As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is s... more As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is spared by divine intervention and animal substitution. Thus the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter raises questions about the relationships among sexual difference, animal difference, and human sacrifice in the Bible. This article explores such questions in dialogue with the interdisciplinary “animal turn” in the humanities and social sciences. The daughter of Jephthah is one of several women in biblical literature whose fate involves an association with domesticated animals. Attention to both the gendered structure of biblical households and the domestication of “companion species” (Donna Haraway) is crucial for understanding their stories. In addition, Jonathan Klawans’ symbolic theory of sacrifice proposes analogical relations between Israelites and the domesticated animals they cared for, and God and the Israelites who desired God’s care. Perhaps against Klawans’ intentions, his theory ...
This chapter discusses the potential relevance of interdisciplinary animal studies for biblical i... more This chapter discusses the potential relevance of interdisciplinary animal studies for biblical interpretation. The story of Jacob and his family in Genesis 25–32 is examined from the perspective of a “critical animal hermeneutics.” Three features of such a hermeneutics, characteristic of contemporary animal studies, are emphasized: (1) the constitutive importance of “companion species,” emphasized by Donna Haraway, including in Israel’s case goats and sheep; (2) the instability of the human/animal binary, emphasized by Jacques Derrida and other thinkers; and (3) ubiquitous associations between species difference and differences among humans, particularly, in the case of biblical literature, gender and ethnic differences. Each of these features is used to read the story of Jacob and several related biblical texts.
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2019
Psalm 104 is associated with biblical creation theology, but it seldom receives as much attention... more Psalm 104 is associated with biblical creation theology, but it seldom receives as much attention as the book of Genesis. Yet Genesis has been and continues to be used to justify human dominion over other animals, which has contributed to a new era in the earth's history known as the "Anthropocene" epoch. In contrast, Psalm 104 provides an ecological representation of creation that recognizes God's care for animals. Humans appear in the psalm, but only as one creature among others. A focus on Psalm 104 may foster an approach to biblical creation theology that is more attentive to animals and useful as an ecological frame for reading Genesis and other texts.
In ‘Eating Well’, Jacques Derrida uses the terms ‘carnivorous virility’ and ‘carnophallogocentris... more In ‘Eating Well’, Jacques Derrida uses the terms ‘carnivorous virility’ and ‘carnophallogocentrism’ to refer to a ‘schema’ that excludes women and animals from Western subjectivity and ethics. But a reference to homosexuality in ‘Eating Well’ also allows us to locate gay men in this configuration, which provides a framework for a ‘queer hermeneutics of carnophallogocentrism’. Here this hermeneutics shapes a reading of the story of Eglon, the Moabite king in Judges 3 whose name means ‘calf’ or ‘young bull’ and who is killed under dehumanizing circumstances. Eglon’s story can be read in the context of other sets of biblical stories, including other stories in Judges where men are killed in ways that symbolically ‘unman’ or feminize them; other stories that dehumanize the Moabites as the ethnic constitutive other to the Israelites; and other stories in Judges where women are killed in ways that animalize them.
In this original work, Stone studies the structure and social presuppositions of several narrativ... more In this original work, Stone studies the structure and social presuppositions of several narratives from the Deuteronomistic History in which sexual activity plays a significant role. Both narratological and anthropological tools are utilized in the textual analysis. Stone interestingly notes the link between sexual activity, gender and prestige structures; the emphasis on male contest and female chastity discussed by anthropologists of honour and shame; and the role of the exchange of women in relations between men. In each story, sexual practice is primarily related to male struggles for honour and power.
The Hebrew Bible is sometimes understood as the source of a ‘traditional’ Judaeo-Christian approa... more The Hebrew Bible is sometimes understood as the source of a ‘traditional’ Judaeo-Christian approach to marriage and sexual practice. A comprehensive examination reveals, however, that biblical assumptions about sex, gender, and kinship are complex and internally diverse. Some of these assumptions stand in tension with traditional Jewish and Christian norms for marriage and sexual activity. This essay reviews such matters as the biblical vocabulary for, and representations of, marital relations; the status of women in households organized around fathers; the role of polygyny; differing standards for the sexual conduct of husbands, wives, and concubines; intermarriage and inter-ethnic sexual relations; prostitution; the use of sex and marriage within male contests for power and honour; the use of sexual and marital images in representations of Israel’s relationship to God; and the attitudes towards sex and gender found in less frequently read books of the Bible such as the Song of Songs.
(1999). Safer Text: Reading Biblical Laments in the Age of AIDS. Theology & Sexuality: Vol. 1... more (1999). Safer Text: Reading Biblical Laments in the Age of AIDS. Theology & Sexuality: Vol. 1999, No. 10, pp. 16-27.
