The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible

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The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Chapter 1:  Introduction
	Bibliography
Part I: Historical Contexts
	Chapter 2: Mesopotamian Religion
		The Basis of Mesopotamian Religiosity
		The Mesopotamian pantheon
		Magical Cult (Cult of the Individual)
			Personal God
			Demons
			Ghosts
			Witches
			Manual and Oral Rites
			Death and the Netherworld
		The Epic of Gilgamesh
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 3: Ritual and Worship in Ancient Egypt
		Characteristics of Egyptian Religion
		The Egyptian Pantheon
		Ritual and Worship
		The Hierarchy of Offering Rituals
		Creating a Sacred Space
		Development of Rituals of the Funerary Cult
		Worshipping the Gods and the King
		Rituals Associated with the Divine Cult
		Festivals and Rituals for the Deities
		Social and Economic Impact of Worship
		Informal Worship
		Conclusion
		Note
		Bibliography
	Chapter 4: The Hittites Serve Their Gods
		The Hittite Archives
		The Sources
		The Beneficiaries
		The Officiants
		The Ceremonies
		Occasion
		Time of Day
		Location
		The Offering
		Materials
		Types
		Vocabulary
		Substitute or "Scapegoat" Rituals
		Abbreviations
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 5: Syria-Palestine: Worship and Ritual
		1. General Setting
		2. Ugarit (Ras Shamra)
			2.1 Discovery
			2.2 Perceived Importance for Biblical Study
			2.3 Who Were the Canaanites?
			2.4 Was Ugarit a Canaanite City?
			2.5 The City, Temples, and Sanctuaries
				2.5.1 The Temple of Baal
					2.5.1.1 Baal’s Temple as Representing Saphon?
					2.5.1.2 Yahweh and Saphon
					2.5.1.3 Saphon, the Home of El and All the Gods?
				2.5.2 A Temple of Dagan (or El?)
				2.5.3 The High Priest’s House
					2.5.3.1 High Priests
				2.5.4 The “Rhyton” Temple and Other Sanctuaries
			2.6 Tombs
			2.7 Personal Piety
		3. Texts: Mythical
			3.1 Use in Worship?
				3.1.1.The Gracious Gods (KTU 1.23)
		4. Texts: Legends or Epics
			4.1 The Role and Status of the King
		5. Texts: Cultic and Ritual
			5.1. The Variety of Types of Cultic and Ritual Texts
				5.1.1 Sacrifice Lists
					5.1.1.1 Sacrificial Terminology
				5.1.2 The “Pantheon Lists”
				5.1.3 An Atonement Ritual?
				5.1.4 Divination
				5.1.5 Oaths, Incantations, and Prayers
				5.1.6 Palace Rituals: Funerary and Non-funerary
				5.1.7 “Magic”
		6. Conclusion
		Bibliography
	Chapter 6: The Greeks and Their Rituals
		Introduction
		What Is Ritual for the Greeks?
		Myth and Ritual
		The Wealth of Sacrifice
		Chorus and Community
		The Joy of Festivals
		Processions
		Dedications
		Individual and Community
		Abbreviations
		Bibliography
Part II: Interpretive Approaches
	Chapter 7: History of Religion
		The Discipline of History of Religions
		Study of the History of Israelite Religion
			Up to World War I
			Study of Israelite Religion from World War I to about 1970
			Developments in the Past Half a Century
		Historical Outline of Israelite Religion
			Sacred and Profane, Pure and Impure
			Objects of Worship (Deities, the Divine World)
			Cult Images
			Developments toward Monotheism
			Worship Places (Sacred Space)
			Cultic Personnel and Religious Specialists
			Sacred Time (Holy Days and Festivals)
			Worship Ritual (Sacrificial System)
			Law and Ethics
		Conclusions
		Bibliography
	Chapter 8: Rituals and Ritual Theory: A Methodological Essay
		Preliminary Methodological Considerations
		Rituals of Washing, Bathing, and Full Immersion
		Rituals and Theology
		Christian Baptism and Its Scriptural Background
		Repentance, Baptism, and Atonement
		The Ritual of Baptism in the Early Church
		Artistic and Linguistic Domains of Rituals
		Further Developments of the Ritual of Baptism
		Note
		Bibliography
	Chapter 9: Social and Cultural Anthropology
		Introduction
		Anthropology and the Hebrew Bible
		Anthropology and Ritual Theory
		Defining and Theorizing Ritual
		Ritual and Representation
		Biblical Ritual as Symbolic Action
		Critiques of Symbolic Interpretation
		Ethnography of Textual Ritual
		Conclusion
		Notes
		Bibliography
Part III: Ritual Elements: Participants, Places, Times, Objects, Practices
	Chapter 10: God, Gods, and Humankind (Worldview)
