Books by Peter Altmann
Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and t... more Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and t... more Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.
This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Co... more This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches« conference held in Lausanne in June, 2017. The biblical food prohibitions constitute an excellent object for comparative and interdisciplinary approaches given their materiality, their nature as comparative objects between cultures, and their nature as an anthropological object. This volume articulates these three aspects within an integrated and dynamic perspective, bringing together contributions from Levantine archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives to form a new, multi-disciplinary foundation for interpretation.
Banned Birds The Birds of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, 2020
The dietary prohibitions in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 represent one of the most detailed te... more The dietary prohibitions in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 represent one of the most detailed textual overlaps in the Pentateuch between the Priestly material and Deuteronomy, yet study of them is often stymied by the rare terminology. This is especially the case for the birds: their identities are shrouded in mystery and the reasons for their prohibition debated. Peter Altmann attempts to break this impasse by setting these flyers within the broader context of birds and flying creatures in the Ancient Near East. His investigation considers the zooarcheological data on birds in the ancient Levant, iconographic and textual material on mundane and mythic flyers from Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as studying the symbolic functions of birds within the texts of the Hebrew Bible itself. Within this context, he undertakes thorough terminological studies of the expressions for the types of birds, concluding with possible reasons for their exclusion from the prescribed diet and the proposed composition-critical location for the texts in their contexts.
Essen und Trinken in der Bibel, 2019
Eating and drinking are more than just "fuel" for the body; meals also have rich social and symbo... more Eating and drinking are more than just "fuel" for the body; meals also have rich social and symbolic meaning. When people gather around a table, it forms community that can serve as the foundation for identity. A hostess or host can demonstrate power by inviting some people and leaving others out. Sacrificial meals treat far more than just the consumption of sustenance.
The present volume investigates the elements, forms, and meanings of the foodstuffs, meals, and feasts described in the Old and New Testaments in the context of their broader contexts and illuminates their political, social, and religious symbolism.
Essen und Trinken sind mehr als nur »Treibstoff« für den Körper, Mahlzeiten haben auch eine hohe soziale und symbolische Bedeutung: Wenn sich Menschen um einen Tisch versammeln, entsteht Gemeinschaft, die identitätsstiftend sein kann. Eine Gastgeberin kann, indem sie bestimmte Menschen zum Mahl einlädt und andere nicht, Macht demonstrieren. Bei Opfermählern geht es um weit mehr als um die reine Nahrungsaufnahme.
Der vorliegende Band untersucht Bestandteile, Gestalten und Bedeutungsgehalte der im Alten und Neuen Testament beschriebenen Nahrungsmittel, Mahlzeiten und Mähler, stellt sie in den Kontext ihrer Umwelt und wirft Licht auf ihr politische, soziale und religiöse Symbolik.
Large-scale economic change such as the rise of coinage occurred during the Persian-dominated cen... more Large-scale economic change such as the rise of coinage occurred during the Persian-dominated centuries (6th –4th centuries BCE) in the
Eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near East. How do the biblical texts of the time respond to such developments?
This study lays out foundational economic conceptions from the ancient Near East and earlier biblical traditions in order to show how Persian-period biblical texts build on these traditions to address the challenges of their day. Economic issues are central to the way that Ezra and Nehemiah approach the topics of temple building and of Judean
self-understanding. Economic terminology and considerations also
appear in Second Isaiah and the “Holiness Code.” Following significant
interaction with the material culture and extra-biblical texts, the study devotes special attention to the ascendancy of economics and its theological and identity implications as structuring metaphors for divine
action and human community in the Persian period.
Articles by Peter Altmann
Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. Volume 124, Issue 4, Pages 555–567, 2013
This study builds upon recent composition-critical analysis of Deut 26,1–15 and highlights the im... more This study builds upon recent composition-critical analysis of Deut 26,1–15 and highlights the importance of the festive meal topos for the interpretation of the section. This motif, shown to have developed new contours from its use in historically earlier texts of Deut, now accompanies the ritual utterances of vv. 5–10 and vv. 12–15. Eating in Deut 26,1–15 carries two related themes: celebration of a bountiful harvest in contrast to the memory of the perishing ancestor, and satisfaction for those in similarly precarious circumstances. When considered in light of the dangers associated with eating in Deut 6–11, the satisfaction and celebration in Deut 26 offer a positive ritual context for feasting in connection with the story of Yhwh’s provision in the exodus and gift of the land (cf. vv. 7–9).
