Research Related Literature Research, Papers of Research Methodology

Download Research Related Literature Research and more Papers Research Methodology in PDF only on Docsity! © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�9��33_009 Huldah: A Cunning Career Woman? Blaženka Scheuer Prophetess Huldah is one of five women in the Hebrew Bible referred to as nebîʾāh, and one of seven named prophetesses in the rabbinic count.1 Her single appearance in the Hebrew Bible is documented at a time of political insecurity that called for prophetic mediation. It is Huldah, not Jeremiah, who the Deuteronomists chose to authorize the words of the book of the Law, mak- ing Huldah the person who, in Claudia Camp’s words, ‘not only interprets but also authorizes the first document that will become the core of scripture for Judaism and Christianity.’2 The short account of Huldah’s background and prophecy is recorded in 2 Kgs 22:14–20 and again almost verbatim in 2 Chron. 34:22–28. The text is placed within the narrative about Josiah (2 Kgs 22–23:30), which in turn stands at the very end of the Book of Kings and thereby at the end of the Deuteronomistic History. The importance of Josiah has been widely discussed in scholarship, and the fact that Josiah is greatly idealized by the Deuteronomists (2 Kgs 23:25) is broadly acknowledged.3 The placement of Huldah’s oracle in the nar- rative about Josiah’s reform is significant: the oracle seems to be the factor that triggers Josiah’s extensive reformation of the cult (2 Kgs 23:1–24), thereby 1  The five prophetesses are Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Noadiah and the unnamed prophet- ess of Isa. 8:3. Rabbinic sources account for seven prophetesses of the Bible among which Huldah is also mentioned: ‘Forty eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied for Israel’ (b. Megillah 14a). The seven prophetesses are: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Huldah, Abigail, and Esther. Brenner refers to an alternative list which counts nine female prophets in the Hebrew Bible, adding Rachel and Leah, see A. Brenner, I am . . .: Biblical Women Tell Their Own Stories, Minneapolis 2005, 159. 2  C.V. Camp, ‘1 and 2 Kings’, in: C.A. Newsom and S.H. Ringe (eds), Women’s Bible Commentary: Expanded Edition with Apocrypha, Louisville 1998, 115. 3  For a detailed structure of the narrative about Josiah’s reign see M.A. Sweeney, King Josiah of Judah: The Lost Messiah of Israel, Oxford 2001, 41–45. Sweeney stresses the vital role of prophecy, and thereby the importance of Huldah’s prophecy, in the Deuteronomistic pre- sentation of history: ‘prophecy is a major force in the historical presentation of the DtrH, in that prophets generally give voice to the DtrH interpretation of Israel’s and Judah’s his- tory and to its overall theological viewpoint’, 180. See also M. Pietsch, ‘Prophetess of Doom. Hermeneutical Reflections on the Huldah Oracle’, paper read at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting (Deuteronomistic History: Redaction of the Book of Kings Session), SBL 2007, available at http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/Michael_Pietsch.pdf, 2. Accessed 10 June 2014.