Speech, Writing and Power: Deconstructing the Biblical Canon

This paper discusses how the formation of the biblical canon touches upon a particularly vexing post-structuralist problem, that is, the ambiguous relationship between speech and writing articulated so forcefully by Jacques Derrida in a number of his writings. The paper argues how the speech-centred charismatic, subversive forces of prophecy lose out to the institutionalized, textualized forces of the priest hood. Furthermore, the interplay between speech and writing in the early chapters of Genesis can be seen to reveal similar ideological power structures at work.