Full Description
Notions of women as found in the Bible have had an incalculable impact on western cultures, influencing perspectives on marriage, kinship, legal practice, political status, and general attitudes. Women and Exilic Identity in the Hebrew Bible is drawn from three separate strands to address and analyse this phenomenon. The first examines how women were conceptualized and represented during the exilic period. The second focuses on methodological possibilities and drawbacks connected to investigating women and exile. The third reviews current prominent literature on the topic, with responses from authors.
With chapters from a range of contributors, topics move from an analysis of Ruth as a woman returning to her homeland, and issues concerning the foreign presence who brings foreign family members into the midst of a community, and how this is dealt with, through the intermarriage crisis portrayed in Ezra 9-10, to an analysis of Judean constructions of gender in the exilic and early post-exilic periods. The contributions show an exciting range of the best scholarship on women and foreign identities, with important consequences for how the foreign/known is perceived, and what that has meant for women through the centuries.
Contents
List of Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction - Martien A. Halvorson- Taylor, University of Virginia, USA and Katherine E. Southwood, Oxford University, UK
Chapter 1: "YOU WILL FORGET YOUR ANCIENT SHAME": THE INNOCENCE OF SUSANNA AND THE VINDICATION OF ISRAEL - Jennie Grillo, Duke Divinity School Durham, USA
Chapter 2: THE ONES RETURNING: RUTH, NAOMI, AND SOCIAL NEGOTIATION IN THE POST- EXILIC PERIOD - Danna Nolan Fewell, Drew Theological School Madison, USA
Chapter 3: CHALLENGED BOUNDARIES: GENDER AND THE OTHER IN PERIODS OF CRISIS - Lawrence M. Wills, Episcopal Divinity School, USA
Chapter 4: SISTER SAVE US: THE MATRIARCHS AS BREADWINNERS AND THEIR THREAT TO PATRIARCHY IN THE ANCESTRAL NARRATIVE - Casey A. Strine, University of Sheffield, UK
Chapter 5: GENDER AND SUBJECTIVITY IN JEREMIAH 44 - Carolyn J. Sharp, Yale Divinity School, USA
Chapter 6: FAMILIAL IDENTITY AND CONFLICT THROUGH FORCED MIGRATION IN ISAIAH 49:14- 66:24 79 - Mark J. Boda, McMaster Divinity College, USA
Chapter 7: SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY? READING ESTHER AND JUDITH AS COMFORT WOMEN - Daniel L. Smith- Christopher, Loyola Marymount University, USA
Chapter 8: "JUDGEMENT WAS EXECUTED UPON HER, AND SHE BECAME A BYWORD AMONG WOMEN" (EZEK. 23:10): DIVINE REVENGE PORN, SLUT- SHAMING, ETHNICITY, AND EXILE IN EZEKIEL 16 AND 23 - Holly Morse, University of Manchester, UK
Bibliography
Index
