The Chess King of the Sciences? How Biblical Studies Appropriates Insights

from Other Academic Disciplines

Benjamin D. Giffone

WHY “CHESS KING OF THE SCIENCES”?

Premises

1. Texts are a product of context.

2. The Hebrew Bible in its final form, and in most of its constituent parts, is the product of post-587-BCE scribal communities that were decidedly pro-Levi and pro-Judah.

3. The texts that made it into the Hebrew Bible are those that these scribal communities thought most important for the continuation of the Jews as a distinct identity.

Premises (cont.)

4. The so-called “Deuteronomistic History,” consisting of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, was composed during the late monarchy, the exilic period, and the early Persian period.

5. The book of Chronicles is a rewritten history of Israel’s monarchy that is dependent upon the books of Samuel and Kings as a source.

Premises (cont.)

6. The main tribal identities that survived the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests of the Israelite monarchies are: Judah, Levi, Benjamin.

TEXTUAL IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY MEMORY

Israel and Benjamin in Judah’s Bible

• Judges 4-16

Jdg 4-16 Northern Israelite judges

Israel and Benjamin in Judah’s Bible

• Judges 4-16

Jdg 1-2 Double Introduction (Judah leads Israel)

Jdg 3 Judahite vs. Benjaminite judges

Jdg 4-16 Northern Israelite judges

Jdg 17-18 Danite migration

Jdg 19 Benjaminite atrocity

Jdg 20-21 Civil war: Judah leads Israel against Benjamin

Israel and Benjamin in Judah’s Bible

• Proverb: “Is Saul also among the prophets?!”– 1 Samuel 1-14

• “The Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them.” (10:10b)

– 1 Samuel 15-31• “He also stripped off his clothes, and he too

prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night.” (19:24a)

Jewish Identity

• Ethnicity? Religion? Nationality? Something else?

• Identity formation as dynamic process• Multidimensionality of identity within

imperial hierarchies

Jon Berquist on Identity Formation

“Understanding Judean identity formation involves a complex analysis of multiple social levels with attention to numerous processes in which people internalize the forces of imperialization and decolonization. As social agents, these self-identifying Judeans together constructed a story of the development of Judah during the Achaemenid Period, as they turned their role scripts into social action and deployed themselves in patterns of ethnicity, politics, and religion, as well as myriad other complex social patterns.

Jon Berquist on Identity Formation

“Such attention to identity formation necessitates deeper and more critical understandings of the forces of imperialization and decolonization and the way that these forces shape identity and difference within societies.”

“Constructions of Identity in Postcolonial Yehud,” 2006

Louis Jonker on Multidimensionality

“It is important to emphasise that these levels never functioned in isolation. The inhabitants of Yehud, and particularly the literati who were responsible for the writing of another historiography, the books of Chronicles, were exposed to all these contexts, and were active participants in all of them.”

“Engaging with Different Contexts,” 2011

Hypothesis: Chronicler’s Transformative Rhetorical Goal

1. Embedded in the Deuteronomistic History are elements of the community identities of the Northern tribes, even though we must acknowledge that these “textual identities” are filtered through the lens of Southern concerns.

Hypothesis: Chronicler’s Transformative Rhetorical Goal

2. Tribal identity of Benjamin is complex, reflecting ties to Josephite tribes to the north and Judah to the south.

Hypothesis: Chronicler’s Transformative Rhetorical Goal

3. Chronicles represents a later snapshot of Judah-Benjamin relations. The Chronicler consciously attempts to reshape the identity of All Israel by revising the contentious history between Judah and Benjamin.

