Books by Alison L Joseph
From the earliest retellings of ancient myths, to the latest internet memes, human beings have co... more From the earliest retellings of ancient myths, to the latest internet memes, human beings have constantly reread, rewritten, reused, and repudiated “other peoples’ texts,” for many different reasons. Yet in all cases interpretation is more than just an individual’s attempt to understand and explain the text; it reflects the reader’s own sense of self-identity, social situation, and communal context. Particularly when reading scriptural texts, interpreters regularly assume or assert an identification between their own communities, and those described in the text, while ignoring the cultural, social and religious differences between them. Readers thus regularly downplay the “otherness” of a text, as for instance when contemporary Jews and Christians identify themselves with the ancient Israelites described in the Bible, and apply its words directly to themselves. At the same time, however, groups often deny such an identification to their opponents, while attributing to them alternative identifications, such as with the Canaanites.
Whether intended to build bridges or burn them, all such interpretations are deeply tied to the community’s perceptions of its own identity, including how it distinguishes itself from “others.” Such social identifications and dissociations have not only shaped the reception history of the Bible through time, but continue to drive contemporary disputes about its relevance and application. This volume draws together eleven essays by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Greco-Roman religion and early Judaism, to address the varying ways that conceptions of identity and otherness shape the interpretation of biblical and other religiously authoritative texts.
Much of the scholarship on the book of Kings has focused on questions of the historicity of the e... more Much of the scholarship on the book of Kings has focused on questions of the historicity of the events described. Alison L. Joseph turns her attention instead to the literary characterization of Israel's kings. By examining the narrative techniques used in the Deuteronomistic History to portray Israel's kings, Joseph shows that the Deuteronomist in the days of the Josianic Reform constructed David as a model of adherence to the covenant, and Jeroboam, conversely, as the ideal opposite of David. The redactor further characterized other kings along one or the other of these two models. The resulting narrative functions didactically, as if instructing kings and the people of Judah regarding the consequences of disobedience. Attention to characterization through prototype also allows Joseph to identify differences between pre-exilic and exilic redactions in the Deuteronomistic History, bolstering and also revising the view advanced by Frank Moore Cross. The result is a deepened understanding of the worldview and theology of the Deuteronomistic historians.
Articles by Alison L Joseph
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2019
Many of the feminist readings of the Dinah story in Genesis 34 in recent years have focused on th... more Many of the feminist readings of the Dinah story in Genesis 34 in recent years have focused on the question of whether Dinah is raped. The interpretations that perhaps Dinah was not “raped” span the spectrum from a teenage love affair between Dinah and Shechem, to a case of statutory rape, to a marriage by abduction. Guilty of exploring this question myself, this paper will address what’s at stake in determining whether Dinah were raped. It does not make the conclusion of the story (the brutal slaying of the people of Shechem at their weakest moment, while using the sign of the covenant as a weapon) any more palatable. Instead, we should ask why this chapter is included in the larger Jacob narrative. Dinah arrives just in time to walk out among the women of the land and disappears again as soon as the brothers bring her home. She isn’t even the star of her “own” story. The narrative could certainly progress without the chapter. Should Genesis 34 be interesting to gender critics? Does decrying the story as “not rape” further objectify Dinah? Does a gendered reading help us to understand this story better?
Feminist scholars have debated what happens to Dinah in Genesis 34:2. Was she raped? These short ... more Feminist scholars have debated what happens to Dinah in Genesis 34:2. Was she raped? These short notes explore a contextual understanding of the meaning of 'innâ, in this verse and other occurrences.
When I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with my first-year seminar students we focus much of our ... more When I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with my first-year seminar students we focus much of our discussion on questions of advances in technology and the ethics of progress. Just because we can, should we? Even though Victor has found a way to animate the inanimate, should he? I ask the same question of the technological advances that help(?) us read the biblical text better. Advances in archaeology and carbon-dating contribute to our understanding of the biblical text's historical context, of daily life in ancient Israel, and of the provenance of inscriptions. All of this information (seemingly) makes us better readers of the text with greater understanding of the text's context, but does it? Have we become complacent in our reading because we rely on these modes of empirical, scientific evidence so much that we lose our connection to the text?
Of the more than forty monarchs who rule the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, only three are said to... more Of the more than forty monarchs who rule the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, only three are said to be like David, the paradigm of the good king. What qualifies one to be “like David”? Would David, as portrayed in Samuel, stack up to these criteria? This paper is a study of the accolades given to only a handful of the kings: those who do what is pleasing to Yahweh, whose hearts are with Yahweh, and the very few who are like David. The regnal formula evaluations, a product of deuteronomistic composition, are sparing with compliments. By tracking the various elements of the positive judgments, we can derive criteria for what qualifies a king to be so described. In doing this, it is possible to see that the description of the acts of David in Samuel is not similar to the David of Kings constructed as the standard for kings’ evaluations. The “David” of Kings is a royal prototype reflecting deuteronomistic interests and is a literary tool used to measure the other kings. Through this study, we can see the work of the Deuteronomist and the relationship between the deuteronomistic composition in Kings and Samuel. To appear in Catholic Biblical Quarterly, January 2015.
