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Marc Brettler examined the complex issue of genre, noting that the texts most relevant to an historian of Israel and Judah in the ninth century BCE are to be found within 1 Kings 15 to 2 Kings 13. For heuristic purposes, this chapter takes Samuel-Kings as the larger context of which 1 Kings 15–2 Kings 13 is a part. Rather than explore further the theoretical issue (to which in any case Brettler has provided several references), it draws out some implications of points he has made in his paper. In his preliminary remarks on method, Brettler discusses some psalms, including 78, as examples of didactic narrative; and the books of Jonah, Job, and Ruth as instances of symbolic narrative. It is surprising that more attention has not been paid to the apparent patterning of the lists of kings of Judah and Israel which, though not presented as lists, can be (re-)assembled from the books of Kings.

This chapter focuses on the problematic operations of memory. It differentiates between active memory and passive memory and the modes of storytelling that they generate and argues that symbolic narratives which reorder the past or sidestep facticity may act as a palliative to the dead weight of history. Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses, however, is caught between two modes of recall: a radical refutation of the past, on the one hand, and a passive surrender to its enervating effects, on the other. He persistently fights against forms of memory that induce stagnation but ultimately cannot escape the traumatic vestiges of his own familial past, especially the enduring psychic damage caused by the death of his mother.

The book of Numbers is a meandering story of Israel in the wilderness, of geographical and generational transition, told by means of narratives that alternate with ritual and legal prescriptions. A central theme of the first long section of the book (1‒24) is the corporate sin of Israel, and four detailed narratives trace the steady spiritual deterioration—through ingratitude, doubt, and religious presumption—of the older generation that came out of Egypt. The extravagant blessings pronounced through Balaam provide a concluding frame, indicating that divine blessing ultimately trumps human failure. Two difficult texts (chaps. 5 and 25) explore themes of sex, violence, and jealousy; both are best read as symbolic narratives representing the relationship between YHWH and Israel, and the intensity of divine jealousy.