SELECTORATE THEORY & HERESTHETIC

Selectorate Theory

• L = single leader or group leadership of the polity

• S = selectorate, “the group that has a formal role in expressing a preference over the selection of the leadership that rules them”

• WC = winning coalition, which is “the group whose support is essential if a leader is to remain in power”

• D = Disenfranchised

Selectorate Theory

• L maintains support of WC by providing benefits– “public goods” that benefit the polity generally– “private goods” given to the WC

• C = challenger to L– Tries to “convince a sufficient number of

members of the current winning coalition to defect to him”

– Promises more rewards (through some combination of public and private goods) than the current leadership

Jonker on Political Dimensions in Persian Yehud

• Imperial and regional: Yehud defined partly by its nearness to the geographic corridors of power that extended the reach of the Persian Empire

• Within Yehud: cultic centers distribute public and private goods; competition for regional governor

• Cultic dimension: Jerusalem among other places for worship

Heresthetic

• By William H. Riker, from the Greek αἱρειν, “to choose”

• Heresthetic is a strategy of restructuring the process of collective decision-making so as to ensure a desired outcome.

Heresthetic: Three Forms

• Regrouping or reframing issues• Reordering binary choices when there are

three or more options• Institutional change: Enfranchising or

disenfranchising portions of a selectorate so as to create or dismantle a winning coalition

The Chronicler’s Heresthetic Maneuver

• Shaping the communal memory of Yehud with respect to Benjamin

• Attracting support for Jerusalem from wealthier Benjaminite Yehudians

The Chronicler’s Heresthetic Maneuver

• Shaping the communal memory of Yehud with respect to Benjamin

• Attracting support for Jerusalem from wealthier Benjaminite Yehudians

• Mediating position between priests and the non-priestly Levites

• Reordering the key questions pertaining to identity and worship

Benjamin in Chronicles: Three Examples

• 1 Chronicles 8

1 Chr 1 Table of Nations1 Chr 2-4 Genealogy of Judah (David)

1 Chr 5 Genealogy of Transjordan tribes1 Chr 6 Genealogy of Levi (high priests)

1 Chr 7 Genealogy of Cisjordan Northern tribes

1 Chr 8 Genealogy of Benjamin (Saul)1 Chr 9 Return from Exile (Judah, Benjamin, Levi)

Benjamin in Chronicles: Three Examples

• 2 Samuel 2-4: War between the house of Judah (David), and Israel following the house of Benjamin (Ishbosheth)

• 1 Chronicles 11-12: No war mentioned; Benjaminites as the very first and most prominent supporters of David’s reign

Benjamin in Chronicles: Three Examples

• 1 Chronicles 21: The Chronicler transforms the story of the census, the plague, and David’s altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite from an appended narrative (as we find this story in 2 Sam 24) to a catalyst for the discovery of the temple site (1 Chr 21:1-22:1). This location happens to be right on the border between Benjaminite and Judahite territory, a perfect location for a temple that should belong to both tribes.

Three Questions

1. Who should be part of the worship of YHWH?2. Where should the cult be located?3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Three Questions

3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Levites and Judah-kings

Three Questions

1. Who should be part of the worship of YHWH?

No Benjaminites

2. Where should the cult be located?

Benjaminites go elsewhere

3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Levites and Judah-kings

Three Questions

1. Who should be part of the worship of YHWH?

No Benjaminites

All Israel, including Benjamin

2. Where should the cult be located?

Benjaminites go elsewhere

3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Levites and Judah-kings

Three Questions

1. Who should be part of the worship of YHWH?

No Benjaminites

All Israel, including Benjamin

2. Where should the cult be located?

Benjaminites go elsewhere

Jerusalem in Benjamin

3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Levites and Judah-kings

Three Questions

1. Who should be part of the worship of YHWH?

No Benjaminites

All Israel, including Benjamin

2. Where should the cult be located?

Benjaminites go elsewhere

Jerusalem in Benjamin

3. Which group should oversee the YHWH cult?

Levites and Judah-kings

Levi between Judah and Benjamin

Chronicler’s Heresthetic: Summary

• Removes bad references to Benjamin from Deuteronomistic History

• Frames “all Israel” to include Benjamin prominently, which then lends credence to the Jerusalem temple.

• Also protects the cult from cooption by Benjamin

BIBLICAL STUDIES AND FAITH COMMUNITIES

The Chess King of the Sciences? How Biblical Studies Appropriates Insights

from Other Academic Disciplines

Bibliography: www.thinkhardthinkwell.com