Exile, Incorporated: The Body in the Book of Ezekiel

Exile, Incorporated: The Body in the Book of Ezekiel demonstrates how the book of Ezekiel makes rhetorical use of the human body to construct an exile-centred Judean identity. This focus on the body is inextricable from the book's setting in the Judean exile to Babylonia during the sixth-century BCE. In such a context of upheaval, all that the displaced group reliably retains are their bodies. Even so, the material surroundings of those bodies change completely, calling into question previously accepted ways of being. Author Rosanne Liebermann reveals how the book of Ezekiel holds acute awareness of this situation, evoking bodily practices and embodied experiences that serve to construct a Judean identity based on existence outside of the land of Judah. This identity excludes both non-Judeans as well as the Judeans who remained in Judah. The book of Ezekiel achieves this exclusion via descriptions of bodily practices--including circumcision, dress, and the observance of a cultic calendar--that distinguish its constructed in-group of exiled Judeans from outsiders. Ezekiel also evokes the embodied emotion of disgust regarding the bodies of those with "outsider" practices, which in turn encourages the practice of segregation and endogamy within the in-group. Focusing on the bodies depicted in the book of Ezekiel also highlights how the text presents hierarchies within the exilic Judean group, which itself contains bodies differentiated by gender and priestly or non-priestly descent. Reading the text in this way reveals how the book of Ezekiel constructs a model of a variegated community able to embody a Judean identity that not only survived but was based on life outside of the land of Judah. DOI: 10.1093/9780197690871.001.0001 Title: Exile, Incorporated Published: 2024-08-02 Abstract: The book of Ezekiel makes rhetorical use of the human body to construct an exile-centred Judean identity. This focus on the body is inextricable from Ezekiel’s setting in the sixth-century BCE Judean exile to Babylonia. In such a context of upheaval, all the displaced group reliably retains are their bodies. Even so, the material surroundings of those bodies change completely, calling previously accepted ways of being into question. The book of Ezekiel reveals acute awareness of this situation, evoking bodily practices and embodied experiences that serve to construct a Judean identity based on existence outside of the land of Judah. This identity excludes both non-Judeans and the Judeans who remained in Judah. The book of Ezekiel seeks to achieve this exclusion via descriptions of bodily practices—including circumcision, dress, and the observance of a cultic calendar—that distinguish its constructed in-group of exiled Judeans from outsiders. Ezekiel also evokes the embodied emotion of disgust regarding the bodies of those with “outsider” practices, which in turn encourages the practice of segregation and endogamy within the in-group. Focusing on the bodies in the book of Ezekiel also highlights how the text presents hierarchies within the exilic Judean group, which itself contains bodies differentiated by gender and priestly or nonpriestly descent. Reading the text in this way reveals how the book of Ezekiel constructs a model of a variegated community able to embody a Judean identity that not only survived but also was based on life outside of the land of Judah. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 List of Maps and Illustrations 12 List of Abbreviations 14 1 Introduction 16 “Our Bones Have Dried Up; Our Hope Has Perished”: Ezekiel’s Afterlives 16 The Body in the Book of Ezekiel 18 Exile, Incorporated 25 2 Exiled Bodies, Ezekiel’s Bodies 28 The Book of Ezekiel as the Object of Research 28 Religious Embodiment and Exile 39 3 Foreign Bodies 61 Unclean Among the Uncircumcised 61 Assyrians Dressed in Blue 77 The Trailing Turbans of the Chaldeans 83 The Naked Woman and the War Machine 89 Conclusion 95 4 Women’s Bodies 97 The Baby Girl 99 The “Very, Very Beautiful” Bride 107 The Unfaithful Wife, the Unnatural Mother 114 The “Old Bag” 122 Women as Ritual Practitioners 124 Conclusion 131 5 Sublime Bodies 133 Zadokites and Levites 135 Yhwh’s Body 150 Ezekiel, High Priest of the Exile 158 Conclusion 166 6 Hearts of Flesh 168 Collective Memories 170 Conclusions 180 A Calendar for the Exile 181 Futures Monstrous and Divine 190 Conclusion 202 7 Conclusion 204 Bibliography 210 Index of Primary Texts 230 General Index 236 Ezekiel, body, Judean, identity, exile, Babylonia, bodily practices, embodied experiences, disgust, hierarchy