Hermeneutische Blätter, 2011
SBL Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 2013
Die Welt Des Orients, 2020
Papers by Peter Altmann
This investigation of the composite text of the feast in Gen 43 explores how Joseph’s banquet wit... more This investigation of the composite text of the feast in Gen 43 explores how Joseph’s banquet with his brothers—and the placement of Joseph’s cup in Gen 44—functions as performative action in establishing the relationships between the commensal parties. In this way, the feast takes part in the larger story’s narrative thread of the complex reconciliation of the brothers. The argument explores the nature of this meal from several angles: (1) insights provided by anthropological theory on power dynamics at feasts, (2) illumination cast by ancient comparative texts, especially related to Persian feasting, and (3) light shed on the feast’s meaning by the significance of the cup in Persian feasts, given the cup’s role in Gen 44 to concretize the feast’s performative action in Gen 43:31–34.
Book cover, TOC, publication information for "Ancient Comparisons, Modern Models, and Ezra-Nehemi... more Book cover, TOC, publication information for "Ancient Comparisons, Modern Models, and Ezra-Nehemiah: Triangulating the Sources for Insights on the Economy of Persian Period Yehud,” in The Economy of Ancient Judah in its Historical Context (ed. M. L. Miller, E. Ben Zvi, and G. N. Knoppers; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 103–20
Decisive Meals: Table Politics in Biblical Literature , 2012
Oxford Bibliographies Online
conferences organized by Peter Altmann
The biblical dietary laws represent a key element for the self-definition of Jews (and Samaritans... more The biblical dietary laws represent a key element for the self-definition of Jews (and Samaritans) in Antiquity. The double mention of these laws in the Pentateuch (Lev 11 and Deut 14) confirms their special status and constitutes a unique case of repeated laws within the biblical legal material. Scholarship focuses primarily on three issues: the literary relationship between Lev 11 and Deut 14 (for a recent overview, see Nihan 2011), the extent to which these laws exemplify a coherent system in regard to the nature of the animals prohibited (Meshel 2008), and the prohibition of pig as an identity marker (Hübner 1989). The relevant study of Houston (1993) has highlighted the importance of paying attention to the archaeological context in order to understanding the forming of these laws, their relationship with daily practices, and their authoritative status. Unfortunately, scholarship has not pursued this line of inquiry in the wake of Houston’s study, which has come to represent a desiderata in current scholarship.
Recent archaeological finds point to the need for a complete reexamination of this issue. For instance, fish bones discovered in Iron Age II strata in Jerusalem, Ramat Rahel, and other sites in Judah include fish defined as unclean according to the Pentateuchal legislation (see D. N. Fulton et al 2015) Furthermore, recent archaeological analysis demonstrates that the pig taboo in biblical laws reflects the world of both late monarchic and postexilic Judah, but does not reflect daily life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Iron Age IIB (Sapir-Hen 2013). Findings of this sort illustrate archaeology’s importance for situating the origins, formation, growth, implementation, and reception of the purity laws of the Pentateuch in general, and especially the food laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14. In particular, the material evidence suggests a significantly more nuanced picture than has often been assumed concerning the relationship between biblical laws and dietary habits, necessitating a reassessment of the overall issue.
Moreover, neither Houston nor any other study has attempted to compare systematically the appearances and uses of animals in the texts and iconography of the surrounding cultures to provide a broader cultural context for the biblical material. The necessity of an investigation involving comparative aspects to gain a closer insight on the social and cultural context in which food laws developed arises in light of recent comprehensive works focusing on the representations of animals in the ancient Near East, (Collins 2002) and on the roles of purity in shaping religious traditions in the same region (Frevel and Nihan 2013).
