“Do You Have to Be Pure in a Metaphorical Temple? Sanctuary Metaphors and Construction of Sacred Space in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Paul’s Letters” (original) (raw)
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Purity, Holiness, and Identity in Judaism and Christianity: Essays in Memory of Susan Haber
2013
The meat of this revised Penn State dissertation is the middle chapter, which presents archaeological findings from Tel Dan, previously largely unpublished. Greer has served on the zooarchaeological field staff there since 2008. On the basis of seven Iron Age II deposits of bone and pottery near the "high place," the book discusses cultic feasting at Dan during the reigns of Jeroboam, the Omrides, and the Nimshides. As the author notes, the discovery of sacrificial and feasting activities at a major Yahwistic shrine would be significant since many of the other major cultic sites from the period are inaccessible or have not been discovered. Greer admits that there is not sufficient evidence to be sure that the feasting observed was part of a Yahwistic cult, but he argues that the archaeological findings "exhibit a high degree of correspondence with those of Yahwistic cult feasts described in the priestly materials in the Hebrew Bible." An example of this is the presence of right-side portions in areas surmised to have been used by the priests (e.g., Lev 7:32-33). Yahwistic names stamped on jar handles from the period add some support here. When the book attempts to describe the cultic milieu thickly, including socioreligious changes over time, one wishes for a larger data set, but the book will be of interest to any scholar of Israelite religion.
From cult to community: The two halves of Leviticus
Verbum et Ecclesia
Traditionally in Old Testament redactional criticism, a distinction is made between the first half of Leviticus (usually Lv 1-16) and the second half (Lv 17-26). In historical-critical jargon, the first half is usually regarded as part of the Priestly texts (P) and the second is called H by some, after the Holiness Code. Some have argued that Leviticus 1-16 is mostly concerned with what we would call rituals, whereas the second half (or H) is concerned with 'ethics', amongst other things. The article attempted to explore the relation between rituals and ethics by first asking what Old Testament critics seem to mean when they use terms such as 'ritual' and 'ethics'. The article then critically engaged with two different hypotheses which attempt to explain the ethical turn in the Book of Leviticus. 1.See Wellhausen's comment in Jüngling (1999:29) or Otto (1999:132). 2.By the 'Kaufmann School', I refer to scholars who argue that the Priestly texts are pre-exilic. See Meyer (2010) for an overview and critical discussion, or especially the debate between Milgrom (1999) and Blenkinsopp (1996). 3.See Milgrom (2004:215-219). Milgrom's heading for this discussion is 'H and ethics'. For Milgrom (2004:215), the 'bonding of ethics and ritual' is not unique to Israel, but is often found in Mesopotamia and even Egypt. What one finds in the Holiness Code (H) though 'is the subsumption of rituals and ethics under the rubric of holiness' (italics in original). This combination is only found in Israel and, specifically, in H. 4.See Knohl (1995:175-180). Knohl's heading is 'morality and the cult' and he basically refers to all the examples used by Milgrom. For Knohl, 'morality' thus becomes a synonym for Milgrom's 'ethics'. 5.The term 'ritual' is, of course, a highly problematic term and notoriously difficult to define. Some biblical critics, such as Wright (2001:13) and Bibb (2009:53), would follow Catherine Bell (1992) in her use of the broader concept of ritualisation. For Wright (2001:13), the 'contrast between ritualization and normal activity' becomes important in this approach. I will not venture into this debate here, but rather focus on the content of the two halves of Leviticus and the problem of relating the two to each other.
Winner – 2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. Reviewed in: Vetus Testamentum, 72, no. 2 (2022): 348–350. https://brill.com/view/journals/vt/72/2/article-p348\_13.xml Review of Biblical Literature (05/2022): https://www.sblcentral.org/API/Reviews/13524\_72038.pdf Review of Biblical Literature (03/2022): https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/13524 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 45, no. 5 (Book List 2021) : https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1177/030908922110017 Rivista Biblica Italiana 69, no. 2 (2021), 277–82 https://www.academia.edu/77359238/Recensioni\_03\_Bianchi\_J\_Rhyder\_Centralizing\_the\_Cult\_The\_Holiness\_Legislation\_in\_Leviticus\_17\_26\_FAT\_134\_Mohr\_Siebeck\_T%C3%BCbingen\_2019\_ Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 83, no. 1 (2021): 131–33. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/781558 Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 133, no. 2 (2021): 288–89. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1515/zaw-2021-2007 AJS Review, 44, no. 2 (2020): 414–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009420000148 Old Testament Abstracts, 43 (2020): 885–86. Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtgeschichte 26 (2020): 321–24. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.13173/zeitaltobiblrech.26.2020.0321 This work provides new insights into the relationship between the Holiness legislation in Leviticus 17–26 and processes of cultic centralization in the Persian period. The author departs from the classical theory that Leviticus 17–26 merely presume, with minor modifications, a concept of centralization articulated in Deuteronomy. She shows how Leviticus 17–26 use ritual legislation to make a new, and distinctive case as to why the Israelites must defer to a central sanctuary, standardized ritual processes, and a hegemonic priesthood. This discourse of centralization reflects the historical challenges that faced priests in Jerusalem during the Persian era: in particular, the need to compensate for the loss of a royal sponsor, to pool communal resources in order to meet socio-economic pressures, and to find new means of negotiating with the sanctuary at Mount Gerizim and with a growing diaspora. https://books.google.ch/books?id=h\_u1DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs\_ge\_summary\_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false