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# Multivocality in Group Speech in Biblical Narrative

**Authors:** George Savran · **Year:** 2009 · **Venue:** Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9, art. 25 **Link:** [jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/7237](https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/7237) · library `hbo-2009-savran-multivocality-group-speech-biblical-narrative` · **Licence:** [CC BY 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W4300671384) openalex · 2026-10-18[Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9](https://openalex.org/S2764683527)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25)
- [PDF](https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/download/7237/5949)
- [DOI 10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4300671384)

**Authors (1)**

1. [George Savran](https://openalex.org/A5013642560) h 7 · 202 citations · 28 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-18); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

By convention a group in biblical narrative speaks with one voice: וַיֹּאמְרוּ, or וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו, and the group acts as one character, in line with the folk-tale "rule of two to a scene". Savran studies the exceptions, where a group speech holds several voices: explicit subgroups ("some said …" three times in Neh 5:2–4), trial scenes with turns (Jer 26), complaints that may come from different parties (Exod 17:2–4, as Ibn Ezra suggested), and deliberations introduced by "each said to his brother" — Joseph's brothers (Gen 37:19–20; 42:21–22), the sailors in Jonah, the debate over David's return (2 Sam 19). Multivocality dramatises disagreement or prepares a later unified voice. A plural "they said" should not be assumed to be one voice; syntax and context decide.

## Ideas

- I1. Treat וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו / אֶל־רֵעֵהוּ as a *deliberation* frame: the quote that follows is a group discussion, and the act is a proposal or question, not a statement by one speaker.
- I2. When one plural frame introduces a quote whose parts change person, topic or stance (Gen 42:21–22, Gen 37:19–20 then Reuben's separate speech), allow the quote to split into several voices of the same group; record speaker = group with a voice index.
- I3. List the Torah's plural speech frames (וַיֹּאמְרוּ with a group subject) and count how many are followed by a reply from a named member of that group — a cue that the group was not of one mind.

## For Mova

I1–I2 apply to the speech-part reader of `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` (frames and quotes, `amar`, `inner-frame`, `propose`) and to [Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/09-discourse/) §4; I3 is a measure on the Torah trees.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25)

```
@article{savran2009multivocality,
  title = {{Multivocality in Group Speech in Biblical Narrative}},
  author = {Savran, George},
  journal = {Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9},
  year = {2009},
  doi = {10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25}
}
```

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