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Construction of Gender and Identity in Genesis

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Construction of Gender and Identity in Genesis The Subject and the Other: Construction of Gender and Identity in Genesis Karalina Matskevich A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Biblical Studies The University of Sheffield February 2013 LIBRARY IMAGING SERVICES NORTH HSIJLItt Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl.uk PAGINATED BLANK PAGES ARE SCANNED AS FOUND IN ORIGINAL THESIS NO INFORMATION IS MISSING Abstract This study examines the construction of gendered and national identities in a selection of narratives in the book of Genesis. It distinguishes two processes of signification that run alongside each other, namely, the construction of the androcentric Subject that starts in the narrative of Genesis 2-3, and the emergence, in the stories of the patriarchs, of the ethnocentric Subject of Israel. In both cases, unified subjectivity is perceived in relation to and over against the Other, represented respectively as female and foreign identity. The study adopts a multidisciplinary approach, using the tools of semiotic analysis, narratology and psychoanalysis to uncover the presence and function of alterity, suppressed by the dominant discourse. The study highlights the contradiction inherent in the project of dominance, through which the Subject seeks to suppress the very difference it relies on for its signification. In the garden narrative (Genesis 2-3), this contradiction is reflected in Yahweh’s double-edged discourse and in the ambiguous role woman and the serpent play in leading hà ’àdâm out of the garden. In the larger narrative cycles of Genesis 12-36, the dichotomy of the Self and the Other unfolds on more than one level, revealing itself in the Subject’s conflicted attitude to Egypt as the seductive and threatening Other (the Abraham cycle) and to Haran as ‘mother’s land’, a complex metaphor of the feminine (the Jacob cycle). The study identifies two conflicting voices or ideologies interacting in the Genesis narrative, the institutional and the individual, and demonstrates how the unified institutional discourse of the patriarchal Subject is continuously challenged and changed by the individual perspective in the narrative, represented by women, foreigners, and younger siblings. U U B R ^ in Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. The Subject, Gender, and Knowledge in Genesis 2-3 Defining the Problem 5 The Overture: To Eat or Not to Eat 9 Yahweh and the Institution of Gender (2:18-22) ha’adam in Need of a Helper 12 The Making of the Animals and Woman 16 ‘And He Brought Her to ha ’adam ’ 20 ha ’adam and the Interpretation of Gender (2:23-24) The Emergence of Man 22 From One’s Flesh to ‘One Flesh’ 23 The Human Beings and Knowledge (2:25-3:7) The Subversion of Yahweh’s Voice 27 Woman and the Tree 31 ‘They Knew That They Were Naked’ (3:7) 35 Two Kinds of Knowledge 37 Knowledge and the Image of God 40 Constructing God in Human Likeness 42 Nakedness and Wisdom 44 The Subject on Trial (3:8-13) 46 The Final Balance: Judgment and Expulsion (3:14-24) 53 The Serpent’s Curse (w. 14-15) 54 Woman and Gender Roles (v. 16) 57 ha ’adam and ha "damah (vv. 17-19) 64 Gender Relationships and the World Order in Genesis 2-3 68 Concluding Observations 73 iv Chapter 2. The Subject, the Other, and the Land in the Abraham Cycle (Gn 11:27-25:18) The Matriarchal Succession 77 The Call of Abraham 82 The Land as ‘Own’ and ‘Foreign’ 85 On Gendering the Land 89 The Wife-Sister Ruse: Appropriation of Fertility 93 What Is Lot’s Place? 102 ‘There Is No Man in the Land’: Distortion of Gender in Lot’s Story 113 Hagar’s Story: Subjectivity and Dominance 118 Chapter 3. The Mothers and the Mother’s Land in the Jacob Narrative (Gn 25:19-37:1) Binary Structures in the Jacob Narrative 131 Father’s Land vs. Mother’s Land 136 'Rebekah’s Mission 144 i Rachel as the ‘Right’ Bride 152 Leah and the Institutional 154 The Twists of God 156 The dûdâ’îm of Reuben (30:14-16) 159 Who is Who in Jacob’s Family? 164 The Two Perspectives on Gn 29:31-30:24 170 The Father’s Gods and the ‘Way of Women’ 172 Forms of Binary Relationships in the Jacob Narrative 178 Subject vis-à-vis the Twin: Antagonistic Relationship 179 Subject vis-à-vis the Double: Parallel Relationship 181 Conclusion 185 Bibliography 190 Acknowledgments I must first express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Professor Cheryl Exum, who suggested the lines of enquiry that opened up for me a whole new perspective on the biblical text. Cheryl’s insights as a feminist biblical scholar have significantly influenced my thinking and her work has been a constant source of inspiration. Without her encouragement, patience, and support as well as her selfless intellectual and personal investment I would not have been able to complete this work. I am grateful to the academic staff and fellow students in the Department of Biblical Studies for providing a stimulating and friendly environment. I thank Fr Alexander Nadson for his interest, encouragement and support and for his initial suggestion to look at Jacob’s night struggle at Penuel that led me to undertake specialist studies of the Hebrew Bible. I am grateful to him and Fr Serge Stasevich for their friendship and hospitality. Many thanks go to the late Vera Rich, whose playful love of words and literature coloured my work. I am grateful to my friend and collegue Iryna Dubianetskaya, to whom I owe my fascination with the Bible and countless other things, for many hours of fruitful discussions. