Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible

by Quick, Laura

• ISBN13: 9780198856818
• ISBN10: 0198856814
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780192598875
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2021-04-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible is the first monograph to treat dress and adornment in biblical literature in the English language. It moves beyond a description of these aspects of ancient life to encompass notions of interpersonal relationships and personhood that underpin practices of dress and adornment. Laura Quick explores the ramifications of body adornment in the biblical world, informed by a methodologically plural approach incorporating material culture alongside philology, textual exegesis, comparative evidence, and sociological models.

Drawing upon and synthesizing insights from material culture and texts from across the eastern Mediterranean, the volume reconstructs the social meanings attached to the dressed body in biblical texts. It shows how body adornment can deepen understanding of attitudes towards the self in the ancient world. In Quick's reconstruction of ancient performances of the self, the body serves as the observed centre in which complex ideologies of identity, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and social status are articulated. The adornment of the body is thus an effective means of non-verbal communication, but one which at the same time is controlled by and dictated through normative social values. Exploring dress, adornment, and the body can therefore open up hitherto unexplored perspectives on these social values in the ancient world, an essential missing piece in understanding the social and cultural world which shaped the Hebrew Bible.

Author Biography

Laura Quick, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Faculty of Theology and Religion, and Tutorial Fellow in Theology and Religion, Worcester College, Oxford

Laura Quick is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and Tutorial Fellow in Theology and Religion at Worcester College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Dress and Adornment at the Intersection of Material Culture and Embodiment
Part I: Dress
1. Spread the Hem of Your Cloak Over Me (Ruth 3:9): Dress and the Body
2. He Will Wash His Garments in Wine (Gen. 49:11): Dress and Ritual
3. Holy Garments for Glory and for Beauty (Ex. 28:3): Dress and Identity
Part II: Adornment
4. A Gold Ring in a Swine's Snout (Prov. 11:22): Jewellery and Personal Religion
5. She Painted Her Eyes and Looked Out of the Window (2 Kgs 9:30): Cosmetics and the Other
6. Through a Glass, Darkly (1 Cor. 13:12): Mirrors and the Self
Conclusions
Bibliography
Subject Index
Index of Primary Sources
Index of Modern Authors