Parallel Structures in Judges and the Formation of the Book

This article maps, next to the well-known repetitions in the book of Judges, a number of meaningful cases of repetition in the form of parallel structures in chapters 1, 14–16 and 17–21. This special use of repetition can be regarded as characteristic of the editor who was responsible for the book in its final form. The analysis of this phenomenon helps to obtain a better view of the structure of the book as a whole, and to explain the function of the double references to the death of Joshua and to the twenty years of Samson as a judge. The particular use of parallel structures at the beginning and end of the book can also be related to theories which attempt to reconstruct the formation of the book and the way in which it is connected to both the preceding book of Joshua and the following book of Samuel.