Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26. FAT 134. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. (original) (raw)

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