War, memory, and national identity in the Hebrew Bible / Jacob L. Wright, Emory University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Jacob L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Old Testament.

War--Biblical teaching.

War.

War--Religious aspects--Judaism.

War--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Jews--Identity.

Jews.

Nationalism and collective memory.

Socio-rhetorical criticism of sacred works.

Palestine--In the Bible.

Palestine.

Bible. Old Testament--Socio-rhetorical criticism.

Bible.

Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Nationalism and collective memory--Israel.

National characteristics, Israeli.

Palestine in the Bible.

Israel.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 283 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"The Hebrew Bible is permeated with depictions of military conflicts that have profoundly shaped the way many think about war. Why does war occupy so much space in the Bible? In this book, Jacob Wright offers a fresh and fascinating response to this question: War pervades the Bible not because ancient Israel was governed by religious factors (such as "holy war") or because this people, along with its neighbors in the ancient Near East, was especially bellicose. Instead, the reason is rather that the Bible is fundamentally a project of constructing a new national identity for Israel, one that can both transcend deep divisions within the population and withstand military conquest by imperial armies. Drawing on the intriguing interdisciplinary research on war commemoration, Wright shows how biblical authors, like the architects of national identities from more recent times, constructed identity in direct relation to memories of war, both real and imagined. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Defeat and the Birth of a New Religious Identity

Nation and State

From the Priestly Source to Ezra-Nehemiah

War Commemoration

Purpose and Plan of the Present Book

pt. I REFUGEE MEMORIES: NEGOTIATING RELATIONS AND BORDERS WITH NEIGHBORING STATES

1. Passages to Peace

Passage Denied

Moses's Conflicting Memory

Commemoration and Legislation

David in the Wilderness

War Memories as Casus Belli

Permits of Passage in an Age of Empires

2. Edom as Israel's Other

Israel's First Homecoming

Memories of Edomite Aggression

The Politics of Scapegoating

Judean Irredentism

Implications for the Documentary Hypothesis

Contesting Memories

pt. II KINSHIP AND COMMANDMENT: THE TRANS JORDANIAN TRIBES AND THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN

3. Mapping the Promised Land

The Jordan as the Nation's Border

The Wadi Arnon in Deuteronomy

The Transjordan in Joshua

Contested Territory

4. The Nation's Transjordanian Vanguard

The Narrative of Numbers

Composition of Numbers 32

The Shifting Contexts of the Account

Tribes Before Kings

The Nation's Avant-Garde

Kinship and Command

Performing Peoplehood

5. A Nation Beyond Its Borders

Moses's Memory in Deuteronomy

Affirming Allegiance in Joshua

The Division of the Land

Honoring Wartime Service

From Celebration to Crisis

Nation Versus Territory

One Yhwh, One Israel

6. Kinship, Law, and Narrative

From State Diplomacy to National Belonging

Constitutional Patriotism

How Does a Text Become Sacred?

A Normative Past

pt. III RAHAB: AN ARCHETYPAL OUTSIDER

7. Between Faith and Works

Three Early Christian Interpreters in First Epistle of Clement

Letter to the Hebrews

The Epistle of James

Christians as Readers of the Jewish Scriptures

Josephus

Rahab and the Rabbis

Conversion and Naturalization

The Repentant Rahab

From Rahab to Paul

8. The Composition of the Rahab Story

The Rahab Story as a Narrative Frame

The Place of the Rahab Story in the Narrative

A City Besieged

Edification of a Defeated Nation

Belief and Action

A New Covenant

Inclusion Versus Integration

9. Rahab's Courage and the Gibeonites' Cowardice

Archeological and Biblical Evidence

Relationship to Jerusalem's Temple

From Joshua to Saul

An Early Memory of Joshua

The Composition of Joshua 9

From Saul to David

Rizpah's Heroism

The Gibeonites, Rahab, and Biblical War Commemoration

pt. IV DEBORAH: MOTHER OF A VOLUNTARY NATION

10. A Prophet and Her General

The Book of Judges as a Bridge

An Older Source?

Deborah and Gideon

The Jael Episode

Deconstructing Male Power

Martial Valor and Monarchic Rule

11. A Poetic War Monument

Between Prose and Poetry

Repurposing an Older Hymn

A National God and Israel's Unity

Religious Unity and American National Identity

12. A National Anthem for the North

Mobilizing the Nation's Members

Censure of Transjordanian Communities

Judah's Absence

The Curse of Meroz

Meroz and the American War of Independence

A Nation Without a King

13. Women and War Commemoration

Mothers of Soldiers

Political Performances

Between Bed and Battlefield

Memory as a Moral Imperative

14. Jael's Identities

The Kenites' Solidarity with Israel

The Kenites on the Biblical Landscape

From Saul to Moses

Fellow Travelers

Devotion to a Deity

Jael as a Kenite and a Jew

Conclusions: A Movable Monument and a Portable Homeland

Fighting for the King: War Commemoration in the Ancient Near East

Saving Holy Hellas: War Commemoration in the East Aegean World

From Athens to Jerusalem

Back to Wellhausen and the Nation

Law, Narrative, and Kinship.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9781108480895

1108480896

OCLC:

1154817320