144
Esther 7
03 15 02 08 02
01 01 07 04 01 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CHAPTERS
Daniel 5
03 21 02 16 Aramaic 15
01 06 02 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
CHAPTERS
Ezra 1
01 04 Aramaic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CHAPTERS
Nehemiah 16
04 10 03 09
02 04 38 06 16 19 01 01 01 33 01 01 01 01 17 03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 CHAPTERS
1 Chronicles 32
06 06 05 06
04 05 03 26 21 29 03 14 04
02 22 13 26 03 06 02 11 07 01 03 09 51 08 06 25 01 01 01 01 05 08 03 01 24
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 CHAPTERS
2 Chronicles 47
04 12 23 03 13 26 11 10 32 18 16 21
02 11 25 12 02 05 31 29 19 12 11 14 11 32 27 01 14 09 07 01 13 02 02 01 15 07 05 03 01 01 09 08 04 03 05 08 26 25 19
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 CHAPTERS
7.2.2 The Relationship of Distribution and Genre
First of all, based upon the presence andor absence of certain general
comments can be made. Caution needs to be exercised, however, to avoid reading too
145 much into these generalizations. For example,
should not be read as if its only function is to indicate that the text in which it occurs is narrative. Even though genre is
one of the factors that needs to be taken into account, the function of cannot be
reduced to being the indicator of narrative. The chart of Leviticus is instructive in this regard. The only occurrence of
in the book of Leviticus is in 9:1, in the only past narrative section of the book. But it is important to not overstate the significance of this
occurrence of .
may be in Leviticus 9 because this chapter is narrative, but the reverse is not necessarily true that Leviticus 9 is narrative because
occurs there. It is also important not to overstate the significance of the absence of
. For example, there are no occurrences of
in chapters 12, 17, 21, 26, and 29 of 1 Samuel. At the broadest level, there is no apparent difference in text-type that differentiates these
chapters from the rest of the book. These chapters are not less narrative because does not occur in them.
is only one strand woven into the complex narrative tapestry.
One of the questions that emerges from this distributional analysis is whether there is any significance to clusters of
. For example, in 1 Sam 18, there are eight occurrences when most of the surrounding chapters have only three or four. Clusters can
be seen in other books as well. The first step in answering this question would be to separate the verbal occurrences from the temporal ones and then determine whether any
significant pattern emerges. This, of course, as stated previously, needs to take all levels of linguistic structure and context into consideration.
146 These questions are attempts to explore whether any kind of profile of the text of
1 Samuel—or any other book—can be derived by looking at the pattern of occurrence of .
, however, is not the only motor which keeps the text moving ahead. Other mechanisms that move the text along or indicate transitions in the text need to be
considered along with .
7.3 Summary
