Bodies, Embodiment, and Theology of the Hebrew Bible

Tamar Kamionkowski, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Bible and Academic Dean of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel.Wonil Kim, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament at the School of Religion, La Sierra University.Wonil Kim, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament at the School of Religion, La Sierra University

The focus of this volume of collected papers is the appropriate reading lens for interpretation of embodiment language, with regard to God and to human beings, in the Hebrew Bible. The papers explore the subject of the complex anthropomorphisms in the biblical books, with relation to God’s biblical bodies, human biblical bodies, divine bodies, human bodies, and today’s reader.This approach is viewed as innovative and separate from much previous biblical scholarship which centred on spiritual interpretations of bodies, especially the metaphysical interpretation of the divine body ... This volume combines a desire to discuss overarching issues about the use of the human form within biblical theology with attention to specific texts and topics relevant to the study of the Hebrew Bible.

• List of Contributors Abbreviations Introduction: S. Tamar Kamionkowski Section One: God's Biblical BodiesAmy C. Merrill Willis, "Heavenly Bodies: God and the Body in the Visions of Daniel" Claudia Bergmann, ""'Like a Warrior' and ‘Like a Woman Giving Birth:' Expressing Divine Immanence and Transcendence in Isaiah 42:10-17" Ilona Zsolnay, "The Inadequacies of Yahweh: A Re-examination of Jerusalem's Portrayal in Ezekiel 16" Section Two: Human Biblical BodiesJeremy Schipper, "Embodying Deuteronomistic Theology in 1 Kings 15:22-24" Hilary Lipka, "Profaning the Body: Chillel and the Conception of Loss of Personal Holiness in H" Eve Levavi Feinstein, "Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible" Matthew R. Schlimm, "Emotion, Embodiment, and Ethics: Engaging Anger in Genesis" Section Three: Divine Bodies, Human Bodies, and Today's ReaderEsther J. Hamori, "Divine Embodiment in the Hebrew Bible and its Implications for Jewish and Christian Incarnational Theology" Gerald West, "The Contribution of Tamar's Story to the Construction of Alternative African Masculinities" Howard Schwartz, "Does God Have a Body in Scripture?: The Problem of Metaphor and Literal Language in Biblical Interpretation" Index of references Index of AuthorsBibliography