Table Of ContentThe Earthy Nature of the Bible
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The Earthy Nature of the Bible
Fleshly Readings of Sex,
Masculinity, and Carnality
Roland Boer
the earthy nature of the bible
Copyright © Roland Boer, 2012.
All rights reserved.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,
company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has
companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978- 1- 137- 27315- 4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-137-27305-5 (hardcover)
An earlier version of Chapter 1 originally appeared as “The Second Coming: Repetition
and Insatiable Desire in the Song of Songs” Biblical Interpretation 8, no. 3 (2000):276–
301 and is reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
An earlier version of Chapter 3 originally appeared as “Keeping It Literal: The
Economy of the Song of Songs.” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 7 (2007), article 6;
DOI: 10.5508/jhs.2007.v7.a6, freely available online at http://www.jhsonline.org and
republished in a traditional printed version in E. Ben Zvi (ed.), Perspectives in Hebrew
Scriptures IV: Comprising the Contents of Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, vol. 7 (Piscataway,
NJ: Gorgias Press, 2008), 151–67, and is reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
Earlier versions of chapters 4, 6, and 7 originally appeared as “The Patriarch’s
Nuts: Concerning the Testicular Logic of Biblical Hebrew” in the Journal of Men,
Masculinities and Spirituality 5, no. 2 (2011): 41– 52; “Of Fine Wine, Incense and
Spices: The Unstable Masculine Hegemony of the Books of Chronicles” Journal
of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 4, no. 1 (2010):19– 31; and “Skin Gods:
Circumcising the Built Male Body” Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 1,
no. 1 (2007):35– 44, respectively, and are reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
An earlier version of Chapter 5 originally appeared as “Too Many Dicks at the Writing
Desk, or How to Organise a Prophetic Sausage Fest” in Theology and Sexuality 16, no.
1 (2010):95– 108, and is reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
An earlier version of Chapter 9 originally appeared as “King Solomon Meets Annie
Sprinkle” Semeia 82: In Search of the Present: The Bible through Cultural Studies (2000):
151– 82 and is reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a
division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Boer, Roland, 1961–
The earthy nature of the Bible : fleshly readings of sex, masculinity, and carnality /
Roland Boer.
pages cm
ISBN 978- 1- 137- 27305- 5 (hardback)— ISBN 978-1 - 137- 27315- 4
(paperback) 1. Sex in the Bible. 2. Bible. O.T.— Criticism, interpretation, etc.
3. Bible. O.T. Song of Solomon— Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1199.S45B64 2012
221.8'3067— dc23 2012019798
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: November 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother
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Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
I Song of Songs 9
1 The Second Coming: Repetition and Insatiable
Desire in the Song of Songs 11
2 A Fleshly Reading: Masochism, Ecocriticism, and
the Song of Songs 27
3 Making It, Literally: Metaphor, Economy,
and the Sensuality of Nature 35
II Masculinities 47
4 The Patriarch’s Nuts: Concerning the Testicular Logic
of Biblical Hebrew 49
5 Too Many Dicks at the Writing Desk, or
How to Organize a Prophetic Sausage Fest 59
6 Of Fine Wine, Incense, and Spices:
The Unstable Masculine Hegemony of the Books of Chronicles 71
7 Skin Gods: Circumcising the Built Male Body 81
III Paraphilias 91
8 Hooker Hermeneutics: A Reading of
Avaren Ipsen’s Sex Working and the Bible 93
9 King Solomon Meets Annie Sprinkle 103
10 Orientalist Camp: The Case of Allen Edwardes 121
viii ● Contents
11 Hittites, Horses, and Corpses:
On Bestiality and Necrophilia in the Hebrew Bible 133
Conclusion 149
Notes 151
References 169
Index 185
Preface
After I had completed The Criticism of Heaven and Earth, an almost endless multi-
volume work (Boer 2007a, 2009a; 2011a; 2012, in press), I was looking for a
very different project to which I could devote my time and pleasure. Perhaps
I should revise Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, I thought. A few messages to the
publisher put an end to those plans, for they wished to keep the thing in print.
What about a follow-u p book, in the same spirit and with the same interest in
the underside of the Bible? Before I knew it, I was working on various pieces for
what was to become The Earthy Nature of the Bible. To test the waters, I began
to post some snippets on my blog, stalinsmoustache.wordpress.com, on Hittites
and hippophilia, on patriarchal nuts, zoological zirmahs, and so on.
The responses were enough to suggest I was onto something, but what clinched
the deal was the moment my mother began reading my blog. Apparently, she had
heard rumors, a little gossip, and a little slander about my online activities. So
when she had a chance—o n a visit to my brother and his partner—s he requested
to read my blog. I was immediately informed via the grapevine (which had a
foreboding that my mother would not be pleased). Forewarned and forearmed,
knowing that a telephone call was forthcoming, I posted an open letter to my
mother, which she didn’t read (although many others did).
Finally, the call came.
“Roland, I have to talk to you about something.”
“Oh yes, the blog,” I said.
“How did you know?” she said.
“A little bird sitting on a vine,” I said.
“I didn’t get far,” she said. “It was so disgusting, I had to stop!”
“Well . . . um . . . yes.” I said.
“I thought you had perhaps gone off the deep end after your father’s death,” she
said. “But I can certainly understand why some people don’t want you to teach.”
“Actually, mum,” I said. “I am perfectly sane. I made a decision some time
ago that I would not hold back on the blog, knowing full well that you or my
children or other relatives would read it.”
