“Why Ask My Name?”: Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative
Abstract
Unnamed characters--such as Lot’s wife, Jephthah’s daughter, Pharaoh’s baker, and the witch of Endor--are ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible and appear in a wide variety of roles. Adele Reinhartz here seeks to answer two principal questions: first, is there a “poetics of anonymity,” and if so, what are its contours? Second, how does anonymity affect the readers’ response to and construction of unnamed biblical characters? The author is especially interested in issues related to gender and class, seeking to determine whether anonymity is more prominent among mothers, wives, daughters, and servants than among fathers, husbands, sons and kings and whether the anonymity of female characters functions differently from that of male characters.
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Claims the paper makes
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Most of the silent unheard voices and unnamed characters in the Bible are women.
“Most of the silent unheard voices and the unnamed characters in the Bible are women (Brenner 1993:13;Reinhartz 1998:11).”
From A silent unheard voice in the Old Testament: The Cushite woman whom Moses married in Numbers 12:1–10 (2018) · cites this paper as Reinhartz 1998:11
The name is equivalent to the name holder.
“According to this view, the name is equivalent to the name holder.”
From Killing Pharaohs in Exodus: The Anonymity of the Egyptian Kings, the Deconstruction of Their Individuality, and the Egyptian Practice of Damnatio Memoriae (2023) · cites this paper as Reinhartz 1998, p. 8
The absence of the proper name contributes to the effacement, absence, veiling, or suppression of identity.
“the absence of the proper name contributes to the effacement, absence, veiling, or suppression of identity”
From Killing Pharaohs in Exodus: The Anonymity of the Egyptian Kings, the Deconstruction of Their Individuality, and the Egyptian Practice of Damnatio Memoriae (2023) · cites this paper as Reinhartz 1998, p. 9
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A silent unheard voice in the Old Testament: The Cushite woman whom Moses married in Numbers 12:1–10
Adamo, D. T. (2018) · In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi · doi:10.4102/ids.v52i1.2370 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Reinhartz, A.
- Corresponding author
- Reinhartz, Adele
- ORCID
- Reinhartz, Adele
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York, NY
- Published
- 1998-11-12
- OpenAlex
- W4388260891
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 1.86
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Classics › Medieval Literature and History
- Keywords
- anonymity, Hebrew Bible, gender, class, female characters, male characters, reader response, biblical narrative, Lot's wife, Jephthah's daughter, Witch of Endor
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