Controlling Corporeality
Controlling Corporeality
The Body and the Household in Ancient Israel
Human bodily existence is at the core of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures—from birth to death. From God’s creation of Adam out of clay, to the narratives of priests and kings whose regulations governed bodily practices, the Hebrew Bible focuses on the human body. Moreover, ancient Israel’s understanding of the human body has greatly influenced both Judaism and Christianity. Despite this pervasive influence, ancient Israel’s view of the human body has rarely been studied and, until now, has been poorly understood.
In this beautifully written book, Jon L. Berquist guides the reader through the Hebrew Bible, examining ancient Israel’s ideas of the body, the unstable roles of gender, the deployment of sexuality, and the cultural practices of the time. Conducting his analysis with reference to contemporary theories of the body, power, and social control, Berquist offers not only a description and clarification of ancient Israelite views of the body, but also an analysis of how these views belong to the complex logic of ancient social meanings. When this logic is understood, the familiar Bible becomes strange and opens itself to a wide range of new interpretations.
This book is a significant contribution to contemporary Christian theology.
Jon Berquist's thesis is strikingly original and a significant contribution to the field. He sifts carefully through an impressive range of materials so that the ubiquity of the social system emerges with clarity and force. Hence, the reader is provided with an inner logic to ancient social meanings.
Using the human body as the lens for his examination, Berquist has uncovered some very interesting characteristics of ancient Israelite society. While serious Bible students will find this carefully researched study quite enlightening, it is written in a way that even the nonprofessional will find interesting.
Introduction
1. The Whole Body: Israelite Perceptions of Corporeal Existence
2. Sexuality and Fertility: Constructing the Household of the Body
3. Boundaries of the Body: Sexuality outside the Household
4. The Stages of the Body: Constructions of the Aging Process
5. Foreign Bodies: Reactions against the Stranger
6. The Body of the Temple: Priests and the Religious Regulation of the Body
7. Intercourse with the World: Hellenism and the Incorporation of Judaism
Notes
References
Subject Index
Index of Biblical Citations
