Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 39/1 (2013), pp. 73-90 73 Wido T van Peursen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) PARTICIPANT REFERENCE IN GENESIS 37 ABSTRACT This article investigates the various ways in which participants are introduced and referred to in Genesis 37. It investigates how a linguistic approach to participant reference can help addressing exegetical questions and how it interacts with other historical-critical as well as synchronic, literary approaches. Its starting point is the model for the description of participant reference developed by S E Runge and tests its applicability to the Genesis chapter under discussion. To account for the various usages attested in the Hebrew Bible, it is obligatory to distinguish between various types of encoding (including under- and overencoding) and diverse types of participants (including “central” and “main” participant). 1. INTRODUCTION For a proper understanding of a narrative it is crucial to know who are the “actors” on the scene, and what their roles and mutual relationships are. 1 The way in which participants are introduced and the referring expressions used for them throughout the story have both linguistic effects (affecting, e.g., the cohesion and structure of a text) and literary consequences (having an impact on, e.g., the characterization of the participants). This article investigates the various ways in which participants are introduced and referred to in Genesis 37. It investigates how a linguistic approach to participant reference can help addressing exegetical questions and how it interacts with other historical-critical as well as synchronic, literary approaches. Its starting point is the model for the description of participant reference developed by S E Runge in his contribution to a previous issue of JNSL (2006) and in his PhD dissertation (2007) and tests its applicability to the Genesis chapter under discussion. 1 In the autumn of 2011 I gave an MA seminar about participant reference and participant identification in Biblical Hebrew. I am indebted to the participants of this seminar for their useful feedback, which sharpened my ideas on this topic. I am also indebted to Steven E Runge, who was willing to contribute to the discussion board in the electronic learning environment of this seminar. The investigations have been supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).