Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith

Athalya Brenner-Idan is Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and is now Professor in Biblical Studies at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. Helen Efthimiadis-Keith teaches Hebrew Bible at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

This collection of essays on the books of Tobit and Judith is a welcome addition to a landmark series that has put feminist criticism prominently on the map of biblical studies. It is a significant addition as well because it is the first time Tobit appears in the Feminist Companion Series. The combination of new and previously published studies—the latter either revised or accompanied by the authors’ self-responses to their earlier work (and in one case a response by Brenner-Idan)—works splendidly to give readers a sense of developments in feminist studies of Tobit and Judith. With its focus on identity—religious, gendered, individual or group, its formation or loss—and related topics such as diaspora, boundaries, the body, and food as an identity marker, this volume is relevant for the study not only of Tobit and Judith but of other biblical books as well.

• Table of ContentsAbbreviationsATHALYA BRENNER-IDAN (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)IntroductionPart ITOBIT: ON RELIGIOUS IDENTITY, GENDER AND FOOD1. Redrawing the Boundaries: A New Look at ‘Diaspora as Metaphor: Bodies and Boundaries in the Book of Tobit’AMY-JILL LEVINE (Vanderbilt University Divinity School, USA) 2. Jewish self-Awareness, Religious Identity and Acts of Resistance in the Book of TobitRENATE EGGER-WENZEL (University of Salzburg, Austria)3. Patriarchy with a Twist: Men and Women in TobitBEVERLY BOW (Cleveland State University, USA) AND GEORGE W. E. NICKELSBURG, (University of Iowa, USA)3a. Does the ‘Twist’ point to Heterarchy? A Response to Bow and NickelsburgATHALYA BRENNER-IDAN4. The Banishment of the Demon in Tobit: Textual Variants as a Result of EnculturationBEATE EGO (Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany)4a. A Self-Response to ‘Textual Variants’BEATE EGO (Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany)5. Seen and Heard, but Hardly Eating: Female Consumption in the Book of TobitNAOMI S. S. JACOBS6. Food and Death: an Autobiographic Perspective on Tobit according to One Woman’s Binge-Eating Disorder HELEN EFTHIMIADIS-KEITH (University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)Part IIWHAT CAN WE DO WITH JUDITH?7. What Shall We Do with Judith? A Feminist Assessment of a Biblical 'Heroine'PAMELA J. MILNE (University of Windsor, UK)7a. Self-Response: What Would I Do with Judith Now?PAMELA J. MILNE (University of Windsor, UK)8. Judith, Feminist Ethics and Feminist Biblical/Hebrew Bible InterpretationHELEN EFTHIMIADIS KEITH (University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)9. The Function of the Speeches and Prayers in the Book of JudithBARBARA SCHMITZ (University of Dortmund, Germany)10. Judith: More than a Pious Widow Turned Femme Fatale?ORA BRISON (University of Tel Aviv, Israel)11. Judith The SlaveholderJENNIFER GLANCY (University of Richmond, VA, USA)12. Clothing Seduces: Did You Think It Was Naked Flesh that Did It?ATHALYA BRENNER-IDAN (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and University of Tel Aviv, Israel)13. Words and Deeds: Seduction and Power in Judith and in Death ProofJAN WILLEM VAN HENTEN (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)14. Violent Superwomen: Super Heroes or Super Villains? Judith, Wonder Woman and Lynndie EnglandEMMA ENGLAND (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)14a. Second Thoughts on Female Terrorists and More: A Self-Response to ‘Violent Women’EMMA ENGLAND (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)