Zephaniah: A Prophetic Drama

A much neglected prophecy, Zephaniah proves to be an excellent subject for literary-critical enquiry. Such an approach yields new meaning for Zephaniah as it is doing for other biblical texts. After an introductory chapter devoted to the history of Zephaniah interpretation, House moves to a discussion of genre and the content of Zephaniah. Chapter 2 surveys genre analysis from Aristotle to the present and then charts the main characteristics of epic, lyric and drama. A close reading of Zephaniah follows, covering the book's structure, dialogue, plot, characterization, themes, points of view and time sequences (Chapter 3). This reading provides both an interpretation of the book and data for locating its genre. Material from the close reading is compared to epic, lyric and drama in Chapter 4, and drama is seen to be the most natural classical genre description for Zephaniah. Several parallels are also drawn between prophetic and comic modes in literature. Finally, Chapter 5 presents a translation of Zephaniah, with textual notes, and divides the book as a drama according to speakers, scenes and acts. Throughout this study Zephaniah emerges as a unified literary work of great style and power.