THRESHING FLOORS AS SACRED SPACES in the HEBREW BIBLE by Jaime L. Waters a Dissertation Submitted to the Johns Hopkins Universit
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THRESHING FLOORS AS SACRED SPACES IN THE HEBREW BIBLE by Jaime L. Waters A dissertation submitted to The Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland August 2013 © 2013 Jaime L. Waters All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Vital to an agrarian community’s survival, threshing floors are agricultural spaces where crops are threshed and winnowed. As an agrarian society, ancient Israel used threshing floors to perform these necessary activities of food processing, but the Hebrew Bible includes very few references to these actions happening on threshing floors. Instead, several cultic activities including mourning rites, divination rituals, cultic processions, and sacrifices occur on these agricultural spaces. Moreover, the Solomonic temple was built on a threshing floor. Though seemingly ordinary agricultural spaces, the Hebrew Bible situates a variety of extraordinary cultic activities on these locations. In examining references to threshing floors in the Hebrew Bible, this dissertation will show that these agricultural spaces are also sacred spaces connected to Yahweh. Three chapters will explore different aspects of this connection. Divine control of threshing floors will be demonstrated as Yahweh exhibits power to curse, bless, and save threshing floors from foreign attacks. Accessibility and divine manifestation of Yahweh will be demonstrated in passages that narrate cultic activities on threshing floors. Cultic laws will reveal the links between threshing floors, divine offerings and blessings. One chapter will also address the sociological features of threshing floors with particular attention given to the social actors involved in cultic activities and temple construction. By studying references to threshing floors as a collection, a research project that has not been done previously, the close relationship between threshing floors and the divine will be visible, and a more nuanced understanding of these spaces will be achieved. After careful analysis, the outcome of this work is the assertion that Yahweh is connected to threshing floors because essential life-sustaining activities take place at ii these spaces. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, Israel’s belief in Yahweh’s important role in livelihood and survival is asserted. Because threshing floors are inherently locations of food and sustenance, these spaces are divinely controlled and auspicious areas for human-divine communication. While threshing floors were continually used for their agricultural purposes, the Hebrew Bible places a greater emphasis on their depiction as sacred spaces. Advisor: Theodore J. Lewis Second Reader: P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. Committee Chair: Sara Berry Readers: Jane Guyer Michael Harrower iii To my mom, Delores B. Waters iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people are owed acknowledgment and thanks for their contributions to this work. I would like to thank my dissertation advisor Theodore J. Lewis for his guidance and support throughout this writing process and throughout my time at Johns Hopkins. His critical eye and encouraging advice helped me to conceptualize, refine, and complete this work. I would also like to thank P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. for the insightful conversations and thought-provoking ideas which were influential on this work. I also thank the other readers of this dissertation: Sara Berry, Jane Guyer, and Michael Harrower. Additionally, I thank the faculty, staff, and students of the Near Eastern Studies department at Johns Hopkins for providing me with a scholarly home in which to learn and thrive. Special thanks goes to Erin Fleming and Heather Dana Davis Parker who read countless drafts and provided immensely helpful feedback and critiques. Thanks also to Julie Reiser for encouragement throughout this process and for conceiving of and teaching the Dissertation Writing Workshop. I also thank my past teachers at Yale Divinity School and Boston College who cultivated and nurtured a love of the Hebrew Bible within me. I am very fortunate to receive support from my family and friends, and here is just a sprinkling of the many people for whom I am grateful. I first thank my grandmom, Delores B. Waters, whose love and support cannot adequately be expressed in words. My grandmom was simply the best, and I thank her for being my inspiration and my cheerleader. I also thank my parents, Delores and John, for their love and encouragement without which this work would not be possible. Special thanks go to Dr. Uncle Tony for the many laughs needed to make it through this arduous process and to Fr. Uncle Sam for the many prayers for my completion. I also thank my life partner and best friend, Joe, v