Creative imitation in the Hebrew Bible

The source of creative composition for many forms of literature was well re cognized by literary critics in antiquity to be in the imitation of older l iterary works and this has been a major concern of literary criticism in mo dern classical studies as well. It is remarkable, therefore, that so little attention has been given to this subject in biblical studies. Even in the current discussion of intertextuality, the possibility of literary imitatio n is rarely made the focus of attention. In this article I will lay out wha t, in antiquity, was regarded as the appropriate use of imitation of the cl assics for composition of new works, as well as the creation of rival versi ons of history, and how the notion of imitation to account for similarity c an be useful in biblical studies. These issues will be illustrated by a num ber of examples of imitation in the Hebrew Bible that have often been expla ined in other less appropriate ways.