חיי הנפש של גיבורי הסיפור המקראי בפרשנות רד"ק

Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak, 1165-1235) repeatedly refers in his exegesis to the inner life of the biblical protagonists. A closer look at his method reveals that his commentaries are often based on narration data which in modern analysis are commonly identified as narrative modes of character description. This article explores these components of Radak's Bible commentary which are mainly based on explicit descriptive statements, the character's speech, action, physical description, epithets and repetition. Though Radak's use of these literal means is quite consistent, he doesn't define them methodologically. Moreover, his usage is not systematic — while in one place Radak deals exhaustively with the above data as supplied by the scripture, in another place he might as well ignore them. It is therefore doubtful in this context if his approach can be regarded as systematic. Radak's extensive occupation with the inner life of many of the biblical characters might be attributed to some Midrashic influence on his commentary or to the prevalent Zeitgeist of his time as well as to his personal preferences.