Semeia articles from March 1999

Semeia archives from March 1999

OUR MENU AND WHAT Is NOT ON IT: AN INTRODUCTION.(resources on food and dietary habits of ancient Biblical cultures)
March 22, 1999... In recent years it has become legitimate, even quite fashionable, to have a scholarly interest in food and cooking. This interest has been paramount in anthropology as practiced in the second half of this century, that is, structural...

"OIL FROM FLINTY ROCK" (DEUTERONOMY 32:13): OLIVE CULTIVATION AND OLIVE OIL PROCESSING IN THE HEBREW BIBLE--A SOCIO-MATERIALIST PERSPECTIVE.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The olive/olive oil ([LANGUAGE NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is one of the triad of ancient Israel's principal agricultural products. The olive appears together with grain ([LANGUAGE NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and wine ([LANGUAGE...

TREADING THE WINEPRESS: ACTUAL AND METAPHORICAL VITICULTURE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to discuss the evidence from ancient Near Eastern texts and archaeological data of ancient viticulture. The various aspects of horticulture and the manufacture of wine are examined and outlined. This...

LUKE'S MARKET EXCHANGE DISTRICT: DECENTERING LUKE'S RICH URBAN CENTER.(Bible, Gospel of Luke)
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The study of material possessions in Luke's Gospel has tended to polarize the city and the country. Interpretations have affiliated those with possessions, the rich, with the urban areas and those without with the rural areas....

FROM QUEEN TO CUISINE: FOOD IMAGERY IN THE JEZEBEL NARRATIVE.
March 22, 1999... Surfing the internet for materials on Jezebel, I located two items: a Chicago restaurant called "Jezebel" that advertised "eclectic dishes with Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, and Moroccan influences;" and a recipe for "Jezebel's sauce."...

To EAT OR NOT To EAT: WHERE IS WISDOM IN THIS CHOICE?(food imagery in the Bible)
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore the semiotic use of the food motif in three texts of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 2-3; Proverbs 9; 1 Samuel 25), where there is a choice: to eat or not to eat. For the first of these the preceding...

SALOME AND JESUS AT TABLE IN THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS.(the presence of women at communal meals)
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The scene of Salome's dinner with Jesus in Saying 61 of the Gospel of Thomas reflects its Syrian provenance, and the communal practices of Syrian ascetic groups. Other Syrian groups included both men and women who renounced...

THE FOOD OF LOVE: GENDERED FOOD AND FOOD IMAGERY IN THE SONG OF SONGS.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The descriptions of food/drink and eating/drinking in the Song of Songs (=SoS), metaphorical or otherwise, yield two significant insights: foodstuffs in the Song of Songs are vegetarian; and the "gardens," "orchards" and "field"...

YHWH's SOUR GRAPES: IMAGES OF FOOD AND DRINK IN THE PROPHETIC DISCOURSES OF THE HEBREW BIBLE.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT Images of food arid drink are too commonplace in the prophetic discourses of the Hebrew Bible to afford an easily analyzed account or theorizing of so much data. The images fluctuate between representations of moments of plenty...

WHEN FATHERS REFUSE TO EAT: THE TROPE OF REJECTING FOOD AND DRINK IN BIBLICAL NARRATIVE.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT Aaron is silent following the deaths of his sons Nadab and Abihu during their priestly consecration described in Leviticus 10. in the aftermath of their deaths, Aaron does not eat the cultically prescribed priestly meal, but...

FOOD, DRINK AND SECTS: THE QUESTION OF INGESTION IN THE QUMRAN TEXTS.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT Mary Douglas's suggestion that the body might be culturally constructed as a model for society is applied, as an insight, to the function of eating and drinking in the Qumran literature. Two sectarian systems are compared in...

"NOT BY BREAD ALONE...": THE RITUALIZATION OF FOOD AND TABLE TALK IN THE PASSOVER SEDER AND IN THE LAST SUPPER.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT The early Christians and rabbinic Jews who composed the accounts of the Last Supper and the Passover seder both used the conventions of Greco-Roman symposium literature to ritualize their foundation myths. Drawing upon...

JEWISH FOOD LAWS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY DISCOURSE.
March 22, 1999... ABSTRACT Habits about food have a strong social impact. In Judaism, such habits are structured by a framework of formulated food laws. These serve to define community and identity, both internally and in relation to non-Jews. This is of...

EATING THEIR WORDS.(food and religion)
March 22, 1999... The genius of love and the genius of hunger, those twin brothers, are the two moving forces behind all living things. All living things set themselves in motion to feed and to reproduce. Love and hunger share the same purpose. Life must never...

A QUESTION OF THEORY OR EXPERIMENTALITY?
March 22, 1999... As a response to the three papers that have been submitted to me, I will offer brief summaries and then a fundamental question that goes to the issue of the mandate of Semeia itself, for, as far as I can see, I have before me three truly fine...

REFLECTIONS ON TABLE FELLOWSHIP AND COMMUNITY IDENTITY.
March 22, 1999... "This is the ordinance for the passover: . . . . It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. The whole congregation of Israel shall celebrate it." Exod...