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to Jim, my husband, and to my daughters, Eileen and Eva, whose unfailing support and patience allowed me to keep going to the end. List of Abbreviations BDB F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1907). BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Bibint Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches BJRL Bulletin o f the John Rylands University Library BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin BR Bible Review CBQ Catholic Biblical Quaterly DCH The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (ed. David J. A. Clines; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 1993-2011). HTR Harward Theological Review "GKC W. Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar (ed. E. Kautzsch; trans. A. E. Cowley; 2nd English edn; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910). ICC International Critical Commentary Int Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy JB Jerusalem Bible JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JJS Journal of Jewish Studies JPS Jewish Publication Society JSOT Journalfor the Study of the Old Testament JSOT SS Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series JTS Journal of Theological Studies NAV New Authorised Version NIV New International Version NIB New Interpreter’s Bible NIBC New International Biblical Commentary NICOT The New International Commentary on the Old Testament NRSV New Revised Standard Version RelArts Religion and the Arts . RSV Revised Standard Version StTh Studia Theologica TDOT G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry (eds.), Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974-2012). ThTo Theology Today VT Vetus Testamentum Introduction The present study of subjectivity and its gender-related metaphors in Genesis is a predominantly synchronic or, borrowing the term of Mieke Bal, ‘text-internal’ exercise.1 The gradual construction of the ‘world of the text’ with its intricately interrelated elements and its inner system of values leads to the emergence of a complex Subject, whose functioning lends itself to structural and psychological analysis. Looking at the text as a whole, I aim to examine the effects patriarchal structures have on the identity and the psyche of the Subject. By doing so, I do not oppose the socially oriented approach of biblical feminism that shows the patriarchal narrative as an instrument of sexual politics. However, the social and political functions of the biblical text lie outside the scope of this study, informed by the procedures of psycho-linguistic and semiotic analysis. Without disputing the ideological conditioning of the text, I shall examine the impact the patriarchal claim has on the functioning (and the dysfunction) of the narrative mind within the world of the text. The question that will guide the present study is how the text accommodates and accounts for the social and political assumptions built into its texture. To a certain extent, the exercise will be deconstructive, allowing the reader to see the patriarchal argument deconstruct itself from within, through the semiotic structures of the very texts that are seen as ideological documents of patriarchy. I do not suggest that these compensatory structures reflect female-oriented or egalitarian concerns of the narrator. The biblical narrative is by and large a narrative of patriarchy. David Jobling attributes the occasional favourable light shone on femininity in the biblical narrative to ‘the patriarchal mindset tying itself in knots trying to account for woman and femaleness in a way which both makes sense and supports patriarchal assumptions’.2 Along similar lines, Bal speaks about traces of ‘a problematization of man’s priority and domination’ 1 Mieke Bal, ‘Sexuality, Sin, And Sorrow: The Emergence of the Female Character’, in Elizabeth Anne Castelli and Rosamond C. Rodman (eds.) Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2001), p. 154. 2 David Jobling, The Sense o f Biblical Narrative: Structural Analyses in the Hebrew Bible II (JSOT SS, 39; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986), p. 43. that comes from the fundamental insecurity of the patriarchal claim.3 Reflecting a distorted view of reality, of the Self and the Other, the unified (male) subjectivity is vulnerable and in constant need of reaffirmation by the normative voice of the narrative.
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