		1. Introduction
		2. What Is a God?
			A Comparative View on Ancient Religions
				Mesopotamia
				Egypt
				Syria (Ugarit)
				Hittite
				Greece
				Phoenicia
			Gods: A Working Definition
			The God YHWH in the Light of the Working Definition
		3. Concepts for Understanding the Communication with the Divine
			Personal Gods as Presupposition for the Cultic Communication
			Basic Models for the Cultic Encounters between Gods and Men
				Places of Worship: The Symbolism of “Thresholds”
				2 The Daily Temple Service: Courtly Rules, Gifts, and Meals
					Mesopotamia
					Egypt
					Sacrifice as a Gift and a Feast: Mutual Hospitality
					Israel
		4. Summary
		Bibliography
	Chapter 11: Sacred Space and Common Space
		Sacred and Common Space in the Ancient Near East
			The Temple
			The Cult Image
			Divine Service
			Other Sacred Spaces
		Sacred Spaces in the Hebrew Bible
		The Tabernacle
		Spatial Hierarchy and Access
		Function
		Dedication and Service
		The Temple
		Other Sacred Spaces
		The Biblical Assessment of Sacred Spaces
		Sacred Spaces after the Temple
		Bibliograpy
	Chapter 12: Ritual Experts and Participants in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible
		Ritual Experts and Participants in the Ancient Near East
			Mesopotamia
			Mari (Euphrates)
			Hittite Anatolia
			Ancient Egypt
		Ritual Experts in the Bible (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament)
			Priests
			Levites
			Cult Prophets
			The King
		Cult Participants (“Lay People”) in the Hebrew Bible
			The Offering Person
			Women
			Children
			Foreigners/Non-Israelites
		Historical Development in the Levant within the First Millennium BCE
			Before and During the First Temple Period
			The Exile
			The Second Temple Period
			The Development of the Office of the High Priest
			Summary
			Bibliography
	Chapter 13: Sacred and Ritual Times
		I. Introduction
		II. Mircea Eliade and Sacred Time
		III. Sacred Times of the Year
		IV. Conclusions
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 14: Ritual Objects and Artifacts
		Introduction
		Cult Statues
		The Ark
		The Altar of Burnt Offering
		Altar of Incense and Censers
		The Lampstand and the Table of the Bread of the Presence
		Wash Basins and the Molten Sea
		The Ephod and Urim and Thummim
		Illicit Ritual Objects
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	Chapter 15: Ritual and Religious Practices
		1 Background to Ancient Near Eastern Religious Practices
		2 Prayer
		3 Sacrificial Rituals
			3.1 Voluntary Gifts
				3.1.1 Burnt Offering
				3.1.2 Sacrifice Shared with Offerer(s)
				3.1.3 Grain Offering
			3.2 Required
				3.2.1 Regular Care of Deities
				3.2.2 Festivals
				3.2.3 Required Homage and Praise
				3.2.4 Votive Payment
				3.2.5 Restoration of the Divine-Human Relationship
		4. Non-Sacrificial Ritual Activities
			4.1 Purification and Elimination
			4.2 Performance, Procession, and Lifestyle
			4.3 Ritual Speech and Reciting/Reading Sacred Texts
			4.4 Divination and Magic
		5 Ritual Gestures
		6. Conclusion
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 16: Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts
		Iconic Books
		Ancient Iconic Texts
		Iconic Texts in the Pentateuch
		Ritualizing Torah Scrolls
		Ritualizing Other Jewish Texts
		Legitimation from Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts
		Iconic Jewish Texts
		Bibliography
	Chapter 17: Ritualizing Christian Iconic Texts
		The Theology of the Early Christian Book
		The Technology of the Early Christian Book
		Early Christian Book Rituals
		Bibles and Icons as Ritual Objects during the Iconoclastic Controversies
		Ritualizing Relic Books in the British Isles in the Middle Ages
		The Reformation and the Ritual Display of Christian Iconic Texts
		Christian Iconic Texts as American Political Images
		Ritualizing Christian Iconic Texts in a Digital Age
		Bibliography
	Chapter 18: Ritualizing Muslim Iconic Texts
		Iconicity and the Qur’an
		Conceptual Blending and Psychological Essentialism
			Conceptual Blending
			Psychological Essentialism
		Respecting, Protecting, and Desecrating
		Essentialism Modified
		Kinship and Appearance
		The Importance of Language
		The Iconic Dimension of the Qur’an and Social Prestige
