| Gen1:1-11:9, in the scholarship of Bible, is also called as "Primeval History", which is the very beginning of the "Hebrew Bible". It is about how God creates, destroys and re-creates the world. Divine Violence is an important theme within Primeval History:For the creation of the world, God, or Yahweh punishes the humankind and the world that he creates himself consistently. "The Garden of Eden" (Gen 2:4-3:24), "The Great Flood" (Gen 6:5-8:9); "The Tower of Babel" (Gen 11:1-9), as the critical texts in the Primeval History, have the direct connection with the Divine Violence."Divine violence" is a difficult problem in theology. It is an inevitable issue of "theodicy". The main tendency in the course of discussion about it is arguing from theological and ethical perspectives. Nevertheless, this paper will avoid discussing Divine violence from a theological and ethical perspective, but try to discuss and analysis that which was specifically showed in "Genesis" in terms of "spatial narratology". It is asked how spatial settings and context of Divine violence were described? What specific narrative character and narrative law does the description of spatial settings have? What exactly is the influence of such narrative character and writing style on Divine violent acts?According to three main viewpoints on space in modern biblical scholarship, the space in the "Primeval History" could be divided into Physical Space, Mental Space and the Thirdspace. Accordingly, I divide this paper into three chapters:ChapterⅠis to discuss the space of Divine violence in Genesis in the perspective of "physical or material space"; ChapterⅡis to discuss the space of Divine violence in the perspective of "mental space"; ChapterⅢis to discuss the space in the perspective of "the third space" of which the theory is explored by Soja.Secondly, the narrative units in "Primeval History" are seen as relative independent and being not unified. Interpreting the space in terms of narratology means that we should accentuate the unification of the "Primeval History". Therefore, this paper will argue on the basis of the unification by close-reading of the texts that:the physical space is unified by "concise" and "indirection" of narrative; the mental space is unified by "boundaries" that the trees in the Eden, the great flood and the tower of Babel convey; the physical and mental space are unified because of the introduction of the thirdspace. Thus the space in Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9 and Gen 11:1-9 get being unification.Thirdly, Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9 and Gen 11:1-9 shares a common theme:the Divine violent acts on account of the "cross-boundary" between God and human. In the long exegetical tradition, the Divine Violence in these texts was seen as being cruel; unfair; sometimes unreasonable. However, as soon as the physical space, the mental space and both of them get the unification, some corresponding narrative effects were caused (defamiliarization; balance of punishment and crime; for instance) and these effects finally make the Divine violent acts somehow alleviated.The main aim of this paper is to show that the space in the Bible has the determinate function rather than being ancillary and not important. Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9 are chosen as subjects as they are three important stories in the Western culture,. On the one hand, I try to argue that these texts could be seen as a unity in terms of spatial narratology and they have their own unique "track of space", rather than being independent of each other; on the other hand, such unity in turn influences the theme of these texts, namely to influence the Divine violence narrated in Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9, making it sublimated or weakened. From this two aspects I suggest that the space in "Primeval History" (Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9) controls the narrative, including the theme, tempo and plot, which demonstrates that space is a determinate aspect in the narrative of Primeval History. Gen1:1-11:9, in scholarship of the Bible, is called as "Primeval History", which is the very beginning of the "Hebrew Bible". It is about how God creates, destroys and re-creates the world. Divine Violence is an important theme within Primeval History: for the creation of the world, God, or Yahweh punishes the humankind and the world that he creates himself consistently. The Garden of Eden(Gen 2:4-3:24),The Great Flood(Gen 6:5-8:9); The Tower of Babel(Gen 11:1-9), as the critical texts in the Primeval History, have the direct connection with the Divine Violence."Divine violence" is a difficult problem in theology. It is an inevitable issue of "theodicy". The main tendency in the course of discussion about it is arguing from theological and ethical perspectives. Nevertheless, this paper will avoid discussing Divine violence from a theological and ethical perspective, but try to discuss and analysis that which was specifically showed in "Genesis" in terms of "spatial narratology". It is asked how spatial settings and context of Divine violence were described? What specific narrative character and narrative law does the description of spatial settings have? What exactly is the influence of such narrative character and writing style on Divine violent acts?According to three main viewpoints on space in modern biblical scholarship, the space in the "Primeval History" could be divided into Physical Space, Mental Space, the Thirdspace. Accordingly, I divide this paper into four chapters:ChapterⅠis to discuss the history of scholarship of biblical space; ChapterⅡis about the space of Divine violence in Genesis in the perspective of "physical or material space"; ChapterⅢis to discuss the space of Divine violence in the perspective of "mental space" (?); ChapterⅣis to discuss the space in the perspective of "the third space" of which the theory is explored by Edward Soja. Secondly, the narrative units in "Primeval History" were seen as relative independent and being not unified. However, interpreting it in terms of narratology, to some extent, means that accentuating the unification of the "Primeval History". Therefore, this paper will argue on the basis of the unification by close-reading of the texts that:the physical space is unified by "concise" and "indirection" of narrative; the mental space is unified by "boundaries" that the trees in the Eden, the great flood and the tower of Babel convey; the physical and mental space are unified because of the introduction of the thirdspace. Thus the space in Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9 and Gen 11:1-9 get being unification.Thirdly, Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9 and Gen 11:1-9 shares a common theme:the Divine violent acts on account of the "cross-boundary" between God and human. In the long exegetical tradition, the Divine Violence in these texts were seen as being cruel; unfair; sometimes unreasonable. However, as soon as the physical space, the mental space and both of them get the unification, some corresponding narrative effects were caused (defamiliarization; balance of punishment and crime; for instance) and these effects finally make the Divine violent acts somehow alleviated and weakened.The main aim of this paper is to show that the space in the Bible has the determinate function rather than being ancillary and not important. Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9 are chosen as subjects as they are three important stories in the Western culture,. On the one hand, I try to argue that these texts could be seen as a unity in terms of spatial narratology and they have their own unique "track of space", rather than being independent of each other; on the other hand, such unity in turn influences the theme of these texts, namely to influence the Divine violence narrated in Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9, making it sublimated or weakened. From this two aspects I suggest that the space in "Primeval History" (Gen 2:4-3:24, Gen 6:5-8:9, Gen 11:1-9) controls the narrative, including the theme, tempo and plot, which demonstrates that space is a determinate aspect in the narrative of Primeval History... |
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