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Alain Gignac

Bibliographie de Robert David

Alain Gignac

Josué et la violence : le héros de la conquête à l’épreuve des cultures

Paul Béré
This study on Joshua, the hero of the eponymous book, examines the ambivalence of the ethical evaluation of the character. Considered exemplary to the point of being a model for Israel’s leaders and conquerors in history, Joshua appears as the armed hand of a God who takes care of his people by ordering the massacre of innocent Canaanites, the exegetical literature asserts. Although the leader is in command of troops whose actions have been described by some as genocidal, the theme of “Joshua and violence” has paradoxically not been thoroughly researched. Despite the fact that Joshua is purposely protected by the narrative, we argue that he is guilty of the atrocities discussed in the book, even if he cannot be held responsible for them. For the rhetoric of the book that exalts violence is a fact of culture and can, in this way, serve as a mirror to the unthought-of violence that is also embedded in our cultures.

Rahab, prostituée cananéenne, impulsion décisive pour la conquête de la terre promise : une lecture de Josué 2

Catherine Vialle
The story of the prostitute Rahab who comes to the rescue of two Israeli spies by hiding them, and confesses her faith in the victory of YHWH over Jericho, is worthy of attention. Yet this little account seems, at first sight, wrong in its place in the book of Joshua. Located at the beginning of the conquest, it interrupts the triumphant march of Joshua and the sons of Israel by an episode to say the least burlesque. What is the function of this episode ? What does it bring to the plot of the story, to the characterization of the main characters, and to the theology of the book of Joshua ? This article proposes to reread the history of Rahab from a primarily synchronic perspective, trying to answer these questions.

Jos 10,1-15, le miracle de Gabaon, un salut pour Israël

Dany Nocquet
This study tries to understand the miracle of Gibeon (a foreign and Canaanite town in Josh. 10,1-15, his narrative goals, as well as his historical function in the frame of the book of Joshua.After the account of Josh. 9,1-27 telling the covenant between Israelites and Gibeonites, their rescue and their integration to the service of the temple, Josh. 10,1-15 shows how Gibeon, place of a divine revelation, is vital for the entrance of Israel into Canaan. So, fighting Israel is fighting Gibeon as well. Highlighting how the two nations are united in a same people, Josh. 10,1-15 enhances the plural unity of Israel since his origins.Regarding the redactional aspect of the passage and the astonishing position of Jerusalem, the study demonstrates how late this story can be, reflecting the Persian period and the recognition of the linguistic and religious plurality. Josh. 10,1-15 legitimates into the account of divine victory for Israel an integrative yahwistic theology regarding the Deuteronomistic thought with a peaceful cohabitation between Gibeonites and Israelites.

Le témoignage de la pierre qui a entendu : une interprétation écologique de Josué 24

Sébastien Doane
Biblical studies, in step with contemporary issues, is developing responses to the ecological question. This article uses the theoretical framework developed by Norman Habel (2008) — suspicion, identification, retrieval — by applying it to the standing stone in Jos 24,26-27. This inanimate natural object has the ability to hear YHWH’s words and to testify against the addressees of this narrative. This stone is a subject, member of an ecological community. Reading Jos 24 from its point of view allows for a critical posture of resistance to anthropocentrism and othering.

Première relecture de la Conquête : enjeux territoriaux et tribaux en Jg 1

Stéphanie Anthonioz
The study of Judges 1, which is here revisited in a historical approach, highlights the importance of the tribal model and its function in the construction of the chapter. Indeed, this model, so rooted in Levantine cultures, is construed over the centuries in different biblical texts so as to become the symbolic “twelve tribes” or “twelve sons of Jacob” and is in its latest stage confirmed as the identity of “Israel,” a definition more genealogical, ethnic or clan-based than truly territorial. It is hoped to demonstrate here, through the detailed analysis of Judg. 1, how frontiers are generated, through inner-biblical expansions and corrections, and how they build a “greater Judea” and even a “greater Israel” at a time when manifestly the kingdom has turned into a province and is in search of a new identity and recognition.

L’histoire de Josué et de Kalev selon Ben Sira 46,1-10

Jean-Jacques Lavoie
In this study on Ben Sira, the author offers a double comparative analysis. On the one hand, he compares the text of 46,1-10 to other texts that evoke two great figures of the conquest, Joshua and Kalev, in order to identify the way in which Ben Sira and his grandson chose to appropriate them. On the other hand, as the text of 46,1-10 has been preserved in Hebrew (Ben Sira’s text) and in Greek (the grandson’s text), the author translates the two versions in such a way as to clearly highlight their significant differences and better understand their originality. This double comparative analysis shows that Ben Sira and his grandson did an intense work not only of selection but also of interpretation.

Le Livre de Josué dans les manuscrits de la mer Morte

Jean Duhaime
Among the documents discovered near the Dead Sea, mainly in the caves of Qumran between 1947 and 1956, are fragments of a few manuscripts of the Book of Joshua and of texts inspired by it. After an inventory of these manuscripts and their contents, the study of two excerpts illustrates their interest for researchers. The first, from a biblical manuscript (4Q47 1-2), mentions a ceremony of reading the Law after the crossing of the Jordan (Josh 4), which calls into question its location at Mount Ebal according to the Massoretic tradition (Josh 8 :30-35) and the Greek version (Josh 9 :3-8) of the Book of Joshua. The second, from an Apocryphon of Joshua (4Q379 22 ii 7-15), includes an interpretation of the curse uttered after the capture of Jericho (Josh 6 :26) which testifies to the reception of this text towards the end of the Second Temple period.

Extrême liminarité : l’impossible cohabitation de la grâce et du péché dans l’âme du moine (IVe-VIe siècle)

Fabrizio Vecoli
The ascetical doctrine of primitive monasticism consists in a series of teachings whose purpose is the transformation of those who put them into practice. The final objective is the perfection of the human being, whose transcendent aspect is a constant that poses a general problem when it comes to segmenting and mapping the ascetic path that is supposed to lead to it. The texts propose a very concrete technique, but their purpose is incomprehensible. There is, obviously, an ontological incompatibility between the starting point — the human condition considered by the ascetical technique — and the coveted destination — the experience of a transcendence defined by theological reflection. The question that arises is therefore that of change, that is to say, of the dynamic relation between two totally distinct conditions. Now, change, which can be understood as progress, should logically include a phase in which the evil that is to be rejected and the good that is to be welcomed find themselves coexisting in the same person. But this, although obvious at the practical level, poses a theological difficulty: can the divine coexist with the earthly? In this article we propose to examine the tension that runs through the monastic texts of Late Antiquity with regard to this problem: the variety of positions reveals, among other things, the weight of the constraints imposed by doctrinal orthodoxy, which influences the theorization of ascetic praxis and mystical experience.

Réflexions sur L’inquiétude humaine : l’horizon de Jacques Lavigne aujourd’hui / Jacques Lavigne, L’inquiétude humaine, préface de Georges Leroux, Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, ECQ* – Essais Classiques du Québec, Montréal, 2023, 295 p., ISBN 9782760646209

Pascale Devette

Le désir du réel dans la philosophie québécoise : une approche réformatrice de la philosophie au Québec / Pierre-Alexandre FRADET, Le désir du réel dans la philosophie québécoise, Montréal, Nota Bene, « Territoires philosophiques », 2022, 246 p., ISBN 9782895187967

Georges Leroux

Évangiles, Nouvelle traduction de Frédéric Boyer, Paris, Gallimard, 2022, 527 p., ISBN 9782072974670

Marie-Andrée Lamontagne