Havilah Dharamraj

The Old Testament books of Kings are a unique source for understanding the history of Israel, from the last days of the united kingdom under David to the eventual fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Presenting Israel's national history from a divine viewpoint, these narratives measure the kings of Israel and Judah, not by the mark they leave on secular history, but by their 'doing what is right in the Lord's sight'. Embedded in this story are enduring lessons of the ways of God with his people in every age.

The frank eroticism of the Song of Songs has long seemed out of place in the Hebrew Bible. As a result, both Jewish and Christian interpreters have struggled to read it as an allegory of the relationship between God (as husband) and Israel or the church (as bride). Havilah Dharamraj approaches the Song with a clear vision of the gendering of power relationships in the ancient Near East and through an intertextual method centered not on production but on the reception of texts. She sets the Song's lyrical portrayal of passion and intimacy alongside other canonical portrayals of love spurned, lust, rejection, and sexual violence from Hosea, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The result is a richly nuanced exposition of the possibilities of intimacy and remorse in interhuman and divine-human relationship. The intertextual juxtaposition of contrasting texts produces a third text, an intracanonical conversation in which patriarchal control and violence are answered in a tender and generous mutuality.

In evaluating Elijah as a prophet after the Mosaic paradigm, Dr Havilah Dharamraj proposes a radically different schema for interpreting what is one of the most dramatic and difficult texts in the Old Testament, namely, the earthquake-wind-and-fire theophany at Horeb (1 Kings 19). Since rabbinic times, the resonance between the Moses stories and the Elijah stories has been regularly noted. Taking into account that Deut. 18:18 promises Israel a 'prophet like Moses', this resonance compels an evaluation of Elijah, holding Moses as the benchmark. Here, scholarship struggles with a paradox. At Horeb Elijah fails in the critical prophetic task of intercession. Yet, his service as prophet is affirmed beyond doubt in his iconic whirlwind-and-chariots-of-fire exit. How are these to be reconciled? Is Elijah a prophet of Mosaic fibre or not? This work offers a strikingly different approach to the Elijah stories. Dharamraj employs the narrative critical method to offer a close reading of the text. Such an approach opens up intriguing possibilities in interpretation. Here, her analysis of the dramatic and difficult discourse of the earthquake-wind-fire- 'still, small voice' theophany at Horeb is notable. So also, is the case she carefully builds for whether Elijah emerges as the hoped-for 'prophet like Moses'.