263 GENESIS 22: WHAT QUESTION SHOULD WE ASK THE TEXT? the text from a fresh perspective, namely that of the reader. This means that the focus of attention is shifted from the text to its audience. “Every text counts with its audience” or, to put it in other words, there is no reading without the active participation of the audience. What is then the “mean- ing” of Genesis 22 according to this different perception of the narrative? Let me start with a few simple observations of a literary nature. First, the text begins with a kind of title or summary: “After these things God put Abraham to the test” (22,1). This information, however, is conveyed to the audience, and not to Abraham. Only the reader knows that the fol- lowing story is about a test. What the reader does not know is how Abra- ham will pass the test. In the terminology of Meir Sternberg, we have a “reader-elevating” situation in Genesis 22. But this situation is present in the narrative itself as well. Abraham knows God’s order to sacrifice his son in holocaust. Isaac, on his part, and the servants, do not know about the real purpose of the journey. In short, the reader knows more than Abra- ham, and the latter knows more than Isaac (and the servants). Besides these instances where the reader benefits from a superior knowledge, there are other cases where we have to admit that Abraham knows more than the reader or, to use Meir Sternberg’s terminology again, we have to deal with “character-elevating” situations. The most striking feature in Genesis 22 is, actually, that the reader never knows what are Abraham’s thoughts and feelings. This is what Erich Auerbach aptly de- scribed with the German word “Hintergründlichkeit,” a word translated with the phrase “fraught with background” 18. The background of Genesis 22 is a fathomless area swarming with repressed feelings. Abraham’s in- terior tragedy is not described. The reader only sees some gestures, for instance the preparation of the journey, the way up to the top of the moun- “Narrative Techniques and Symbolic Transactions in the Akedah”, Signs and Wonders. Biblical Texts in Literary Focus (ed. J.C. EXUM) (Atlanta, GA 1989) 1-40; J.P. FOKKELMAN, “‘On the Mount of the Lord There Is Vision’: A Response to Francis Landy concerning the Akedah”, Signs and Wonders. Biblical Texts in Literary Focus (ed. J.C. EXUM) (Atlanta, GA 1989) 41-59; A. WÉNIN, “Abra- ham à la rencontre de YHWH. Une lecture de Gn 22”, RTL 20 (1989) 162-177; ID., Isaac ou l’épreuve d’Abraham. Approche narrative de Genèse 22 (Le livre et le rouleau 8; Paris – Bruxelles 1999); A.L.H.M. VAN WIERINGEN, “The Reader in Genesis 22:1-19. Textsyntax – Textsemantics – Textpragmatics”, EstBíb 53 (1995) 289-304; C. LOMBAARD, “Problems of Narratological Analyses of Gen- esis 22:1-19”, Thinking Towards New Horizons. Collected Communications to the XIX Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Tes- tament, Liubljana 2007 (eds. M. AUGUSTIN – H.M. NIEMANN) (Frankfurt am Main 2008) 49-62. E. AUERBACH, Mimesis. Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländi- 18 schen Literatur (Bern 1946) 7-30. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati