Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period

Description

This volume sheds light on how particular constructions of the ‘Other’ contributed to an ongoing process of defining what ‘Israel’ or an ‘Israelite’ was or was supposed to be in literature taken to be authoritative in the latePersian and Early Hellenistic periods. It asks, who is an insider and who anoutsider? Are boundaries permeable? Are there different ideas expressed withinindividual books? What about constructions of the (partial) ‘Other’ frominside, e.g., women, people whose body did not fit social constructions ofnormalness? It includes chapters dealing with theoretical issues and casestudies, and addresses similar issues from the perspective of groups in thelate Second Temple period so as to shed light on processes of continuity anddiscontinuity on these matters. Preliminary forms of five of the contributions werepresented in Thessaloniki in 2011 in the research programme, ‘Production andReception of Authoritative Books in the Persian and Hellenistic Period,’ at theAnnual Meeting of European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS). Cover Title Copyright Contents Abbreviations List of Contributors Introduction The Other: Sociological Perspectives in a Postcolonial Age The Other as a Sociological Concept The Causality of Difference in Identifying the Other The Other as the Body Upon Which Power Relations Are Written Othering via Projection The Other as a Source, or Product, of Conflict Some Final Thoughts Othering, Selfing, ‘Boundarying’ and ‘Cross-Boundarying’ as Interwoven with Socially Shared Memories: Some Observations Yhwh’s Othering of Israel Introduction 1. Divine Strategies for Creating and Defining the In-Group 2. Divine Othering Strategies 3. Conclusion Categorical Identities: ‘Ethnified Otherness and Sameness’—Atool for Understanding Boundary Negotiation in the Pentateuch? Natives and Immigrants in the Social Imagination of the Holiness School Introduction The Advent of the Native in H Conclusion Gender and Identity in the Book of Numbers Part 1, Numbers 1–10 Part 2, Numbers 11–25 Part 3: Numbers 26–36 Women on the Edge The Concept of the Woman as Other The Other on the Edge Conclusion Ruth: Aborn-again Israelite? One Woman’s Journey Through Space and Time Prelude Introduction Ethnic Theory and Biblical Israel Creative Speech Ruth’s Transition into Israel: An Extreme Ethnic Make-Over Overcoming Otherness in the Book of Ruth Imagined and Forgotten Communities: Othering in the Story of Josiah’s Reform (2 Kings 23) I II III Jonah and the Other: Adiscourse on Interpretative Competence 1. Shaping the Background: Jonah and the ‘Oracles Concerning the Nations’ 2. Inside the Story: Jonah and the Foreign Worlds 3. Jonah and a Discourse on Interpretative Competence Denial, Deception, or Force: How to Deal with Powerful Others in the Book of Esther Introduction The Poorly Controlled Power of a Vast Empire Strategies of Resistance Different Social Milieux Reflected in the Text Imagining the Other in the Construction of Judahite Identity in Ezra–Nehemiah Stage One: Building the Temple (Ezra 1–6) Stage Two: Building the Community as the House of God (Ezra 7–10) Stage Three: The City as the House of God (Nehemiah 1–7) Conclusion Phinehas and the Other Priests in Ben Sira and 1 Maccabees I. Intertextual Analysis II. Social-historical Classification III. Conclusion Disability, Identity, and Otherness in Persian-Period Israelite Thought 1. The P Stratum 2. Chronicles 3. Wisdom Literature 4. Prophecy 5. Conclusions The Other Others: Aqumran Perspective on Disability Introduction Holiness and the Disabled Other Practical Considerations Conclusion Index of References Index of Authors