We were studying Genesis 19:1-14 as a representative text of biblical narrative. I had asked the students to find the repetitions in the text, having made the plea that if the author has seen fit to repeat himself, the repeated word, and therefore its meaning, must be of importance. The students had found numerous examples, and we had had a fruitful day of building meaning from the specific words and phrases.
This one man, however, would not accept that the word "know" in the request of "the men of Sodom" had connotations of rape. He was, of course, quite right that "know" in most usages means simply the possession of knowledge of this thing or that person or whatever. He was, at the same time, mistaken for not reading "know" within its immediate surroundings:
- as interpreted by Lot as "evil" intent.
- as parallel to its only other usage in the text in which Lot offers his two daughters who have "never known a man" in place of "the men"--Lot's guests--whom the "men of Sodom" wish to "know."
- as parallel within Genesis to the refrain, for example, of chapter 4: "Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore . . . " (v. 1, cf. vv. 17, 25).
The man's obstinance, in face of his peers' many attempts at correction, reflected an extreme version of a tendency I had earlier observed in the interpretive methods of some students: to find meaning in words, phrases, or texts without discerning their place as parts of a larger narrative that lends meaning. The problem, by the way, is not distinctly African.
If then, we do not permit words, phrases, or even texts to stand on their own, we do, on the other hand, view them as indispensable parts without which the greater meaning remains hidden.
Let us then proceed to the texts!
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