Watching a Biblical Narrative: Point of View in Biblical Exegesis [Hardcover]

Gary Yamasaki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0567026957 | ISBN-13: 978-0567026958

Drawing upon the work of literary critics and linguists on point of view in secular literature, this work develops a methodology for analyzing point of view in biblical narratives. The literary concept of point of view addresses the issue of the angle from which a reader is led to experience any given moment of a story. Think of how a movie director chooses between several different camera angles to create just the right image for the audience to view on the screen. The narrator of a written story also chooses between various camera angles to create images to be viewed in the reader's "mind's eye," using various linguistic devices to produce these different angles. The present work isolates all the linguistic devices used to any substantial degree in the manipulation of point of view in biblical narratives, describing how each affects the angle from which the reader experiences the story.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mention- New Testament Abstracts, Vol. 52 No. 3, 2008

"Yamasaki has rendered a significant service by clarifying the concept of point of view, by identifying the deficiencies of point-of-view analysis on the part of biblical literary critics, and by insisting on the necessity of developing a specific process for analyzing point of view in biblical passages." --David Bauer, Review of Biblical Literature, October 2008

"Yamasaki maintains that biblical literary criticism generally has failed to address adequately the matter of "point of view." With this study he sets out to remedy this deficit...He carefully leads the reader through a very exacting interpretive approach. However, the insights one will achieve are well worth the effort." --Dianne Bergant, C.S.A., The Bible Today, November 2008

Review in International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08

"This book is quite helpful for those biblical narrative critics who want to continue to develop their narrative criticism skills and to move beyond the standard books on narrative criticism produced over the last twenty years ... this is still the best book I know of that addresses "point of view" from an exegetical perspective. I found it interesting, well written, and filled with helpful insights."

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2007

“Yamasaki has rendered a significant service by clarifying the concept of point of view, by identifying the deficiencies of point-of-view analysis on the part of biblical literary critics, and by insisting on the necessity of developing a specific process for analyzing point of view in biblical passages.” –David Bauer, Review of Biblical Literature, October 2008

“Yamasaki maintains that biblical literary criticism generally has failed to address adequately the matter of “point of view.” With this study he sets out to remedy this deficit...He carefully leads the reader through a very exacting interpretive approach. However, the insights one will achieve are well worth the effort.” –Dianne Bergant, C.S.A., The Bible Today, November 2008

About the Author

Gary Yamasaki is Associate Professor of New Testament at Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: T&T Clark Int'l (February 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0567026957
• ISBN-13: 978-0567026958
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A very helpful compendium of research and method!, July 28, 2011

By 

Leon Seaman (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Watching a Biblical Narrative: Point of View in Biblical Exegesis (Hardcover)

As the title suggests, Gary Yamasaki, perhaps recognizing that people today tend to watch more stories than they read, explores ways that biblical narratives--like an artfully directed film camera--guide their audiences' views and sympathies with words.

Having carefully read and digested a great deal of technical material, he offers us what Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, a leading narrative critic who has used it in her own work, calls "a clear and vigilant presentation," not solely but especially of the work of Boris Uspensky, the point-of-view theorist most often drawn upon in biblical narrative studies.

After a brief introduction to the concept of point of view, he discusses in four chapters how it has developed in 1) literary criticism and 2) linguistic sudies, then how it has been (often mis)understood and (mis)applied by 3) New Testament and 4) Old Testament narrative critics. In the fifth chapter he offers a method, distilled from the previous discussion and based on--but not limited to--Uspenky's planes, for analyzing point of view in biblical narratives. The sixth chapter is an application of this methodology to Luke 19.1-10.

Since I am engaged in translating Mark's Gospel for performance, Yamasaki's work has provided much-needed help in appreciating the text's own literary and linguistic clues to its performance. I recommend it for all performers and critics of biblical narratives.