By Saul M. Olyan
Stable and evil, fresh and unclean, wealthy and bad, self and different. the character and serve as of such binary oppositions have lengthy intrigued students in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, classics, and anthropology. From the hole chapters of Genesis, within which God separates day from evening, and Adam and Eve partake of the tree of the data of fine and evil, dyadic pairs proliferate in the course of the Hebrew Bible. during this groundbreaking paintings melding serious exegesis and modern idea, Saul M. Olyan considers the superiority of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their importance for the social and non secular associations of old Israel. Extant biblical narrative and felony texts display a suite of socially developed and culturally privileged binary oppositions, Olyan argues, which instigate and perpetuate hierarchical social relatives in ritual settings similar to the sanctuary.Focusing on 4 binary pairs--holy/common, Israelite/alien, clean/unclean, and whole/blemished--Olyan indicates how those privileged oppositions have been used to limit entry to cultic areas, akin to the temple or the Passover desk. those ritual websites, for that reason, turned the first contexts for developing and recreating unequal social kinfolk. Olyan additionally uncovers a trend of problem to the validated hierarchies through nonprivileged teams. Converging with modern problems with energy, marginalization, and privileging, Olyan's painstaking but lucid research abounds with implications for anthropology, classics, serious conception, and feminist stories.
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Additional resources for Rites and Rank. Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult
Example text
Profanation of holiness is a frequent theme in texts concerned with holiness and its preservation. Most cases of profanation mentioned in the biblical text are violations and result in fines or more severe punishment. 51 Illegitimate profanation is mentioned in any number of biblical texts. The divine name, the altar, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, holy items (including holy foods), the priest, and the deity himself may be profaned through illegitimate activity, contact, use or behavior. 52 The holy foods belonging to the priests and, by extension, their dependents are profaned when unqualified persons eat them (see Lev 22:14–16); the sanctuary by a blemished priest approaching the altar or pvrÉket (see Lev 21:23); a priest by his daughter if she plays the harlot (Lev 21:9).
If they are brought, he will bless the people. Just as Yhwh is appropriately honored when he receives his holy entitlement, so are the priests when they receive their allotted portion of the holy foods and likewise the Levites when they receive their due from the worshiper. Problems arise, however, when people take what is not theirs; in so doing, they dishonor or despise whoever is entitled, challenging his status position. Just as “outsiders” must not approach the holy foods reserved for the priesthood, so priests (and others) must not take what belongs to Yhwh.
Rites of purification vary depending on the source of the defilement in question.