Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Bones, burials and boundaries
1.1 Placing the dead
1.2 Venerating the dead
1.3 Centralizing the dead
2. Abraham at Machpelah
2.1 Marking Machpelah
2.2 (Ac)claiming Abraham
3. Moses at the edge
3.1 Moses' memorial
3.2 Torah memorialized
4. Contesting Bethel
4.1 Displacing the dead
4.2 Ancestral advocacy
5. Claiming Jerusalem
5.1 City of the Dead
5.2 Entombing temple
6. The creation of a nation
6.1 Remapping the land
6.2 Re-placing the dead
Bibliography
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Authors
Index of Subjects
Ancestor veneration plays important- and hitherto overlooked- socio-religious and ideological roles in various and competing territorial claims as presented in the Hebrew Bible.
Francesca Stavrakopoulou is Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at the University of Exeter, UK. Her research focuses on ancient Israelite religion, Judahite kingship, and history and ideology in the Hebrew Bible. She is the author of King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice: Biblical Distortions of Historical Realities (De Gruyter, 2004).
Land of Our Fathers thoughtfully and creatively explores the ways
in which fundamental connections between the ancestors and the land
mapped culture in ancient Israel. Francesca Stavrakopoulou's work
is interdisciplinary and methodologically sophisticated, drawing
upon cultural anthropology and other fields to study "the
territorialism of the dead." The author's analysis not only points
to pan-Israelite patterns of culture but also to variations and
developments in attitudes to the dead that reflect and respond to
social, political, and historical dynamics. I look forward to
sharing this important case study in the history of religion with
my students in courses that deal with ancient Israelite and
comparative religions. --Susan Niditch, Samuel Green Professor of
Religion, Amherst College
Against the background of wide reading in the anthropological
literature on mortuary cults and the veneration of ancestors,
Francesca Stavrokopoulou has now pioneered a new approach to
conflicting land claims, territoriality, and the formation of group
identity in ancient Israel. No one interested in these issues, by
no means of purely historical interest, should miss out on this
book. --Joseph Blenkinsopp, John A. O'Brien Professor Emeritus of
Biblical Studies University of Notre Dame
Because a dominant strain of thought in the Hebrew Bible is hostile
to dealings with the dead, modern biblical scholarship has often
concluded that this was the majority view in ancient Israel.
Francesca Stavrakopoulou shows in this fascinating study that the
dead were often seen as powerful, especially in helping people to
establish a claim to land. Abraham, Moses, and many other figures
legitimate land claims by their burial in salient places. This book
challenges received opinions about the role of the dead in Israel
and establishes a new model for thinking about burial customs.
--John Barton is Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of
Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford
[Stavrakopoulou] presents a detailed and thought-provoking
exposition of key ancestral land claims in the Hebrew Bible, one
that biblical scholars- especially those who focus on the religions
of ancient Israel and Judah- will find fascinating and useful for
further research... Scholars of other disciplines within religious
studies, too, will benefit from her discussion of anthropological
theory regarding burials and socio-cultural "landscapes" outlined
in the first chapter and referenced throughout the work. This
interesting and well-written volume, therefore, is highly
recommended.
*Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses*
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