whose love and encouragement have endured for many years and whose stimulating conversations have influenced this work. Finally, it is with much joy that I dedicate this dissertation to my mom, Delores B. Waters. Many thanks for the years of love, guidance, sacrifice, and support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vii Abbreviations ix List of Figures xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Threshing Floors: A Brief Overview 1 1.2 Threshing and Winnowing 7 1.3 From Crops to Food 10 Chapter 2: Methodology 13 2.1 Sacred Space 13 2.2 Liminal Space 22 2.3 Spatial Theory in Biblical Study 24 2.4 Date, Genre and Sitz im Leben of Biblical Passages 29 2.5 Parallel Passages 30 Chapter 3: Divine Control of Threshing Floors 36 3.1 Yahweh Curses Threshing Floors 36 3.1.1 Hosea 9:1-2; 13:3 36 3.2 Yahweh Blesses Threshing Floors 42 3.2.1 Joel 2:23-24 42 3.3 Yahweh Saves Threshing Floors from Foreign Attacks 45 3.3.1 1 Samuel 23:1-5 45 3.3.2 2 Kings 6:27 48 3.3.3 Judges 6:1-16 51 Excursus: Divine Manifestation and Sacrifice at the Oak Tree near the Wine Press 53 Chapter 4: Cultic Activities and Divine Manifestation on Threshing Floors 57 4.1 Consulting Yahweh at Threshing Floors 57 4.1.1 Judges 6:37-40 57 4.1.2 1 Kings 22:10//2 Chronicles 18:9 62 4.2 Cultic Processions on Threshing Floors 67 4.2.1 Genesis 50:10-11 68 4.2.2 2 Samuel 6:6-7//1 Chronicles 13:9-10 71 4.3 Theophany and Sacrifice Upon A Threshing Floor 77 4.3.1 2 Samuel 24:15-25//1 Chronicles 21:14-27 78 4.4 Temple Construction Upon A Threshing Floor 84 4.4.1 1 Chronicles 21:28-22:1 and 2 Chronicles 3:1 85 Excursus: The Historicity of the Chronicler’s Account of the Temple Construction 87 vii Chapter 5: Priestly and Deuteronomic Legal Perspectives on Threshing Floors 92 5.1 Numbers 15:17-20; 18:25-29 93 5.2 Deuteronomy 15:12-15; 16:13-15 98 Chapter 6: The Sociology of Threshing Floors 105 6.1 Social Actors: Who Uses Threshing Floors as Sacred Spaces? 105 6.2 Temple: Axis Mundi on a Threshing Floor 113 6.3 Threshing Floor Transformation 119 Conclusion 126 Addendum 1: Additional References to Threshing Floors in the Hebrew Bible 129 Addendum 2: Threshing Floors at Ugarit 142 Bibliography 154 viii ABBREVIATIONS AB Anchor Bible ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York, 1992 ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by J. A. Pritchard. Princeton, 1969 BA Biblical Archaeologist BAR Biblical Archaeology Review BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BDB Brown, F., S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford, 1907 BSac Bibliotheca Sacra BN Biblische Notizen BR Biblical Research BZ Biblische Zeitschrift BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago, 1956-2011 CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CBR Currents in Biblical Research CDA Jeremy Black, Andrew George, and Nicholas Postgate. A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2000. COS The Context of Scripture. Edited by W. W. Hallo and W. Younger. 3 vols. Leiden, 1997-2003 CRBS Currents in Research Biblical Studies DUL Gregorio del Olmo Lete and Joaquín Sanmartín. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson. 2 vols. Leiden, 2003 ESV English Standard Version FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments HALOT Koehler L., W. Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated and edited under the supervision of M. E. J. Richardson. 5 vols. Leiden, 1994-2000 HR History of Religions HUC Hebrew Union College IEJ Israel Exploration Journal JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JBQ Jewish Biblical Quarterly JQR Jewish Quarterly Review JIR Jewish Institute of Religion JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JPS Jewish Publication Society JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament ix JSOTSSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series JTS Journal of Theological Studies KTU Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit. Edited by M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartín. AOAT 24/1. Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1976. 2d enlarged ed. of KTU: The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani, and Other Places. Edited by M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartín, 1995 (=CTU) LXX Septuagint MT Masoretic Text NEB New English Bible NIV New International Version NKJV New King James Version NRSV New Revised Standard Version OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology OJB Orthodox Jewish Bible OTE Old Testament Essays OTL Old Testament Library PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly RB Revue biblique RES Répertoire d’épigraphie sémitiques RS Ras Shamra RSV Revised Standard Version SBL Society of Biblical Literature SBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the Ancient World ScrHier Scripta hierosolymitana SR Studies in Religion TDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.