		The Power of the Text
		Concluding Remarks
		Notes
		Bibliography
Part IV: Cultural and Theological Perspectives
	Chapter 19: Sin and Expiation
		Responses to Sin
		The Worldview behind Priestly Concepts of Sacrifice and Expiation
		The Priestly Presentation of Sacrifice and Expiation
		Note
		Bibliography
	Chapter 20: Clean/Unclean, Pure/Impure, Holy/Profane
		Introduction
		Vocabulary
		Range of Settings for Clean/Unclean
		Understanding the Purity System
		Dating and Development of the Purity System and Purification Practices
		Bibliography
	Chapter 21: Sickness and Healing
		Methodological Difficulties
		Definitions of Sickness and Healing
		Vocabulary of Sickness in the Hebrew Bible
		Concepts of Sickness and Healing in the Hebrew Bible
		Epidemic versus Individual Sickness
		Treatment for Afflicted Individuals
		Women’s Diseases
		Summary
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 22: Death and Afterlife
		Introductory Remarks
		Sheol: Experienced Space—Spaced Experience
		Death’s Irreversibility
		Death: Reuniting with Family Lost
		Netherworld as Consummation
		Death’s Double “Indemnity”
		The Nature of Deathly Existence
		Hebrew ʾÔb: Beyond the Necromantic Rite in 1 Samuel 28
			First Things First: Identifying a Ghost
			The Forgotten: Neglected, Yet Sentient
		Ritual Agency: Human or Divine
			The ʾÔb: Revenant or Ritualist?
			About Those Other Deities
			Is It a Yahwistic Ritual?
			Is It a Ritual Invoking Canaanite Gods?
			What of YHWH’s Unexpected Intervention?
		1 Samuel 28 in the Major Versions
			Some Preliminary Remarks
			The “Ascending Gods” of v.13 in the Ancient Versions
			Who or What Appears
			Final Observations: Nepheš (“Life”), Rûach (“Spirit”), Šeol (“Sheol”) in Absentia
		Summary
		Bibliography
	Chapter 23: Divine Presence and Absence
		Introduction
		How to Describe Divine Presence
		How to Describe Divine Absence
		Manifestations of YHWH’s Presence: Standing Stones, Ark, Throne, Temple, and Calves
		Manifestations of Divine Presence: The Question of Divine Images
	Reworking Traditional Presence Theologies in and after the Babylonian Exile
		The Name of God (šēm)
		The “Glory” (kābôd)
		The Shekhinah
		The Holy Spirit (Rûaḥ)
		Heaven
		Post-exilic Transfers and Re-materializations of Divine Presence
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
Part V: History of Interpretation
	Chapter 24: Ritual and Worship at Qumran
		Introduction
		Materials for Study
		Temple, Sacrifice, and Priesthood
		Prayers and Psalms
			(a) Fixed Prayers for Set Times
			(b) The Hodayot
		Liturgies and Rituals
		Directions for Further Study
		Bibliograpy
	Chapter 25: Influence on Early Christian Worship
		Priesthood
		The Offering of Sacrifice
		. . . in All Places
		. . . and at All Times
		Eucharist as Sacrifice
		Ritual Gestures
			Prayer Posture
			Imposition of Hands
		Psalms
		Sabbath
		Holy Days
		Conclusion
		Bibliography
	Chapter 26: Ritual and Worship in Early Judaism
		The Jewish Body: Individual Ritual and Liturgical Practices
			Circumcision
			Sabbaths as a Temporal Sanctuary
			Popular Practices and Rituals
			Daily Prayer
		The Liturgical Body: The Community and the Temple
		Ritual Innovation: The Rise of Scripture and the Ritualization of Torah
			Ritual Innovation within the Qumran Yaḥad
			Ritual Innovation through the Confession of Baruch
		Suggested Reading
		Bibliograph
	Chapter 27: Rabbinic Judaism
		Questions
		Temple
		Formulas
		Ma’amad
		Temple Rejection
		Synagogue
		Personal Prayers
		Liturgical Notions
		Theological Priorities
		Pietism
		Scriptural Readings
		Rabbinic Prayers
			Shemaʿ
		‘Amidah
			Birkat ha-mazon
		Other Prayers
		Passover Haggadah
		Synagogal Expansion
		Land of Israel
		Liturgical Poetry
		Hekhalot
		Midrash
		Babylonian Innovations
		Reasons
		First siddurim
		Bigliography
Part VI: Social-Cultural Functions
	Chapter 28: The Politics of Worship
		Introduction
		1. National Religion and Centralization
		2. The Nature of Political Rituals
			Constructing Relationships of Power
			Expressing Belonging
			Organizational Distinctiveness
			Relating the Local to the National
			Investing and Divesting Power
			Communication
		3. The Politics of the Domestic Cult
