Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos A Study in the Book of Ezekiel

by Kamionkowski, S. Tamar

• ISBN13: 9780826462244
• ISBN10: 0826462243
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Pr

Summary

This book is about both the fear of gender reversal and its expression in the prophet Ezekiel's reworking of the marital metaphor. Kamionkowski argues that the abomination of "wife Jerusalem" is that she is attempting to pass for a male, thereby crossing gender boundaries and upsetting the world order. This story is therefore one of confused gender scripts, ensuing chaos and a re-ordering through the reinforcement of these strictly defined prescriptions of gendered behaviour.Using socio-historical evidence and the existence of the literary motif of "men turning into women" as a framework, this book argues that Ezekiel 16, in particular, reflects the gender chaos which arises as an aftermath of social and theological crises.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(29)
Ezekiel and Gender Reversal	5	(4)
Preliminary Considerations	9	(19)
Composition and Dating	10	(6)
Approaches to Ezekiel 16 and 23	16	(1)
Traditional Commentators	17	(1)
Feminist Readers	18	(2)
Covenant Theologians	20	(8)
Where Do We Go from Here?	28	(2)
Metaphor	30	(28)
Metaphor Theories	31	(4)
Cognitive Metaphor Theory	35	(7)
Schemas and Slots	42	(2)
Metaphor and Contextual Knowledge	44	(2)
Metaphor and Persuasion	46	(2)
Metaphor and Biblical Studies	48	(7)
`A Metaphor is Just a Metaphor'	55	(1)
Conclusions	56	(2)
Gender Reversal: A Weak Man Is a Woman	58	(34)
Metaphor in Socio-Cultural and Historical Context	58	(21)
Exile, Shame and Gender Crisis	60	(5)
Ezekiel and Exile	65	(5)
Responses to Gender Confusion: Hypervirility	70	(3)
Responses to Gender Confusion: Emasculation	73	(1)
Excursus: Psychologizing Ezekiel	74	(5)
Metaphor in Literary Context	79	(12)
The Mesopotamian Evidence	79	(6)
The Biblical Evidence	85	(6)
Conclusions	91	(1)
Ezekiel 16 and the Emasculated Man	92	(42)
The Passive Girl	93	(17)
Translation and Commentary	93	(3)
Vulnerability ad absurdum	96	(7)
He Gives her Life	103	(1)
He Gives her Sexual Experience	104	(6)
The Assertive Woman	110	(17)
Translation and Commentary	110	(7)
Women's Ejaculation	117	(3)
Usurping the Phallus	120	(2)
The Violent Woman	122	(1)
Financial Independence	123	(2)
Women's Ejaculation, Again	125	(1)
Inversion of Gender Order	126	(1)
Conclusions	127	(7)
Ezekiel 23 and the Hypervirile Man	134	(16)
Introducing Oholah and Oholibah	135	(4)
Differences between Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23	139	(8)
Roles of the Characters and Use of Verbs	140	(4)
Reuse and Reformulation of Key Phrases	144	(2)
Affinities with Hosean and Jeremian Traditions	146	(1)
Conclusions	147	(3)
Conclusion	150	(3)
Bibliography	153	(25)
Index of References	178	(6)
Index of Authors	184