Abstract Queer readings of the Bible are sometimes understood to be irrelevant for uses of the Bi... more Abstract Queer readings of the Bible are sometimes understood to be irrelevant for uses of the Bible in theology, theological education, and ministry. This address challenges that understanding by considering ways in which portions of the Bible take positions vis-à-vis religious tradition that parallel moves made in queer theory and queer theology. Using the task of preaching as an example, the address suggests that queer readings can be useful for the practice of Christian ministry even as such readings challenge certain ‘common-sense’ conceptions of ministry, theological education, and religious community.
A number of readers have claimed that injunctions against male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible ... more A number of readers have claimed that injunctions against male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible are aimed at cultic prostitution supposedly practiced by non-Israelites. Although several scholars have questioned the historical basis for this claim, less attention has been given to the ideological assumptions that underlie the hermeneutic argument. While cultic prostitutes may or may not have existed, the Hebrew Bible does attempt to link non-Israelite populations to sexual practices that are considered unacceptable by its authors. This attempt is an example of a common rhetorical move whereby the "other" is defined in relation to deviant sexual practice. Ironically, gay readers who rely upon this hermeneutic strategy participate in a process, already begun in the Hebrew Bible and taken further by its readers, in which sexual practice becomes the basis for insult, stereotyping, and condemnation. Since the reliance upon such a common mode ofethnic stereotyping cannot be accepted, gay and gay-affirmative readers need to replace such a "hermeneutics of abomination" with a critical study of the relations between gender ideologies and assumptions about sexual practice that are presupposed by the biblical texts. A f debates about homosexuality continue to take place in religious, political, and social contexts, it is important for thinkers on all sides of the debates to reflect critically on the assumptions that frame the discussion. Toward that end, the present article examines a particular hermeneutic argument that has been deployed by a number of gay-affirmative readers of the Hebrew Bible. Although I raise a number of critical questions about this hermeneutic, my intention is not to attack gay-affirmative readings. O n the contrary, after discussing some of the problems that seem to me to underlie a number of those readings, I return in my conclusions to some brief suggestions about alternative gay-affirmative approaches to biblical interpretation. My focus, however, is on a disturbing hermeneutic practice that has implications far beyond contemporary debates about same-sex relationships. Elements of this hermeneutic practice do appear in some gay-affirmative interpretations ofthe Hebrew Bible, but they can also be found in much biblical scholarship and, indeed, in the biblical texts themselves.
Abstract This article offers a response to Martti Nissinen's important text Homoeroticism in ... more Abstract This article offers a response to Martti Nissinen's important text Homoeroticism in the Biblical World. Although Nissinen's research is historical, his analysis of ancient practices is offered as a contribution to contemporary debates on homosexuality within the Church. A powerful case is made that attitudes towards gender relations in the ancient world were governed by assumptions concerning the proper relations between active, ‘penetrating’, social superiors and passive, ‘penetrated’, inferiors. The disjunction between this worldview and contemporary contexts and concepts is demonstrated, thus problematizing the notion that contemporary practices can be predicated upon ‘biblical’ norms. Despite its significance Nissinen's work cannot be straightforwardly appropriated as a helpful contribution to debate. The very act of constructing a canon of biblical references to homosexuality is problematic. It positions homosexuality once again as the object of research—that which is silent while spoken about. This, in turn, disguises the assumption that there is an unproblematic continuum in heterosexual relations that endures over time and does not require similar interrogation. Heteronormativity is thus actively sustained. There is a need to go beyond even the apparently progressive forms of biblical scholarship currently being pursued by Nissinen and others in order to develop a ‘queer commentary’ on the Bible. This will denaturalize the very concepts male, female and homosexual through which our relations with the text are currently constructed.
As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is s... more As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is spared by divine intervention and animal substitution. Thus the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter raises questions about the relationships among sexual difference, animal difference, and human sacrifice in the Bible. This article explores such questions in dialogue with the interdisciplinary "animal turn" in the humanities and social sciences. The daughter of Jephthah is one of several women in biblical literature whose fate involves an association with domesticated animals. Attention to both the gendered structure of biblical households and the domestication of "companion species" (Donna Haraway) is crucial for understanding their stories. In addition, Jonathan Klawans' symbolic theory of sacrifice proposes analogical relations between Israelites and the domesticated animals they cared for, and God and the Israelites who desired God's care. Perhaps against Klawans' intentions, his theory helps us understand child sacrifice as a problematic but logical consequence of metaphors that structure biblical symbolism and biblical sacrifice. By virtue of their continued existence in the realm of the domesticated after marriage, daughters/women remain more vulnerable than sons to a potentially animalized fate.
