The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible

229 Pages·2000·1.82 MB·English

by  Ilana Pardes

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t h e b i o g r a p h y o f
Ancient Israel
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Contraversions
Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society
Daniel Boyarin and Chana Kronfeld, General Editors
1. A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity,by Daniel Boyarin
2. On the Margins of Modernism: Decentering Literary Dynamics,
by Chana Kronfeld
3. Crossing the Jabbok: Illness and Death in Ashkenazi Judaism
in Sixteenth- through Nineteenth-Century Prague,
by Sylvie-Anne Goldberg, translated by Carol Cosman
4. Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History,
by Michael André Bernstein
5. Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba’al Shem Tov,
by Moshe Rosman
6. Conversations with Dvora: An Experimental Biography
of the First Modern Hebrew Woman Writer,
by Amia Lieblich, translated by Naomi Seidman
7. A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew
and Yiddish,by Naomi Seidman
8. Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention
of the Jewish Man,by Daniel Boyarin
9. Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender, and History,
by Miriam Peskowitz
10. Black Fire on White Fire: An Essay on Jewish Hermeneutics,
from Midrash to Kabbalah,by Betty Rojtman, translated
by Steven Rendall
11. The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics,
and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora,by Joel Beinin
12. Booking Passage: Exile and Homecoming in the Modern
Jewish Imagination,by Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi
13. The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia,
by Hagar Salamon
14. The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible,
by Ilana Pardes
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t h e b i o g r a p h y o f
Ancient Israel
national narratives in the bible
Ilana Pardes
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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The publisher gratefully acknowledges
the generous contributions to this book
from the David B. Gold Foundation,
the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation,
and the Skirball Foundation.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2000 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pardes, Ilana.
The biography of ancient Israel: national narratives in
the Bible / Ilana Pardes.
p. cm. — (Contraversions ; 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-21110-3 (alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T. Pentateuch—Historiography. 2. Bible
as literature. 3. Bible. O.T. Pentateuch—History of Bib-
lical events. 4. Jewish nationalism. I. Title. II. Series.
bs1225.5.p37 2000
296.3(cid:2)1172—dc21 99-27865
cip
Manufactured in the United States of America
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997)
(Permanence of Paper). (cid:2)(cid:3)
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In memory of my father, Don Patinkin,
and for my son, Eyal
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
ix
1. Introduction: Split Conception
1
2. Imagining the Birth of a Nation
16
3. Suckling in the Wilderness: The Absent Mother
40
4. At the Foot of Mount Sinai:
National Rites of Initiation
65
5. The Spies in the Land of the Giants: Restless Youth
100
6. Crossing the Threshold: In the Plains of Moab
127
7. Epilogue: Mount Nebo
154