A Significant Other: Moab as Symbol in Biblical Literature Público
Fitz, Erika Joan (2012)
Abstract
The Bible's attitudes toward Moabites are more varied than those expressed toward any other group. By studying biblical portrayals of Moab, this study aims to describe 1) how biblical authors imagine encounters with foreignness, 2) how texts about foreigners construct in-group identity, and 3) what historical processes shaped the features specifically associated with Moab.
A historical survey (Chapter 1) suggests that Moab was weaker, smaller, and later to develop than Israel--a picture diametrically opposed to that presented by biblical texts. It also seems likely that no significant contingent of Moabites existed in Yehud by the time of Nehemiah. I conclude that the Moabites mentioned in Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 13 are purely literary references: they invoke Deut 23:4-7 to argue that "the peoples of the lands" are symbolically Moabite and subject to this law.
Literary analysis suggests that portrayals of Moab fall into two categories. Chapter 2 analyzes "State texts" in which Moab and Israel meet as political or military entities. I argue that these are modeled on competitive male-male contests in honor-shame societies. Outcomes establish hierarchical rank, which authors interpret in theological terms. Notions of cultural influence are absent from State Texts and in fact, confrontations reify group boundaries. By contrast, the "People texts" analyzed in Chapters 3 and 4 contemplate incorporation of Moabites into Israel/Judah. I argue that these texts imagine group encounters on analogy with male-female relationships in honor-shame cultures. These stories feature female characters, situations of sex and/or intermarriage, and language about impurity and female sexual promiscuity. Most People texts portray encounters with Moabites as threatening (Chapter 3), but some argue that foreigners can be incorporated to strengthen Israel (Chapter 4).
Though both kinds of texts have pre-exilic roots, I conclude that the People texts strongly reflect post-exilic contexts. Using early Moab traditions such as tainted ancestry, hostile relations, and the law of exclusion, golah writers retell the stories using Moab as a cipher for contemporary opponents, especially Samarians. I thus conclude that some "Moab" texts reflect Persian- or Hellenistic-era conflicts with closely-related groups rather than with actual Moabites.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.. 1
ORGANIZATION.. 3
Historical Survey: Chapter 1. 3
Literary Analysis: Chapters 2, 3, and 4. 6
CHAPTER 1: THE MOAB OF HISTORY.. 14
Introduction. 14
What and Where is Moab?. 15
When Does Moab Begin to Exist?. 21
If Not a State, Then What?. 33
Transition to the Iron Age and a Tribal Paradigm of Socio-Political Organization. 33
Implications of the Emergence Pattern. 50
State Formation in Israel and Moab: Who Gets There First?. 55
Mesha as the Beginning of Statehood in Moab. 58
Moab after Mesha: The Assyrian Period. 64
The Babylonian and Persian Periods and the End of Moab. 71
Characterizing the Relationship between Moab, Israel and Judah. 78
A Proposal about Composition Dates 83
Conclusion: The Other and the Self 84
CHAPTER 2: MOAB AS STATE
Introduction. 86
Features of State Texts 87
Honor-Shame Dynamics in State Conceptions of Others 88
Why Men?. 96
Part I: Moab Defeated: Token of Israelite Status and Divine Favor 101
2 SAMUEL 8:2, 12 // 1 CHRONICLES 18:2, 11. 102
PSALMS 60 and 108. 106
2 KINGS 3. 110
Moab's Role as State in 2 Kings 3. 114
Moab's Meaning in 2 Kings 3. 115
Part II: Moab as Rival: Rhetorical Contests for Public Image. 118
ISAIAH 15-16. 118
Moab as State in Isaiah 15-16. 119
Critical Issues and Rhetoric in Isaiah 15-16. 122
Rhetoric of Shame in Isaiah 15-16. 130
JEREMIAH 48. 140
Critical issues in Jeremiah 48. 142
Moab as State in Jeremiah 48. 145
Rhetoric of Shame in Jeremiah 48. 147
Moab in the OAN.. 154
Part III: Moab as Oppressor:
Bogeyman and Buffoon. 156
JUDGES 3:12-30. 158
Moab as State in Judges 3. 161
Rhetoric in Judges 3: 163
Humiliating Moab and Valorizing Israel 163
NUMBERS 22-24. 171
Moab as State in Numbers 22-24. 176
The Image of Moab in Numbers 22-24. 177
MOAB AS STATE: CONCLUSIONS. 187
CHAPTER 3: MOAB AS PEOPLE, PART 1:
A THREAT TO INTEGRITY AND PURITY.. 193
Introduction. 193
Identity Construction: From State to ethnos 194
The Yehudian Context 195
Features of People Texts 212
Why Women?. 214
DEUTERONOMY 23:4-7 [3-6] 226
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH .. 232
Critical Issues 232
NEHEMIAH 13:1-3: Redefining "Moabite". 233
NEHEMIAH 13:23-27: Applying Deuteronomy 23 to Intermarriage. 238
EZRA 9-10. 241
Ezra 9-10 as a People Text 242
The Rhetoric of Crisis 243
Creating New Moabites 245
Why Women?. 255
GENESIS 19. 259
Genesis 19 as a People Text 261
Feminizing Moab. 261
NUMBERS 25: THE SIN OF BAAL PEOR. 266
Gendering Cultural Domination and the Response. 274
Women as Boundary Markers 276
Assimilation as Apostasy. 277
Letting the Wrong One In: The Foreign Wife as Invader 278
Numbers 25: Conclusion. 279
MOAB AS PEOPLE (PART 1): CONCLUSIONS. 280
CHAPTER 4: MOAB AS PEOPLE, PART 2:
BUILDING UP THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. 287
CHRONICLES. 287
Intermarriage in Chronicles: 1 Chr 4:22; 8:8, 2 Chr 24:26. 290
Foreign Men Within Israel 295
Conclusions 297
RUTH.. 298
Date, Function and Relationship to Other "People" Texts 299
Ruth as People Text 306
Rhetorical Strategies 307
Conclusions 335
MOAB AS PEOPLE (PART 2): CONCLUSIONS. 339
CONCLUSION.. 341
Moab Texts and History: Gleanings 341
Moab in Rhetoric: Contours 345
BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 351
.. 351
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