As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is s... more As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is spared by divine intervention and animal substitution. Thus the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter raises questions about the relationships among sexual difference, animal difference, and human sacrifice in the Bible. This article explores such questions in dialogue with the interdisciplinary “animal turn” in the humanities and social sciences. The daughter of Jephthah is one of several women in biblical literature whose fate involves an association with domesticated animals. Attention to both the gendered structure of biblical households and the domestication of “companion species” (Donna Haraway) is crucial for understanding their stories. In addition, Jonathan Klawans’ symbolic theory of sacrifice proposes analogical relations between Israelites and the domesticated animals they cared for, and God and the Israelites who desired God’s care. Perhaps against Klawans’ intentions, his theory ...
This chapter discusses the potential relevance of interdisciplinary animal studies for biblical i... more This chapter discusses the potential relevance of interdisciplinary animal studies for biblical interpretation. The story of Jacob and his family in Genesis 25–32 is examined from the perspective of a “critical animal hermeneutics.” Three features of such a hermeneutics, characteristic of contemporary animal studies, are emphasized: (1) the constitutive importance of “companion species,” emphasized by Donna Haraway, including in Israel’s case goats and sheep; (2) the instability of the human/animal binary, emphasized by Jacques Derrida and other thinkers; and (3) ubiquitous associations between species difference and differences among humans, particularly, in the case of biblical literature, gender and ethnic differences. Each of these features is used to read the story of Jacob and several related biblical texts.
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2019
Psalm 104 is associated with biblical creation theology, but it seldom receives as much attention... more Psalm 104 is associated with biblical creation theology, but it seldom receives as much attention as the book of Genesis. Yet Genesis has been and continues to be used to justify human dominion over other animals, which has contributed to a new era in the earth's history known as the "Anthropocene" epoch. In contrast, Psalm 104 provides an ecological representation of creation that recognizes God's care for animals. Humans appear in the psalm, but only as one creature among others. A focus on Psalm 104 may foster an approach to biblical creation theology that is more attentive to animals and useful as an ecological frame for reading Genesis and other texts.
In ‘Eating Well’, Jacques Derrida uses the terms ‘carnivorous virility’ and ‘carnophallogocentris... more In ‘Eating Well’, Jacques Derrida uses the terms ‘carnivorous virility’ and ‘carnophallogocentrism’ to refer to a ‘schema’ that excludes women and animals from Western subjectivity and ethics. But a reference to homosexuality in ‘Eating Well’ also allows us to locate gay men in this configuration, which provides a framework for a ‘queer hermeneutics of carnophallogocentrism’. Here this hermeneutics shapes a reading of the story of Eglon, the Moabite king in Judges 3 whose name means ‘calf’ or ‘young bull’ and who is killed under dehumanizing circumstances. Eglon’s story can be read in the context of other sets of biblical stories, including other stories in Judges where men are killed in ways that symbolically ‘unman’ or feminize them; other stories that dehumanize the Moabites as the ethnic constitutive other to the Israelites; and other stories in Judges where women are killed in ways that animalize them.
In this original work, Stone studies the structure and social presuppositions of several narrativ... more In this original work, Stone studies the structure and social presuppositions of several narratives from the Deuteronomistic History in which sexual activity plays a significant role. Both narratological and anthropological tools are utilized in the textual analysis. Stone interestingly notes the link between sexual activity, gender and prestige structures; the emphasis on male contest and female chastity discussed by anthropologists of honour and shame; and the role of the exchange of women in relations between men. In each story, sexual practice is primarily related to male struggles for honour and power.
The Hebrew Bible is sometimes understood as the source of a ‘traditional’ Judaeo-Christian approa... more The Hebrew Bible is sometimes understood as the source of a ‘traditional’ Judaeo-Christian approach to marriage and sexual practice. A comprehensive examination reveals, however, that biblical assumptions about sex, gender, and kinship are complex and internally diverse. Some of these assumptions stand in tension with traditional Jewish and Christian norms for marriage and sexual activity. This essay reviews such matters as the biblical vocabulary for, and representations of, marital relations; the status of women in households organized around fathers; the role of polygyny; differing standards for the sexual conduct of husbands, wives, and concubines; intermarriage and inter-ethnic sexual relations; prostitution; the use of sex and marriage within male contests for power and honour; the use of sexual and marital images in representations of Israel’s relationship to God; and the attitudes towards sex and gender found in less frequently read books of the Bible such as the Song of Songs.
(1999). Safer Text: Reading Biblical Laments in the Age of AIDS. Theology & Sexuality: Vol. 1... more (1999). Safer Text: Reading Biblical Laments in the Age of AIDS. Theology & Sexuality: Vol. 1999, No. 10, pp. 16-27.
