Land of Our Fathers: The Roles of Ancestor Veneration in Biblical Land Claims

209 Pages·2010·0.89 MB·English

by  Francesca Stavrakopoulou

LIBRARY OF HEBREW BIBLE/
OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES
473
Formerly Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
Editors
Claudia V. Camp, Texas Christian University
Andrew Mein, Westcott House, Cambridge
Founding Editors
David J. A. Clines, Philip R. Davies and David M. Gunn
Editorial Board
Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon,
Norman K. Gottwald, Gina Hens- Piazza, John Jarick, Andrew D. H.
Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller, Yvonne Sherwood
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LAND OF OUR FATHERS
The Roles of Ancestor Veneration in Biblical
Land Claims
Francesca Stavrakopoulou
Copyright © 2010 by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
Published by T & T Clark International
A Continuum imprint
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
www.continuumbooks.com
Visit the T & T Clark blog at www.tandtclarkblog.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publisher, T & T Clark International.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Stavrakopoulou, Francesca.
Land of our fathers : the roles of ancestor veneration in biblical land claims / Francesca
Stavrakopoulou.
p. cm. — (The library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies ; #473)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.
ISBN-13: 978-0-567-02881-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-567-02881-X (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Land tenure—Biblical teaching. 2. Ancestor
worship—Biblical teaching. 3. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1199.L28S73 2010
221.8’20213—dc22 2010010320
ISBN: 978-0-567-02881-5 (hardback)
Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed in the United States of America by Thomson-Shore, Inc
For my mother and her Welsh father, with all my love
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Chapter 1
BONES,BURIALS AND BOUNDARIES 1
Placing the Dead 8
Venerating the Dead 18
Centralizing the Dead 25
Chapter 2
ABRAHAM AT MACHPELAH 29
Marking Machpelah 33
(Ac)claiming Abraham 39
Chapter 3
MOSES AT THE EDGE 55
Moses’ Memorial 56
Torah Memorialized 71
Chapter 4
CONTESTINGBETHEL 81
Displacing the Dead 81
Ancestral Advocacy 92
Chapter 5
CLAIMINGJERUSALEM 103
City of the Dead 104
Entombing Temple 120
Chapter 6
THECREATION OF A NATION 135
Remapping the Land 136
Re- Placing the Dead 142
viii
Contents
Bibliography 149
Index of Ancient Sources 173
Index of Authors 179
Index of Subjects 183
PREFACE
I began thinking about the subject of this book in November 2004, when the
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was dying. As was widely reported by the
Western media at the time, his supporters called for his burial in Jerusalem, but
their request was rejected by the Israeli government. Within the diffi cult context
of the ongoing territorial struggle between Israel and Palestine, this response was
perceived by many political commentators as a reassertion of Israel’s control and
possession of Jerusalem.1 This view appeared to be encouraged by comments
made at the time by the Israeli Justice Minister, Yosef Lapid, who announced
that Arafat could not be buried in Jerusalem because it is ‘a city where Jews
bury their kings’.2 Characterized in this way, government opposition to Arafat’s
Jerusalem burial was framed in terms of an appeal to the ancient heritage of the
city as a Davidic burial site. This book is not about modern territorial assertions,
and makes no claim at all to intervene in that complex and fraught debate. But
modern ideas about Jerusalem as a ‘city of tombs’ take their inspiration from the
Hebrew Bible, which presents an equally complex (if, necessarily, differently
articulated) set of claims about the role of the dead in the delineation of land.
The debate over Arafat’s burial is a dramatic reminder of not only the power
and persistence of these claims, but also their surprising adaptability to new and
changing circumstances.
1. As Lara Sukhtian commented in the Independent newspaper (11 November 2004), the
request to bury Arafat in Jerusalem was refused by Israel ‘fearing a Jerusalem burial would
strengthen Palestinians’ claims to a city they envision as a capital of a future Palestinian
state’ (available online at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-e ast/yasser-
arafat- icon- of- palestinian- cause- is- dead- 532846.html).
2. For examples of the ways in which this was reported in mainstream Western media,
see the online CNN and BBC articles at http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/05/
arafat.health/index.html (accessed 8 November 2004); and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/
middle_east/3983783.stm (accessed 11 November 2004).