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Rhetorical
Strategies for 'Holy War' in Some Second Temple Sacred Texts: Overview,
Analysis and Implications
Dr.
L. Gregory Bloomquist What may be generally described as the rhetorical topoi of 'Holy War' occur in several Second (Jewish) Temple texts. As part of the legacy of text and culture deriving from Jewish sacred texts prior to the Second Temple (e.g., literature of the Hebrew Bible) and its cultural enactments, the Second Temple texts suggest ways in which the deity and the deity's agents deal with evil. These topoi are found in such diverse texts as the War Scroll (from Qumran), the expectations surrounding jewish messianic figures (like Bar Kochba), and a broad strata of Christian Testament texts (the Synoptic sayings of Jesus, the Lukan nativity and baptismal accounts, and the Book of Revelation). Using socio-rhetorical analysis, I would propose to highlight the specific topoi involved and their configuration for rhetorical argumentative purposes in a representative selection of these texts (in particular, the five texts or text-grouping from the Second Temple period that I have mentioned above). My goal would be to see what kind of "rhetorolects" or rhetorical, discursive cultures are evidenced by the topoi and their argumentative forms. I will conclude with a glimpse at the resulting impact of these rhetorolects on subsequent discursive cultures that are recognized as having drawn on these traditions (e.g., the use of such imagery in the Qu'ran) in order to make some conclusions about the impact of rhetorical strategies concerning the violent response to evil.
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