Abstract Queer readings of the Bible are sometimes understood to be irrelevant for uses of the Bi... more Abstract Queer readings of the Bible are sometimes understood to be irrelevant for uses of the Bible in theology, theological education, and ministry. This address challenges that understanding by considering ways in which portions of the Bible take positions vis-à-vis religious tradition that parallel moves made in queer theory and queer theology. Using the task of preaching as an example, the address suggests that queer readings can be useful for the practice of Christian ministry even as such readings challenge certain ‘common-sense’ conceptions of ministry, theological education, and religious community.
A number of readers have claimed that injunctions against male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible ... more A number of readers have claimed that injunctions against male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible are aimed at cultic prostitution supposedly practiced by non-Israelites. Although several scholars have questioned the historical basis for this claim, less attention has been given to the ideological assumptions that underlie the hermeneutic argument. While cultic prostitutes may or may not have existed, the Hebrew Bible does attempt to link non-Israelite populations to sexual practices that are considered unacceptable by its authors. This attempt is an example of a common rhetorical move whereby the "other" is defined in relation to deviant sexual practice. Ironically, gay readers who rely upon this hermeneutic strategy participate in a process, already begun in the Hebrew Bible and taken further by its readers, in which sexual practice becomes the basis for insult, stereotyping, and condemnation. Since the reliance upon such a common mode ofethnic stereotyping cannot be accepted, gay and gay-affirmative readers need to replace such a "hermeneutics of abomination" with a critical study of the relations between gender ideologies and assumptions about sexual practice that are presupposed by the biblical texts. A f debates about homosexuality continue to take place in religious, political, and social contexts, it is important for thinkers on all sides of the debates to reflect critically on the assumptions that frame the discussion. Toward that end, the present article examines a particular hermeneutic argument that has been deployed by a number of gay-affirmative readers of the Hebrew Bible. Although I raise a number of critical questions about this hermeneutic, my intention is not to attack gay-affirmative readings. O n the contrary, after discussing some of the problems that seem to me to underlie a number of those readings, I return in my conclusions to some brief suggestions about alternative gay-affirmative approaches to biblical interpretation. My focus, however, is on a disturbing hermeneutic practice that has implications far beyond contemporary debates about same-sex relationships. Elements of this hermeneutic practice do appear in some gay-affirmative interpretations ofthe Hebrew Bible, but they can also be found in much biblical scholarship and, indeed, in the biblical texts themselves.
Abstract This article offers a response to Martti Nissinen's important text Homoeroticism in ... more Abstract This article offers a response to Martti Nissinen's important text Homoeroticism in the Biblical World. Although Nissinen's research is historical, his analysis of ancient practices is offered as a contribution to contemporary debates on homosexuality within the Church. A powerful case is made that attitudes towards gender relations in the ancient world were governed by assumptions concerning the proper relations between active, ‘penetrating’, social superiors and passive, ‘penetrated’, inferiors. The disjunction between this worldview and contemporary contexts and concepts is demonstrated, thus problematizing the notion that contemporary practices can be predicated upon ‘biblical’ norms. Despite its significance Nissinen's work cannot be straightforwardly appropriated as a helpful contribution to debate. The very act of constructing a canon of biblical references to homosexuality is problematic. It positions homosexuality once again as the object of research—that which is silent while spoken about. This, in turn, disguises the assumption that there is an unproblematic continuum in heterosexual relations that endures over time and does not require similar interrogation. Heteronormativity is thus actively sustained. There is a need to go beyond even the apparently progressive forms of biblical scholarship currently being pursued by Nissinen and others in order to develop a ‘queer commentary’ on the Bible. This will denaturalize the very concepts male, female and homosexual through which our relations with the text are currently constructed.
As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is s... more As many commentators note, the daughter of Jephthah is given as a burnt offering while Isaac is spared by divine intervention and animal substitution. Thus the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter raises questions about the relationships among sexual difference, animal difference, and human sacrifice in the Bible. This article explores such questions in dialogue with the interdisciplinary "animal turn" in the humanities and social sciences. The daughter of Jephthah is one of several women in biblical literature whose fate involves an association with domesticated animals. Attention to both the gendered structure of biblical households and the domestication of "companion species" (Donna Haraway) is crucial for understanding their stories. In addition, Jonathan Klawans' symbolic theory of sacrifice proposes analogical relations between Israelites and the domesticated animals they cared for, and God and the Israelites who desired God's care. Perhaps against Klawans' intentions, his theory helps us understand child sacrifice as a problematic but logical consequence of metaphors that structure biblical symbolism and biblical sacrifice. By virtue of their continued existence in the realm of the domesticated after marriage, daughters/women remain more vulnerable than sons to a potentially animalized fate.
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