War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible

298 Pages·2020·5.783 MB·English

by  Jacob L. Wright

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War,Memory,andNationalIdentityintheHebrewBible
TheHebrewBibleispermeatedwithdepictionsofmilitaryconflictsthat
haveprofoundlyshapedthewaymanythinkaboutwar.Whydoeswar
occupy so much space in the Bible? In this book, Jacob Wright offers
afreshandfascinatingresponsetothisquestion:WarpervadestheBible
not because ancient Israel was governed by religious factors (such as
“holy war”) or because this people, along with its neighbors in the
ancient Near East, was especially bellicose. The reason is rather that
the Bible is fundamentally a project of constructing a new national
identity for Israel, one that can both transcend deep divisions within
the population and withstand military conquest by imperial armies.
Drawing on the intriguing interdisciplinary research on war
commemoration, Wright shows how biblical authors, like the
architects of national identities from more recent times, constructed
their groundbreaking new notion of peoplehood in direct relation to
memoriesofwar,bothrealandimagined.Thisbookisalsoavailableas
OpenAccessonCambridgeCore.
Jacob L. Wright is a professor at Emory University in the Candler
SchoolofTheology.Hewritesonawidearrayoftopics,rangingfrom
material culture to commensality and urbicide. His first book,
Rebuilding Identity (De Gruyter, 2003), won the Templeton Prize,
and his most recent book, David, King of Israel (Cambridge
University Press, 2014), won the Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award.
His free online course (The Bible’s Prehistory, Purpose, and Political
Future) consistently ranks among the top online courses in the
humanities.

War, Memory, and National Identity
in the Hebrew Bible
JACOB L. WRIGHT
EmoryUniversity
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title:War,memory,andnationalidentityintheHebrewBible/JacobL.Wright,Emory
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description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY,USA:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2020.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2020005713|isbn9781108480895(hardback)|isbn9781108691512
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subjects:lcsh:War–Biblicalteaching.|War–Religiousaspects–Judaism.|War–
Religiousaspects–Christianity.|Jews–Identity.|Palestine–IntheBible.|Bible.Old
Testament–Socio-rhetoricalcriticism.|Bible.OldTestament–Criticism,interpretation,etc.|
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Contents
Preface pagexi
Introduction: Wellhausen,War,andtheCreation
ofaNation 1
DefeatandtheBirthofaNewReligiousIdentity 2
NationandState 4
FromthePriestlySourcetoEzra-Nehemiah 8
WarCommemoration 10
PurposeandPlanofthePresentBook 12
part i refugee memories: negotiating relations
and borders with neighboring states
1 PassagestoPeace 19
PassageDenied 20
Moses’sConflictingMemory 25
CommemorationandLegislation 28
DavidintheWilderness 30
WarMemoriesasCasusBelli 32
PermitsofPassageinanAgeofEmpires 35
2 EdomasIsrael’sOther 37
Israel’sFirstHomecoming 37
MemoriesofEdomiteAggression 39
ThePoliticsofScapegoating 41
JudeanIrredentism 43
ImplicationsfortheDocumentaryHypothesis 45
ContestingMemories 46
vii
viii Contents
part ii kinship and commandment: the transjordanian
tribes and the conquest of canaan
3 MappingthePromisedLand 51
TheJordanastheNation’sBorder 51
TheWadiArnoninDeuteronomy 54
TheTransjordaninJoshua 57
ContestedTerritory 59
4 TheNation’sTransjordanianVanguard 62
TheNarrativeofNumbers 62
CompositionofNumbers32 64
TheShiftingContextsoftheAccount 67
TribesBeforeKings 70
TheNation’sAvant-Garde 73
KinshipandCommand 75
PerformingPeoplehood 78
5 ANationBeyondItsBorders 79
Moses’sMemoryinDeuteronomy 80
AffirmingAllegianceinJoshua 82
TheDivisionoftheLand 83
HonoringWartimeService 85
FromCelebrationtoCrisis 87
NationVersusTerritory 89
OneYhwh,OneIsrael 91
6 Kinship,Law,andNarrative 94
FromStateDiplomacytoNationalBelonging 95
ConstitutionalPatriotism 99
HowDoesaTextBecomeSacred? 101
ANormativePast 103
part iii rahab: an archetypal outsider
7 BetweenFaithandWorks 111
ThreeEarlyChristianInterpreters 111
FirstEpistleofClement 113
LettertotheHebrews 115
TheEpistleofJames 116
ChristiansasReadersoftheJewishScriptures 116
Josephus 118
RahabandtheRabbis 120
ConversionandNaturalization 122
TheRepentantRahab 125
FromRahabtoPaul 127