War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible

Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Wellhausen, War, and the Creation of a Nation
	Defeat and the Birth of a New Religious Identity
	Nation and State
	From the Priestly Source to Ezra-Nehemiah
	War Commemoration
	Purpose and Plan of the Present Book
Part I Refugee Memories: Negotiating Relations and Borders with Neighboring States
	1 Passages to Peace
		Passage Denied
		Moses’s Conflicting Memory
		Commemoration and Legislation
		David in the Wilderness
		War Memories as Casus Belli
		Permits of Passage in an Age of Empires
	2 Edom as Israel’s Other
		Israel’s First Homecoming
		Memories of Edomite Aggression
		The Politics of Scapegoating
		Judean Irredentism
		Implications for the Documentary Hypothesis
		Contesting Memories
Part II Kinship and Commandment: The Transjordanian Tribes and the Conquest of Canaan
	3 Mapping the Promised Land
		The Jordan as the Nation’s Border
		The Wadi Arnon in Deuteronomy
		The Transjordan in Joshua
		Contested Territory
	4 The Nation’s Transjordanian Vanguard
		The Narrative of Numbers
		Composition of Numbers 32
		The Shifting Contexts of the Account
		Tribes Before Kings
		The Nation’s Avant-Garde
		Kinship and Command
		Performing Peoplehood
	5 A Nation Beyond Its Borders
		Moses’s Memory in Deuteronomy
		Affirming Allegiance in Joshua
		The Division of the Land
		Honoring Wartime Service
		From Celebration to Crisis
		Nation Versus Territory
		One Yhwh, One Israel
	6 Kinship, Law, and Narrative
		From State Diplomacy to National Belonging
		Constitutional Patriotism
		How Does a Text Become Sacred?
		A Normative Past
Part III Rahab: An Archetypal Outsider
	7 Between Faith and Works
		Three Early Christian Interpreters
		First Epistle of Clement
		Letter to the Hebrews
		The Epistle of James
		Christians as Readers of the Jewish Scriptures
		Josephus
		Rahab and the Rabbis
		Conversion and Naturalization
		The Repentant Rahab
		From Rahab to Paul
	8 The Composition of the Rahab Story
		The Rahab Story as a Narrative Frame
		The Place of the Rahab Story in the Narrative
		A City Besieged
		Edification of a Defeated Nation
		Belief and Action
		A New Covenant
		Inclusion Versus Integration
	9 Rahab’s Courage and the Gibeonites’ Cowardice
		Archeological and Biblical Evidence
		Relationship to Jerusalem’s Temple
		From Joshua to Saul
		An Early Memory of Joshua
		The Composition of Joshua 9
		From Saul to David
		Rizpah’s Heroism
		The Gibeonites, Rahab, and Biblical War Commemoration
Part IV Deborah: Mother of a Voluntary Nation
	10 A Prophet and Her General
		The Book of Judges as a Bridge
		An Older Source?
		Deborah and Gideon
		The Jael Episode
		Deconstructing Male Power
		Martial Valor and Monarchic Rule
	11 A Poetic War Monument
		Between Prose and Poetry
		Repurposing an Older Hymn
		A National God and Israel’s Unity
		Religious Unity and American National Identity
	12 A National Anthem for the North
		Mobilizing the Nation’s Members
		Censure of Transjordanian Communities
		Judah’s Absence
		The Curse of Meroz
		Meroz and the American War of Independence
		A Nation Without a King
	13 Women and War Commemoration
		Mothers of Soldiers
		Political Performances
		Between Bed and Battlefield
		Memory as a Moral Imperative
	14 Jael’s Identities
		The Kenites’ Solidarity with Israel
		The Kenites on the Biblical Landscape
		From Saul to Moses
		Fellow Travelers
		Devotion to a Deity
		Jael as a Kenite and a Jew
Conclusions: A Movable Monument and a Portable Homeland
	Fighting for the King: War Commemoration in the Ancient Near East
	Saving Holy Hellas: War Commemoration in the East Aegean World
	From Athens to Jerusalem
	Back to Wellhausen and the Nation
	Law, Narrative, and Kinship
Bibliography
Index of Authors’ Names
Index of Biblical References
Index of Literary References
Index of Subjects