Disability in the Hebrew Bible ：Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences

Publication subTitle ：Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences

Author： Saul M. Olyan;

Publisher： Cambridge University Press‎

Publication year： 2008

E-ISBN: 9781316960394

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780521888073

P-ISBN(Hardback): 9780521888073

Subject： B971.1 Old Testament

Keyword：宗教

Language： ENG

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Description

This book seeks to reconstruct the Hebrew Bible's ideas of mental and physical disability and their social ramifications. Olyan seeks to reconstruct the Hebrew Bible's ideas of mental and physical disability and their social ramifications. This study shows how biblical writers constructed hierarchically significant difference and privileged the 'able-bodied' over those with disabilities. It also explores the models of classification that biblical writers produced. Olyan seeks to reconstruct the Hebrew Bible's ideas of mental and physical disability and their social ramifications. This study shows how biblical writers constructed hierarchically significant difference and privileged the 'able-bodied' over those with disabilities. It also explores the models of classification that biblical writers produced. Mental and physical disability, ubiquitous in texts of the Hebrew Bible, here receive a thorough treatment. Olyan seeks to reconstruct the Hebrew Bible's particular ideas of what is disabling and their potential social ramifications. Biblical representations of disability and biblical classification schemas - both explicit and implicit - are compared to those of the Hebrew Bible's larger ancient West Asian cultural context, and to those of the later Jewish biblical interpreters who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. This study will help the reader gain a deeper and more subtle understanding of the ways in which biblical writers constructed hierarchically significant difference and privileged certain groups (e.g. persons with 'whole' bodies) over others (e.g. persons with physical 'defects'). It also explores how ancient interpreters of the Hebrew Bible such as the Qumran sectarians reproduced and reconfigured earlier biblical notions of disability and earlier classification models for their own contexts and ends. Introduction; 1. Constructions of beauty and ugliness; 2. Physical disabilities classified as 'defects'; 3. Physical disabilities not classified as 'defects'; 4. Mental disability; 5. Disability in the prophetic Utopian vision; 6. Non-somatic parallels to bodily wholeness and 'defect'; 7. Exegetical perpetuations, elaborations and transformations: the case of Qumran; 8. Conclusion. '[Olyan's] book is an important contribution and deserves full attention.' Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Book List 2009

Chapter

Textual representations

Classification and stigmatization

Contesting disability’s stigmatization

Native and nonnative modes of classification

Chapter outline

1 Constructions of Beauty and Ugliness

Male and female beauty

Ugliness

Physical characteristics that are neither beautiful nor ugly

Beauty and perfection: their relationship

Technical vocabulary of beauty and ugliness

Assessments of beauty

Conclusion

2 Physical Disabilities Classified as “Defects”

A native category

Stigmatization and marginalization

An exception: circumcision

Punitive “defects” and other mutilations

Conclusion

3 Physical Disabilities Not Classified as “Defects”

Deafness and muteness

“Skin disease” ( sara‘at) and genital “flows” ( zob)

Menstruation and parturition

Conclusion

4 Mental Disability

Defining mental disability and identifying it in texts

“Foolishness” and “madness”

1 Sam 21:11–16 (eng. 10–15)

1 Sam 16:14–23

Stigmatization and marginalization

Conclusion

5 Disability in the Prophetic Utopian Vision

The prophetic utopian vision

A utopian future of changed circumstances for disabled persons

A utopian future in which disability disappears

Disability as metaphor for divine rejection

Conclusion

6 Nonsomatic Parallels to Bodily Wholeness and “Defect”

The stones of the altar

The stones of the temple

Nonsomatic analogues to stigmatization and marginalization

Conclusion

7 Exegetical Perpetuations, Elaborations, and Transformations: The Case of Qumran

“Defects” in the dead sea scrolls

Non-“defective” disabilities in qumran literature

Implicit and explicit classifications

Conclusion

Notes

Introduction

1. Constructions of beauty and ugliness

2. Physical disabilities classified as “defects”

3. Physical disabilities not classified as “defects”

4. Mental disability

5. Disability in the prophetic utopian vision

6. Non-somatic parallels to bodily wholeness and “defect”

7. Exegetical perpetuations, elaborations, and transformations: the case of qumran

Conclusion

Bibliography

Subject Index

Biblical and Non-Biblical Citation Index

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