“Awakening the Sleeping Tiger”

Abstract

This article discusses the centrality of 1 Kings 2:15 for the interpretation of the entire text of 1 Kings 2 and its function in constructing an imaginative picture of a friendly communication style as part of the ruler’s policy in running his government. To achieve this goal, I use Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of phenomenology, which is sharpened by John Comaroff’s and Jean Comaroff’s hermeneutics of suspicion. I will use this perspective as a framework for Oliver Glanz’s shifting participant theory as a basis for analysis of 1 Kings 2:15. The result is a friendly and generous communication style in a balanced and proportional way.