Product Description
The book argues that ancestor veneration plays important - and hitherto overlooked - socio-religious and ideological roles in various and competing territorial claims as presented in the Hebrew Bible. In this book, the biblical motif of a land divinely-promised and given to Abraham and his descendants is argued to be an ideological reflex of post-monarchic, territorial disputes between competing socio-religious groups. The important biblical motif of a Promised Land is founded upon the ancient Near Eastern concept of ancestral land: hereditary space upon which families lived, worked, died and were buried. An essential element of concept of ancestral land was the belief in the post-mortem existence of the ancestors, who were venerated with grave offerings, mortuary feasts, bone rituals and standing stones. The Hebrew Bible is littered with stories concerning these practices and beliefs, yet the specific correlation of ancestor veneration and certain biblical land claims has gone unrecognized. The book remedies this in presenting evidence, both biblical and non-biblical, for the vital and persistent impact of ancestor veneration upon land claims.It proposes that ancestor veneration, which formed a common ground in the experiences of various socio-religious groups in ancient Israel, became in the Hebrew Bible an ideological battlefield upon which claims to the land were won and lost. Subjects discussed include Abraham's purchase of land as a burial plot; Jacob and Laban's territorial dispute; Jacob at Bethel; the fifth commandment; the Davidic cult of the ancestors and its place in the Temple; the desecration of tombs and the burning of bones at Bethel; bone rituals in Jerusalem; Nehemiah's ancestral graves; the competition for land in the post-monarchic period. Over the last 30 years this pioneering series has established an unrivaled reputation for cutting-edge international scholarship in Biblical Studies and has attracted leading authors and editors in the field. The series takes many original and creative approaches to its subjects, including innovative work from historical and theological perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and more recent developments in cultural studies and reception history.
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