In light of these concerns, this conference aims to illuminate the place of “food prohibitions” in the biblical texts in their cultural-historical and archaeological context. This notion will be explored, on the one hand, in relation to the archaeological context of
the Levant; on the other hand, through the comparison of food prohibitions in relation to the views of animals in cultic practices and daily customs in other ancient Mediterranean societies. More specifically, the following issues will be considered:
(1) Investigation, through comparison between the literary and archaeological data, of the relationship between the theoretical food prohibitions in the biblical texts and their practice in the timeframe ranging from the mid-Iron Age II to the Late Hellenistic Period (8th-2nd century BCE). This line of discussion aims at demonstrating the great complexity of the relationship between daily customs and religious prescriptions;
(2) Evaluation of how, and to what extent, the notion itself of “food prohibition” can apply to the various contexts in the ancient Mediterranean and to question the pertinence of the notion of taboo for the different forms of dietary restrictions in antiquity;
(3) Analysis of the way the biblical food laws fit within the larger context of animal usage in the Ancient Near East. This avenue seeks to identify various views of animals within larger corpora of ritual, religious, and cultic prescriptions and their possible relationships with dietary laws and practices.
In investigating these issues, this conference will create an international context for discussion, which will involve scholars of various disciplines interested in interdisciplinary dialogue. We are convinced that this dialogue will offer relevant points of interest for archaeologists, Bible specialists, and historians of religions. On the one side, this perspective on the study of biblical food prohibitions will serve archaeologists by challenging preconceived notions concerning the religious purity in ancient Israel’s religion that are often retrojected (consciously and unconsciously) from ancient Judaism. On the other side, as a case of extreme and systematic codification of food restrictions, biblical texts offer a unique viewpoint for the historians of religions to study the functioning of food prohibitions in antiquity compared to surrounding cultures, and to analyze the relationship between theory and practice of food laws.
The organizers aim to maintain the balance between young and established scholars as well as further gender inclusivity. The following list of participants promises a broad array of expertise brought together by the singular focus on investigating how their topic provides texture to the development, reception, and conceptual meaning(s) of the biblical dietary laws.
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Books by Peter Altmann
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The present volume investigates the elements, forms, and meanings of the foodstuffs, meals, and feasts described in the Old and New Testaments in the context of their broader contexts and illuminates their political, social, and religious symbolism.
Essen und Trinken sind mehr als nur »Treibstoff« für den Körper, Mahlzeiten haben auch eine hohe soziale und symbolische Bedeutung: Wenn sich Menschen um einen Tisch versammeln, entsteht Gemeinschaft, die identitätsstiftend sein kann. Eine Gastgeberin kann, indem sie bestimmte Menschen zum Mahl einlädt und andere nicht, Macht demonstrieren. Bei Opfermählern geht es um weit mehr als um die reine Nahrungsaufnahme.
Der vorliegende Band untersucht Bestandteile, Gestalten und Bedeutungsgehalte der im Alten und Neuen Testament beschriebenen Nahrungsmittel, Mahlzeiten und Mähler, stellt sie in den Kontext ihrer Umwelt und wirft Licht auf ihr politische, soziale und religiöse Symbolik.
Eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near East. How do the biblical texts of the time respond to such developments?
This study lays out foundational economic conceptions from the ancient Near East and earlier biblical traditions in order to show how Persian-period biblical texts build on these traditions to address the challenges of their day. Economic issues are central to the way that Ezra and Nehemiah approach the topics of temple building and of Judean
self-understanding. Economic terminology and considerations also
appear in Second Isaiah and the “Holiness Code.” Following significant
interaction with the material culture and extra-biblical texts, the study devotes special attention to the ascendancy of economics and its theological and identity implications as structuring metaphors for divine
action and human community in the Persian period.
