and Dual Causality......Page 134
Bethel......Page 137
The Speckled Sheep......Page 138
4 Laban's Dream (Genesis 31.24)......Page 146
The Dreams of Laban and Abimelech......Page 151
Laban's Room for Improvement......Page 153
Laban the Foreigner......Page 159
Laban's Other Gods......Page 161
Dreams and Divination......Page 166
Dreams and Transformation......Page 171
Some Recent Scholarship and its Application to the Possible Dream Format of Genesis 15......Page 174
Faith in Signs or Faith in God's Word?......Page 181
The Covenant of the Pieces: Vision or Dream?......Page 184
Abraham's Dream, Israel's Vision......Page 197
The Form of the Covenant......Page 202
Prophecy and Typology......Page 206
The Placement of Genesis 15 in the Patriarchal Narrative......Page 212
Does Genesis 15 Contain a Useful Type of Ambiguity?......Page 216
6 Conclusion......Page 220
Bibliography......Page 227
Index of References......Page 234
H......Page 240
W......Page 241
Z......Page 242
Back Matter......Page 243