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'You Shall Know Yahweh': Divine Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible And

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'You Shall Know Yahweh': Divine Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible And 1 ‘You Shall Know Yahweh’: Divine Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond Submitted by Alan William Bernthal-Hooker to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology In July 2017 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: …………Alan Bernthal-Hooker…………….. 2 ABSTRACT The relationship between the chief Israelite deity Yahweh and his people is often figured in terms of the so-called ‘marriage metaphor’, by which Yahweh is husband and Israel wife. The sexual language used to describe Yahweh’s body and his attitude towards Israel is taken to be a convenient method to outline the thoughts, feelings and expectations Yahweh has of his people in terms of religious practice. However, this has led to various interpretations in which divine sexuality in itself has been labelled ‘pagan’, an activity which Yahweh supposedly ‘transcends’. The aim of this thesis is to question these interpretations. In the first part, an examination of other ancient West Asian literature from Sumer, Ugarit and Egypt, each depicting divine sexuality in stark terms, is completed in order to set a historical mark by which the biblical texts themselves can be judged. In the second, a selection of biblical passages is examined: some from the texts which are structured by the marriage metaphor (as from Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah) and others not (texts about bones, temples, urination, circumcision and loins). Ultimately, one discovers that Yahweh is in fact embroiled within sexuality, whether in the marriage metaphor or not, rather than transcendent above it and that Yahweh’s body, described in heavily masculine terminology throughout the Bible, while indeed sexualized, phallic and perhaps even penised, is nevertheless, ambiguous, liminal or ‘multigendered’ as to the features of his body. It is argued that this does not impede Yahweh’s masculinity but may even work to strengthen it. 3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ....................................... 5 The Materiality of Yahweh’s Body .................................................................................... 15 God, Gender and Genitals ............................................................................................... 33 Text Selection and Interpretation ..................................................................................... 49 DIVINE SEXUALITY AT SUMER ........................................................................................ 56 Enki and Ninhursag ......................................................................................................... 56 Enki and Ninmah ............................................................................................................. 62 Enki and the World Order ................................................................................................ 65 Enlil and Ninlil .................................................................................................................. 69 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 72 DIVINE SEXUALITY AT UGARIT........................................................................................ 75 Introduction...................................................................................................................... 75 The Ritual Section ........................................................................................................... 78 The Mythic Section .......................................................................................................... 85 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 90 DIVINE SEXUALITY IN EGYPT .......................................................................................... 98 Introduction...................................................................................................................... 98 Creation ........................................................................................................................... 98 Death and Resurrection ................................................................................................. 105 Judgement .................................................................................................................... 112 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 118 PART TWO: BIBLICAL TEXTS ......................................................................................... 119 NAKED KNOWLEDGE: Adam, Eve and Divine Sexuality in Genesis 1-3 .......................... 121 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 121 Gendered Bodies .......................................................................................................... 122 Sexual Bodies ............................................................................................................... 134 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 148 Harlotry’, Gender and the Prophetic Phallus .............................. 152‘ :זונה TIS PITY SHE’S A’ Introduction.................................................................................................................... 152 Hosea ............................................................................................................................ 161 Jeremiah ....................................................................................................................... 171 Isaiah............................................................................................................................. 187 Ezekiel........................................................................................................................... 195 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 212 YAHWEH’S PHALLUS AND EZEKIEL’S WOMB: The Prophet and the Valley of Dry Bone(r)s in Ezekiel 36-37 ................................................................................................................ 217 4 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 217 Bodily Displacement and Liminality ............................................................................... 218 Israel’s Dry Phallus ........................................................................................................ 226 The Turning of Yahweh ................................................................................................. 229 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 233 FILLING THE TEMPLE: Seraphs, Šūls and Sexuality in Isaiah 6.1-7 ........ 237 שול I SAW HIS Introduction.................................................................................................................... 237 The Masculine Yahweh ................................................................................................. 239 242 ....................................................................................................................... שול God’s The Temple ................................................................................................................... 244 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 252 OF OTHER PHALLIC SPACES: Urination, Circumcision and Loins .................................. 256 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 256 Urination ........................................................................................................................ 258 Anal Baal verses Phallic Yahweh .................................................................................. 261 Circumcised and Un/veiled Penises .............................................................................. 266 Israel’s Loins ................................................................................................................. 286 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 301 FINAL CONCLUSION AND REFLECTION ....................................................................... 304 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................... 312 5 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS This is a thesis about the sexual and gendered features of Yahweh’s body. Within the Protestant and Western cultural contexts in which I write, such a topic might provoke confusion, amusement, or downright hostility. After all, it is a commonly held idea that God, if
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