Family and Identity in the book of Judges Bruno John Clifton Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge April 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2 Family and Identity in the book of Judges Bruno John Clifton Summary The importance of the family in ancient Near Eastern society is so frequently recognized that it has become a truism. It is therefore surprising that in a work of identity-making such as the Bible, the influence of family on the texts’ formation has been under studied. Such an omission may be because the discussion on family in the Bible has largely concentrated upon reconstructing day-to-day life as background to our reading. Scholars have not seen family loyalty as an essential component in the narratives’ meaningfulness. In my dissertation, I examine family and identity in the Book of Judges. I argue that the family is the dominant locus of identity for people throughout the first millennium BCE and that Judges’ social communication depends upon acknowledging this dynamic. The meaning of the local folklore gathered together in Judges relies upon an appreciation of the values held by the society from which it comes and distinguishes this core material from the editorial framework. This perspectival dichotomy also raises questions about the book’s redactional methodology. Identity is revealed through socio-relational dynamics; hence, my thesis takes a social-scientific approach to the texts. Following an introduction, the first chapter discusses family and identity with particular reference to the localized structures of first-millennium BCE Palestine. The next four chapters present texts from Judges in which I employ four socio-anthropological theories. I begin with the tale of Jael and Sisera in Judg 4 and 5, to which I apply the concept of social space. I then compare the stories of Abimelech in Judg 9 and Jephthah in Judg 11 in light of ascribed social status. The wedding of Samson in Judg 14 forms the third study for which endogamy and the socio-economic autonomy of the household are relevant theories and I end by discussing hospitality and social distance in the eventful journey of the Levite in Judg 19. I conclude that the ‘nationalizing’ of these folktales by the editorial frame must nevertheless respect their familial perspective to maximize the success of Israel’s identity-making. 3 4 Contents Preface 7 Introduction 9 1. Family and Identity 23 2. Sisera and Jael 43 3. Abimelech and Jephthah 64 4. Samson and the Timnites 88 5. The Levite and Gibeah 112 Conclusions 141 Bibliography 151 5 6 Preface This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the Degree Committee of the Faculty of Divinity. 7 8 Introduction Where does Jael think she is from? How important is Gilead to Jephthah’s identity? Does Samson accept or resist the culture of the Philistines? The book of Judges contains many people with diverse heritages who engage with other societies on different social levels. Their rich characterization makes for a vivid narrative. But their cultural diversity produces ambiguities in the text that obscure the modern reader’s understanding. Jael’s behaviour towards Sisera is difficult to understand considering who she is said to be, the wife of Heber, an ally. Abimelech claims rule of Shechem through his mother, even though first, his father is the line that gives succession and secondly, he is illegitimate anyway. Samson is destined to deliver Israel yet seems to pay no attention to Israelite cultural mores. And the Levite from Ephraim fails to see eye-to-eye with the Benjaminites of Gibeah, even though he chooses their town over another because of their shared Israelite heritage. It seems as if the question of identity in these texts runs deeper than being numbered among the sons of Israel. In this study, I am going to examine family and identity in Judges. At first sight, this biblical book depicts Israel operating as a tribal society, with clans and families lower down the social pyramid. Through its stories of conquest, foreign oppression and deliverance, the book alludes to the different demands tribal membership of Israel makes upon its characters’ allegiance. Yet a closer look reveals the text’s lack of interest in the details of Israel’s social hierarchy. Instead, Judges refers to the influence of familial patrimony and the settlement affiliation of its people as much as it does to tribal obligations. In fact, tensions between these different aspects of identity are apparent in the interactions. My hypothesis is that in the realm of character portrayal, the protagonists in Judges prioritize their family over other affiliations and that their stories should be interpreted from this perspective. In other words, the proposal suggests that an essential ingredient in the narrative formation of Israel is family identity and hence the concept of Israel rests upon understanding the importance of family. Family affiliation is a meaningful dynamic for Judges’ first audience because it reflects their social reality. Hence, we might imagine that in the telling of Judg 4 its audience wills for Jael to conquer Sisera not to save Israel but to protect her household. In Judg 9, the audience understand that Abimelech’s claim is legitimate because they recognize the local social structures. In reaction to Judg 19, its first audience are repulsed by the failure to honour the family, under siege from more distant, hostile relationships. It is this perspective I aim to bring to a study of the texts. Not only for Judges’ first audience, the centrality of family was the social reality for the period the book is set. From the late second millennium BCE, all the way into the Common Era and 9 recognizable even to the present day, a person’s settlement and family—two highly interrelated social groupings—occupied first place in self-understanding and loyalty. Palestine’s topographical diversity required different subsistence responses resulting in a weak sense of regional or national unity. Beyond superficial standardizations imposed by imperial conquest, identity was localized with little respect for wider regional affiliations. Israelite identity must build upon the prior familial structures. Judges’ narrative ploy is to strengthen an identity for the reader on this larger scale. But, because the family remains at the forefront of a person’s identity through the periods of the book’s formation into migration and exile, the ploy’s success comes from the integration of these two perspectives. Thus far I have mentioned identity, affiliation, loyalty and self-understanding interchangeably as concepts that shape society and social interaction. For clarity, throughout this thesis I mean no more by the term ‘identity’ than as the conceptual means by which I situate myself among others. In other words, identity is that which shapes how I perceive and how I behave towards other people. Who is ‘us’ and who is ‘the Other’ and in what context? On this definition, ‘identity’ can be extensive (national, ethnic) and limited (settlement, family).1 These two contextual poles will be important for my analysis and I will discuss this in more detail in chapter one. But a remark to which I will often return in illustration of this relational definition of identity is that of sociologist C. A. O. Nieuwenhjuze (1971, 389) who speaKs of the ‘extended family in the traditional Middle East’ as ‘the unit where a person is secure and where he can expect loyalty and afford to be loyal in his turn’. For my purposes in this thesis, identity is no more and no less than the locus of such solidarity. In this way, I will show that loyalty to one’s family directs the social interactions found in the biblical text which asks new questions about the text’s meaning for the reader. Interpretations of the Bible have often puzzled over why the people in its stories behave in the way they do, sometimes shrugging their shoulders at the question (e.g. Soggin 1987, 78; Sasson 2014, 274). Yet, this question is central if we wish to understand why people have and continue to look to these texts for edification. Since relationships shape behaviour (what is appropriate, where it is appropriate and when), ascertaining the relational understanding with which the characters are portrayed will help us interpret their actions. In order to resolve some of the ambiguities in the Judges’ stories, I want better to appreciate how they depict the characters’ identity. 1 I am not so interested in the definitional differences between ethnicity and nationality, an important discussion though this undoubtedly is. My use of the term ‘national’ to speaK of ‘Israelite’ identity is merely to refer to the more extensive networK of identity relations this constitutes in distinction from the more limited ‘family’ network. This is appropriate since the concepts of nation, race and ethnicity in the modern era have particular implications, anachronistic in discussion of the first millennium BCE.