Rites and Rank: Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult

Saul M. Olyan

Published by Princeton University Press 2000

Rites and Rank

Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult

Saul M. Olyan

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400823567

Overview
Contents

About this book

Good and evil, clean and unclean, rich and poor, self and other. The nature and function of such binary oppositions have long intrigued scholars in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, classics, and anthropology. From the opening chapters of Genesis, in which God separates day from night, and Adam and Eve partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dyadic pairs proliferate throughout the Hebrew Bible. In this groundbreaking work melding critical exegesis and contemporary theory, Saul M. Olyan considers the prevalence of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their significance for the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel. Extant biblical narrative and legal texts reveal a set of socially constructed and culturally privileged binary oppositions, Olyan argues, which instigate and perpetuate hierarchical social relations in ritual settings such as the sanctuary.

Focusing on four binary pairs--holy/common, Israelite/alien, clean/unclean, and whole/blemished--Olyan shows how these privileged oppositions were used to restrict access to cultic spaces, such as the temple or the Passover table. These ritual sites, therefore, became the primary contexts for creating and recreating unequal social relations. Olyan also uncovers a pattern of challenge to the established hierarchies by nonprivileged groups. Converging with contemporary issues of power, marginalization, and privileging, Olyan's painstaking yet lucid study abounds with implications for anthropology, classics, critical theory, and feminist studies.

Author / Editor information

Saul M. Olyan is Dorot Professor of Judaic Studies, Professor of Religious Studies, and Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at Brown University. He is the author of A Thousand Thousands Served Him: Exegesis and the Naming of Angels in Ancient Judaism and Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel.

Reviews

This is a significant book that uses anthropological approaches in a clear, non-flashy way to advance our understanding of biblical cult, and especially our conceptions of holiness. . . . Olyan is to be congratulated for writing a very readable, clear and interesting book on a topic that is central to biblical scholarship.---Mark Z. Brettler, Jewish Quarterly Review

"This study is clearly written, well researched, and methodologically up-to-date. [Olyan] has given painstaking attention to textual details, yet has succeeded in presenting the results in a manner that helps the reader to assemble these details into comprehensible notions. He is also sensitive to the complexities of social differentiation in ancient Israel. Olyan has presented us with an excellent scholarly achievement on a par with his previous studies."—Douglas Knight, Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Olyan's book is thorough, meticulous, judicious, and nuanced; and he succeeds admirably in accomplishing what he sets out to do.---Byron E. Shafer, Fordham University, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
1. Foundational Discourse: The Opposition Holy/Common Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Admission or Exclusion: The Binary Pairing Unclean/Clean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3. Generating “Self” and “Other”: The Polarity Israelite/Alien Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
4. The Qualified Body: The Dyad Whole/Blemished Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Appendix. The Idea of Holiness in the Holiness Source Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Index of Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Index of Biblical Citations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179

(Deutsch)