Overview

Quiet Voices explores the language, context, and purpose of silence in the Hebrew Bible. It traces silence across the Bible's many genres (narrative, law, prophecy, psalmody, and wisdom) by using theoretical frames drawn from various academic disciplines (communication studies, political science, literary criticism, and sociological studies). The book examines how silence as a literary technique, particularly that of the narrator, connects theologically to themes of obedience, grief, hope, personal relationships, trauma, politics, and wisdom. The volume concludes with a theological reflection on the silence of God in the face of human suffering.

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Reviews

"Vic Matthews is one of the most fertile minds in contemporary biblical scholarship. His capacity to write clearly on the topic of silence in the biblical sources is an outstanding example. Both seasoned scholars and ordinary readers can readily comprehend the richness of the meaning he derives from his use of anthropology to enlighten the biblical texts, how man, woman, and the deity, too, were viewed in the Old Testament in down-to-earth terms. The book's sophistication is of a high order and relayed with a lightness of touch that at every turn makes for stimulating reading. --Calum Carmichael, emeritus professor of comparative literature and law, Cornell University Victor Matthews does what he does so well in this book--exploring what is hidden, between the lines, sensed, felt, and in this case unsaid in order to show us the Bible in a new way. Situated within a larger frame of the way silence functions in literature and everyday life, Matthews's work makes a useful and practical companion to Auerbach's famous essay in Mimesis (""Odysseus' Scar"") for thinking about the strange and artful ways biblical authors speak through the things they do not tell us. --Brian R. Doak, professor of biblical studies, George Fox University, and author of Consider Leviathan: Narratives of Nature and the Self in Job Silence is often ignored and unappreciated in our noisy world. Biblical interpreters have by and large failed to recognize the literary and theological significance of silence in Scripture. Thankfully, Victor Matthews's study goes a long way in rectifying this as he masterfully shows how the theme of silence contributes to a deeper, more profound understanding of the text and the characters appearing therein. Matthews's insightful analysis of this neglected topic is a fascinating read that I heartily recommend. --Robert B. Chisholm Jr., chair and senior professor of Old Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary Matthews explores silence in the Old Testament as an art historian might explore darkness in a Caravaggio painting, not simply noticing it but interrogating it. God's ""absence"" in silence can be purposeful--summoning our attention, offering us peace, calling us to repent, or inviting us to be still and trust God to act when the time is right. It's amazing what the darkness can tell us about the light. --The Rev. John Spicer, rector, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri; author of Beating the Boundaries: The Church God Is Calling Us to Be"

Author Information

Victor H. Matthews is professor emeritus of religious studies and former dean at Missouri State University. He is a specialist in Hebrew Bible and the social world of the ancient Near East and has published nineteen books and more than a hundred scholarly articles.

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