Beschreibung:
Changing times have produced different depictions of biblical characters in the arts. Changing art forms and media have as well. This article addresses the reception of the biblical character Jael (Judges 4-5) in the changed times of the 21st century and in the changed medium of the podcast. Who is Jael, according to these shows? Where do we see the influence of the time, and where the impact of the medium? And is there an effect from biblical story to listener? The article first introduces podcasts, and Bible podcasts more specifically, as a yet to be defined and described art form. For the further analysis, I turn to concepts of Text World Theory, a cognitivestylistic framework, that offers tools to study any type of human discourse by means of notions such as, discourse worlds and text-worlds and their interaction. Consequently, the depiction of Jael is examined in two different podcasts, Two Feminists Annotate the Bible and Sean and Eliot Read the Bible. The analysis demonstrates how both shows create their Jael as a result of stylistic choices as well as of discourse world influences, all of which color the interpretation of the textworld of the Jael and Sisera account. Compared to the earlier reception of the story and female character Jael, the podcasts foreground the issue of violence. In addition, the shows display features of mixed genre. Finally, the split discourse world of the original author(s) of the Bible text and the podcast hosts plays an important, and even artful, role in the outlook of the shows.