		4. Between the Family and the Nation
		5. Kingship and Cult
			The Ideology of Kingship Developed in Judah Addressed All Three of These Concerns
		6. Sacrifice and Its Substitutes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 29: The Ethics of Worship
		Worship and the Moral Life
		Ethical Aspects of God’s Character
		The Essence of Acceptable Worship
		Liturgical Celebration of Israel’s Past
		The Prophetic Critique of Worship
		Problematic Aspects of Israel’s Worship
		Conclusion
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 30: Socio-Religious Functions of Worship
		The Constructive Social Effects of Israelite Worship: Four Examples
		Failure, Misappropriation, and Conflict in the History of Israel’s Worship
		Hermeneutical Challenges in Studying Israel’s Worship and Its Social Functions
		Worship and Prophecy: Tension and Cooperation
		Worship, Social Ethics, and the Inculcation of Virtue
		The Varied Group Provenances of Scripture’s Understandings of Worship
		Bibliography
	Chapter 31: The Economics of Worship in Ancient Israel and Judah
		1. Introduction
		2. Temples as Hubs of Economic Activity in the Ancient Near East
		3. Temples as Places of Economic Activity in Israel and Pre-exilic Judah
			3.1 Temple and Palace Economies, Landownership, and the Development of Israel and Judah
			3.2 The “Materiality” of the Sacrificial Cult
			3.3 The Collection of Tithes
	3.4 Metallurgy, the Genesis of Money, and the Economics of the Jerusalem Temple
			3.5 Standardization of Payments and Normativity in Cultic Practice
		4. The Transformation of the Economics of Worship from the Late Pre-exilic Period Onwards
		5. The Jerusalem Temple as a Place of Economic Activity in Yehud and Judaea
			5.1 The Collection of Tithes
			5.2 Collection of Achaemenid State Taxes
			5.3 Pilgrimage Festivals
			5.4 The Temple Foundry and the Production of Coinage in the Persian Period
			5.5 The Economics of Worship in Hellenistic and Roman Judaea
		Notes
		Bibliography
Part VII: Theology and Theological Heritage
	Chapter 32: Ritual Theology in/and Biblical Theology
		1. Introduction
		2. Ritual as an Integral Part of Human Existence
		3. Ritual as a Vehicle for Complex Concepts
		4. Ritual as a Medium of Worship
		5. Ritual and Biblical Theology
			5.1. Texts and Theology: Where Do They Converge?
			5.2. How Can One Get from Ritual Activity to Biblical Theology?
			5.3. Connecting Testaments and Engendering Innovation
			5.4. Ritual Beyond History: The Transcending Power of Ritual and Community
		6. Conclusion
		Bibliography
	Chapter 33: Welcoming the Sabbath on the Kibbutzim: Secular Religiosity
		A. The Kibbutz and Judaism
		B. Sabbath on the Kibbutz
		C. The Kibbutz Kabbalat Shabbat
			C1. The Early Years: Spontaneity and Longing
			C2. Kabbalat Shabbat: From the Education System to the Dining Hall
			C3. The Consolidation of the Kibbutz Kabbalat Shabbat
			C4. Shaping Friday Night on the Kibbutz
			C5. Disagreements and Challenges Relating to the Kabbalat Shabbat Ceremonies
			C6. Lighting the Sabbath Candles
			C7. Changes Following the Privatization of the Kibbutzim: The End of the Classic Kabbalat Shabbat Ceremony
		D. Conclusion
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Chapter 34: One God, Multiple Rituals and Theologies: Christianity
		Introduction
		Prayers, Songs, and Psalms
		The Eucharist
			Roman Catholic Church
			Lutheran
			Presbyterian
			Anglican Tradition
			Greek Orthodox
		Baptism
		Offerings
		Priesthood
		Selected Features of Ash Wednesday and Holy Week Liturgies
			Ash Wednesday
			Palm Sunday
			Great Vigil of Easter
		Ritual Theory and Use of Hebrew Bible Worship
		Liturgies and Catechisms
		Bibliography
	Chapter 35: Islamic Ritual
		1. The Five Pillars and other Building Blocks of Islamic Ritual
		2. Ritual Variations
			Shi’i Differences in Ritual
			Interior and Esoteric Interpretations of Muslim Ritual
			“Folk” Ritual Practices
			Rationalist Approaches to Ritual
			Reformist Approaches to Ritual
		3. Religious-Social Dimensions of Islamic Ritual: Internal and External Boundaries
		4. Scholarly Discussions of Islamic Ritual and Future Directions for the Study of Islamic Ritual
		Note
		Bibliography
		Additional Bibliography
Index