An example that Reinhartz examines at length is that of Abraham's servant in Genesis 24. The narrative lingers on the servant, both to emphasize his faithfulness and to plot the intertwining of human and divine schemes. The focus on the servant, his emergence as a personality in his own right, contends with its displacement onto his master and onto God. Other examples Reinhartz considers are the Amalekite who announce Saul's death, Naaman's servant girt, and the Cushite who brings news of Absalom's death. These protracted analyses are transitional to the second part, in which anonymity and role designation are constitutive of personal identity.
Anonymity serves a number of functions.
It may communicate pathos, as when the lack of a name is symptomatic of the silencing of a female figure, such as the Levite's concubine, and the lack of posterity, as with Jephthah's daughter. It may be indicative of the nexus of relationships in which a woman is trapped. The Timnite's daughter as well as the Levite's concubine are good examples. Conversely, the designation may suggest a transcendence of a conventional role, for instance the Shunammite and Manoah's wife. Reinhartz's analyses are thorough and very impressive, and furnished me with new insights, particularly into the flexibility with as which anonymity is used.