Book Chapters by Alison L Joseph
Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings, 2019
In the book of Kings, Manasseh is held responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, be... more In the book of Kings, Manasseh is held responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, because he "did…[more] evil than all that the Amorites who were before him did and also caused Judah to sin with his idols" (2 Kgs 21). The ramifications of the fall of Judah and the end of the Judean monarchy-with a Davidic king on the throne-are immense. Among other effects, the event calls into question the entire theology that the biblical books leading up to Kings have established: the promise of the land, the importance of centralized worship in the Jerusalem temple, and the eternal dynastic promise to David. Given the momentous consequences attributed to Manasseh's actions, the reader might well expect an extraordinary literary presentation of this king's reign. The reader, however, would not find it. Instead, Manasseh is portrayed as an ordinary bad king about whom we do not know much more than we do about many thoroughly inconsequential kings. The account of Manasseh's reign is brief: a mere eighteen verses long, 1 of which likely nine or ten are secondary additions. It consists of the standard regnal formula (vv. 1-2) evaluating his cultic behavior, 2 a list of 1. Compare this to the 208 verses of Ahab's account (1 Kgs 16:29-22:40) or 95 verses devoted to Manasseh's father, Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18-20). Solomon features in eleven chapters. 2. The regnal formula is a primary organizing feature of the book of Kings. Almost every reign begins with a notice that X became king and reigned for Y years over either Israel or Judah, contextualizing this king with the contemporaneous king of the other kingdom, and finishes with a judgment that the king did what was
Reading Other People's Texts: Social Identity and Authoritative Traditions, 2020
This chapter considers how the redaction of a biblical text can itself serve as a kind of recepti... more This chapter considers how the redaction of a biblical text can itself serve as a kind of reception, taking as an example the story of the “rape” of Dinah in Genesis 34. This is a tale that is deeply shaped by perceptions of identity and difference, on multiple levels. In the reconstructed base-text, the potential marriage of “Dinah, daughter of Jacob,” with “Shechem, son of Hamor, the Hivite” is described as shameful and is rejected in the strongest possible terms: The sons of Jacob demand that Shechem becomes circumcised like them, but when he does so, they kill him. I argue that several elements in this story appear to have troubled early readers, leading to a secondary revision that emphasizes that the essential problem with this marriage was not Shechem’s individual unsuitability as a husband, but instead his foreignness. The marriage request is rephrased as an offer to intermarry between the two peoples more broadly, and in the end, not just Shechem, but all the men of his city are circumcised then killed. In this secondary revision of the story, the text is heavily revised without being replaced, as the editor draws authority from his source, even while transforming its story of illegitimate sexuality into a blanket renunciation of intermarriage.
Talks by Alison L Joseph
A discussion with author Dr. Alison L. Joseph, at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary,... more A discussion with author Dr. Alison L. Joseph, at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, October 16, 2015.
Much of the scholarship on the Books of Kings has focused on questions of the historicity of the events described. Dr. Alison L. Joseph, however, turns her attention to the literary characterization of the kings. By examining the narrative techniques used in the Deuteronomistic History, Dr. Joseph shows that the Deuteronomist in the days of the Josianic Reform constructed David as a model of adherence to the covenant and Jeroboam, conversely, as the ideal opposite of David. The result is a deepened understanding of the worldview and theology of the Deuteronomistic historians.
Book Reviews by Alison L Joseph
Take a journey into the heart of the Deuteronomist to discover more about the king after God’s ow... more Take a journey into the heart of the Deuteronomist to discover more about the king after God’s own heart through the eyes of the book of Kings. Matt Lynch interviews Alison Joseph about her Manfred Lautenschlaeger award-winning book Portrait of the Kings. As an intro bonus to this episode Matt gives a little 10-minute overview of the Deuteronomistic History, free of charge (but you can skip to get to the good stuff).
Blog Posts by Alison L Joseph
Jewish Book Council, 2021
Project TABS, 2017
We can not imagine anyone but Dinah as the victim, but does the Torah? Do the Rabbis? Understandi... more We can not imagine anyone but Dinah as the victim, but does the Torah? Do the Rabbis? Understanding the story of Dinah and its reception in historical context can help us reflect on the role of women in ancient Israel and the meaning of sexual violence in a patriarchal society.
The new Hulu show “A Handmaid’s Tale,” based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same title,... more The new Hulu show “A Handmaid’s Tale,” based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same title, depicts a dystopian society in which women are taken from their families and enslaved as handmaids to address an infertility problem in the United States. While some may see the new society as premised on a “deliberate manipulation, not open-minded interpretation” of Genesis, as a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, I consider it a surprisingly accurate interpretation of the patriarchal narratives in the book of Genesis.
