Michal's Moral Dilemma proposes that attention should be paid to the moral goods that feature in the text, before arguing that the family, a central feature of Old Testament morality, should be understood as a set of practices rather than an institution. Jonathan Rowe discusses the use of "models" of social action to comprehend the social world of the Bible, and suggests a modified version of Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can help readers appreciate how authors present a moral vision by approving some characters' actions whilst undermining others.

The discussion of...

Using a combination of form-critical and linguistic methods, the author seeks to understand the role of the toledot formula, often translated "These are the generations of Name," in shaping the book of Genesis and the Pentateuch as a whole. An examination of the formula uncovers that it functions primarily as a heading to major sections of text and draws the readers' attention to focus on an ever narrower range of characters.By starting from the perspective of the surface structure of the text and addressing questions that investigation raises, the study is able to uncover and resolve a...

Rowe examines David and Jonathan's friendship in the context of what ancient readers would have understood as the 'natural' loyalty to their families. Rowe focuses on the conflicting moral goods between which the men choose, seeking to understand the dynamics of the narrative consonant with ancient society.
Rowe discusses theoretical issues of interpretation and summarises how Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can be utilised to understand the narrative. He deliberates over the key aspects of family life in the world described by the Old Testament, surveys approaches to the...