The Trickster Revisited

The Author: Dean Andrew Nicholas received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in the field of Bible and Ancient Near East studies. He teaches Bible, Hebrew, and World Religions at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, where he is currently Principal of the Upper School.

«Dean Nicholas' creative and original work is a fine interdisciplinary effort, and also a good illustration of the interplay between synchronic and diachronic methods in biblical studies. Instead of treating biblical tricksters as a purely literary phenomenon, Nicholas asks two probing questions: what does cross-cultural study reveal about the social function of the trickster? And what cultural and historical circumstances would induce the Israelites to valorize trickster-heroes? Nicholas has conducted a thorough survey of anthropological literature on tricksters, which he applies to the biblical narratives under consideration. He develops a model derived from Victor Turner's work on the rite de passage, correlating its tripartite pattern with the mythic function of the trickster. He then examines several biblical narratives to determine whether or not they conform to the pattern. Careful analysis shows that Pentateuchal narratives do, while deuteronomistic narratives do not. This striking conclusion is complemented by Nicholas's discernment of previously unrecognized trickster motifs in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus. In accounting for the pervasiveness of the Turnerian trickster in Pentateuchal narrative, Nicholas rejects the view of the pattern as a vestige of a bygone era or a manifestation of primitive mentality. Instead, he argues that the redaction of the Pentateuch itself must be associated with a situation in which Israel found itself marginalized, and thus identified with the trickster. During the Exile and in the post-exilic period, as the biblical canon was in formation, the trickster motif was an apt expression of Israel's self-definition. According to Nicholas, the cognitive dissonance induced by grand prophetic promises contrasted with pathetic reality induced the people to see themselves as tricksters, caught 'betwixt and between', always on the threshold of better things that were just out of reach. His arguments merit the attention of