ENGLISH

Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story

By Jeremy Schipper

Book information

Publisher
T&T Clark
Year
2006
ISBN
0567027821, 9780567027825
Google Books ID
RCNJ1CHI6nMC
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (2869986 bytes)
Series
Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 441
Pages
x+158\170
Topic
Religion
Orientation
yes
Paginated
yes
Scanned
portrait
Time added
2013-12-02 21:11:26

Description

This unique interdisciplinary book uses a fresh approach to explore issues of disability in the Hebrew Bible. It examines how disability functions in the David Story (1 Samuel 16; 1 Kings 2) by paying special attention to Mephibosheth, the only biblical character with a disability as a sustained character trait. The David Story contains some of the Bible's most striking images of disability.Nonetheless, interpreters tend to focus on legal material rather than narratives when studying disability in the Hebrew Bible. Often, they neglect the David Story's complex use of disability. They overlook its use of disability imagery as open to critical interpretation because its stereotypical meanings may seem so commonplace and transparent. Yet recent work in the burgeoning field of disability studies presents disability as a complicated motif that demands more critical engagement than it typically receives.Informed by exciting developments in the field, it argues that the David Story employs disability imagery as a subtle mode of narrating and organizing various ideological positions regarding national identity.

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