Do we have a social responsibility in the kinds of historical-critical readings we do? When we re... more Do we have a social responsibility in the kinds of historical-critical readings we do? When we read texts about sexual violence what role should contemporary implications have on our readings?
The Bible and Interpretation
The perspective of Dtr [Deuteronomistic Historian] is clear: Israelite worship should be centrali... more The perspective of Dtr [Deuteronomistic Historian] is clear: Israelite worship should be centralized. As such, he uses Jeroboam as a literary tool to construct the portraits of and pass judgment on northern kings. As rivals to the Davidic throne, northern kings, are almost always judged negatively. The bad kings are like Jeroboam. The standard by which they are measured has little to do with their comprehensive behavior as kings, but instead is concerned with their actions for and against uncentralized worship and (in)fidelity to the deuteronomistic covenant. This issue becomes of the utmost importance in the eyes of the historian. Despite other kings’ wrongdoing—emptying the temple treasury (Jehoash, 2 Kgs 11:15), warring against the other kingdom (Asa, 1 Kgs 15:16), even idolatry (Omri, 1 Kgs 16:25-26) — for Dtr, Jeroboam remains the evil king par excellence.
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Books by Alison L Joseph
Whether intended to build bridges or burn them, all such interpretations are deeply tied to the community’s perceptions of its own identity, including how it distinguishes itself from “others.” Such social identifications and dissociations have not only shaped the reception history of the Bible through time, but continue to drive contemporary disputes about its relevance and application. This volume draws together eleven essays by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Greco-Roman religion and early Judaism, to address the varying ways that conceptions of identity and otherness shape the interpretation of biblical and other religiously authoritative texts.
Articles by Alison L Joseph
Book Chapters by Alison L Joseph
Talks by Alison L Joseph
Much of the scholarship on the Books of Kings has focused on questions of the historicity of the events described. Dr. Alison L. Joseph, however, turns her attention to the literary characterization of the kings. By examining the narrative techniques used in the Deuteronomistic History, Dr. Joseph shows that the Deuteronomist in the days of the Josianic Reform constructed David as a model of adherence to the covenant and Jeroboam, conversely, as the ideal opposite of David. The result is a deepened understanding of the worldview and theology of the Deuteronomistic historians.
Book Reviews by Alison L Joseph
Blog Posts by Alison L Joseph
Whether intended to build bridges or burn them, all such interpretations are deeply tied to the community’s perceptions of its own identity, including how it distinguishes itself from “others.” Such social identifications and dissociations have not only shaped the reception history of the Bible through time, but continue to drive contemporary disputes about its relevance and application. This volume draws together eleven essays by scholars of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Greco-Roman religion and early Judaism, to address the varying ways that conceptions of identity and otherness shape the interpretation of biblical and other religiously authoritative texts.
Much of the scholarship on the Books of Kings has focused on questions of the historicity of the events described. Dr. Alison L. Joseph, however, turns her attention to the literary characterization of the kings. By examining the narrative techniques used in the Deuteronomistic History, Dr. Joseph shows that the Deuteronomist in the days of the Josianic Reform constructed David as a model of adherence to the covenant and Jeroboam, conversely, as the ideal opposite of David. The result is a deepened understanding of the worldview and theology of the Deuteronomistic historians.
ix A Note from the Editors of the Hebrew Union College Annual
1 Ezekiel 20: A New Redaction-Critical Analysis David Frankel, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
27 Authorship, Attribution, and Authority: Jeremiah, Baruch, and the Rabbinic Interpretation of Lamentations Jason Kalman, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; University of the Free State, South Africa
89 Haredi Jewish Boys Choirs and the Performance of a Secure Future Gordon Dale, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
113 Introduction to “The Making of Moses” Mark Leuchter and Zev Farber
121 Moses the Transjordanian Prophet Zev Farber, Project TABS – TheTorah.com; The Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
141 Moses like David: Prototypes in the Deuteronomistic History Alison L. Joseph, The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
163 Moses Between the Pentateuch and the Book of the Twelve Mark Leuchter, Temple University
185 The Apocalyptic Moses of Second Temple Judaism Alexandria Frisch, Ursinus College
209 “A King and a Scribe like Moses”: The Reception of Deuteronomy 34:10 and a Rabbinic Theory of Collective Biblical Authorship Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, University of Michigan
227 “A Prophet Like Moses”? What Can We Know About the Early Jewish Responses to Muḥammad’s Claims of Mosesness? Shari L. Lowin, Stonehill College
257 The End of Moses Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago
The Fellowship is remote and international applications will be considered. The position will be paid hourly at a rate of USD$20–25/hr. This is a 10-week term, beginning January 9, 2022, with the possibility for additional work beyond the conclusion of the Fellowship on March 20, 2022.