Articles by Peter Altmann
Papers by Peter Altmann
conferences organized by Peter Altmann
Recent archaeological finds point to the need for a complete reexamination of this issue. For instance, fish bones discovered in Iron Age II strata in Jerusalem, Ramat Rahel, and other sites in Judah include fish defined as unclean according to the Pentateuchal legislation (see D. N. Fulton et al 2015) Furthermore, recent archaeological analysis demonstrates that the pig taboo in biblical laws reflects the world of both late monarchic and postexilic Judah, but does not reflect daily life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Iron Age IIB (Sapir-Hen 2013). Findings of this sort illustrate archaeology’s importance for situating the origins, formation, growth, implementation, and reception of the purity laws of the Pentateuch in general, and especially the food laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14. In particular, the material evidence suggests a significantly more nuanced picture than has often been assumed concerning the relationship between biblical laws and dietary habits, necessitating a reassessment of the overall issue.
Moreover, neither Houston nor any other study has attempted to compare systematically the appearances and uses of animals in the texts and iconography of the surrounding cultures to provide a broader cultural context for the biblical material. The necessity of an investigation involving comparative aspects to gain a closer insight on the social and cultural context in which food laws developed arises in light of recent comprehensive works focusing on the representations of animals in the ancient Near East, (Collins 2002) and on the roles of purity in shaping religious traditions in the same region (Frevel and Nihan 2013).
In light of these concerns, this conference aims to illuminate the place of “food prohibitions” in the biblical texts in their cultural-historical and archaeological context. This notion will be explored, on the one hand, in relation to the archaeological context of
the Levant; on the other hand, through the comparison of food prohibitions in relation to the views of animals in cultic practices and daily customs in other ancient Mediterranean societies. More specifically, the following issues will be considered:
(1) Investigation, through comparison between the literary and archaeological data, of the relationship between the theoretical food prohibitions in the biblical texts and their practice in the timeframe ranging from the mid-Iron Age II to the Late Hellenistic Period (8th-2nd century BCE). This line of discussion aims at demonstrating the great complexity of the relationship between daily customs and religious prescriptions;
(2) Evaluation of how, and to what extent, the notion itself of “food prohibition” can apply to the various contexts in the ancient Mediterranean and to question the pertinence of the notion of taboo for the different forms of dietary restrictions in antiquity;
(3) Analysis of the way the biblical food laws fit within the larger context of animal usage in the Ancient Near East. This avenue seeks to identify various views of animals within larger corpora of ritual, religious, and cultic prescriptions and their possible relationships with dietary laws and practices.
In investigating these issues, this conference will create an international context for discussion, which will involve scholars of various disciplines interested in interdisciplinary dialogue. We are convinced that this dialogue will offer relevant points of interest for archaeologists, Bible specialists, and historians of religions. On the one side, this perspective on the study of biblical food prohibitions will serve archaeologists by challenging preconceived notions concerning the religious purity in ancient Israel’s religion that are often retrojected (consciously and unconsciously) from ancient Judaism. On the other side, as a case of extreme and systematic codification of food restrictions, biblical texts offer a unique viewpoint for the historians of religions to study the functioning of food prohibitions in antiquity compared to surrounding cultures, and to analyze the relationship between theory and practice of food laws.
The organizers aim to maintain the balance between young and established scholars as well as further gender inclusivity. The following list of participants promises a broad array of expertise brought together by the singular focus on investigating how their topic provides texture to the development, reception, and conceptual meaning(s) of the biblical dietary laws.
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The present volume investigates the elements, forms, and meanings of the foodstuffs, meals, and feasts described in the Old and New Testaments in the context of their broader contexts and illuminates their political, social, and religious symbolism.
Essen und Trinken sind mehr als nur »Treibstoff« für den Körper, Mahlzeiten haben auch eine hohe soziale und symbolische Bedeutung: Wenn sich Menschen um einen Tisch versammeln, entsteht Gemeinschaft, die identitätsstiftend sein kann. Eine Gastgeberin kann, indem sie bestimmte Menschen zum Mahl einlädt und andere nicht, Macht demonstrieren. Bei Opfermählern geht es um weit mehr als um die reine Nahrungsaufnahme.
Der vorliegende Band untersucht Bestandteile, Gestalten und Bedeutungsgehalte der im Alten und Neuen Testament beschriebenen Nahrungsmittel, Mahlzeiten und Mähler, stellt sie in den Kontext ihrer Umwelt und wirft Licht auf ihr politische, soziale und religiöse Symbolik.
Eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near East. How do the biblical texts of the time respond to such developments?
This study lays out foundational economic conceptions from the ancient Near East and earlier biblical traditions in order to show how Persian-period biblical texts build on these traditions to address the challenges of their day. Economic issues are central to the way that Ezra and Nehemiah approach the topics of temple building and of Judean
self-understanding. Economic terminology and considerations also
appear in Second Isaiah and the “Holiness Code.” Following significant
interaction with the material culture and extra-biblical texts, the study devotes special attention to the ascendancy of economics and its theological and identity implications as structuring metaphors for divine
action and human community in the Persian period.
Recent archaeological finds point to the need for a complete reexamination of this issue. For instance, fish bones discovered in Iron Age II strata in Jerusalem, Ramat Rahel, and other sites in Judah include fish defined as unclean according to the Pentateuchal legislation (see D. N. Fulton et al 2015) Furthermore, recent archaeological analysis demonstrates that the pig taboo in biblical laws reflects the world of both late monarchic and postexilic Judah, but does not reflect daily life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Iron Age IIB (Sapir-Hen 2013). Findings of this sort illustrate archaeology’s importance for situating the origins, formation, growth, implementation, and reception of the purity laws of the Pentateuch in general, and especially the food laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14. In particular, the material evidence suggests a significantly more nuanced picture than has often been assumed concerning the relationship between biblical laws and dietary habits, necessitating a reassessment of the overall issue.
Moreover, neither Houston nor any other study has attempted to compare systematically the appearances and uses of animals in the texts and iconography of the surrounding cultures to provide a broader cultural context for the biblical material. The necessity of an investigation involving comparative aspects to gain a closer insight on the social and cultural context in which food laws developed arises in light of recent comprehensive works focusing on the representations of animals in the ancient Near East, (Collins 2002) and on the roles of purity in shaping religious traditions in the same region (Frevel and Nihan 2013).
In light of these concerns, this conference aims to illuminate the place of “food prohibitions” in the biblical texts in their cultural-historical and archaeological context. This notion will be explored, on the one hand, in relation to the archaeological context of
the Levant; on the other hand, through the comparison of food prohibitions in relation to the views of animals in cultic practices and daily customs in other ancient Mediterranean societies. More specifically, the following issues will be considered:
(1) Investigation, through comparison between the literary and archaeological data, of the relationship between the theoretical food prohibitions in the biblical texts and their practice in the timeframe ranging from the mid-Iron Age II to the Late Hellenistic Period (8th-2nd century BCE). This line of discussion aims at demonstrating the great complexity of the relationship between daily customs and religious prescriptions;
(2) Evaluation of how, and to what extent, the notion itself of “food prohibition” can apply to the various contexts in the ancient Mediterranean and to question the pertinence of the notion of taboo for the different forms of dietary restrictions in antiquity;
(3) Analysis of the way the biblical food laws fit within the larger context of animal usage in the Ancient Near East. This avenue seeks to identify various views of animals within larger corpora of ritual, religious, and cultic prescriptions and their possible relationships with dietary laws and practices.
In investigating these issues, this conference will create an international context for discussion, which will involve scholars of various disciplines interested in interdisciplinary dialogue. We are convinced that this dialogue will offer relevant points of interest for archaeologists, Bible specialists, and historians of religions. On the one side, this perspective on the study of biblical food prohibitions will serve archaeologists by challenging preconceived notions concerning the religious purity in ancient Israel’s religion that are often retrojected (consciously and unconsciously) from ancient Judaism. On the other side, as a case of extreme and systematic codification of food restrictions, biblical texts offer a unique viewpoint for the historians of religions to study the functioning of food prohibitions in antiquity compared to surrounding cultures, and to analyze the relationship between theory and practice of food laws.
The organizers aim to maintain the balance between young and established scholars as well as further gender inclusivity. The following list of participants promises a broad array of expertise brought together by the singular focus on investigating how their topic provides texture to the development, reception, and conceptual meaning(s) of the biblical dietary laws.