Becoming Israel in the Deborah Story (Judges 4-5) presented by Lauren Monroe
In this session, we will examine the ideas of Israel that are expressed in the Deborah Story (Judges 4-5), a text that took shape over approximately 700 years (roughly between 1100 BCE-400BCE). During this period Israel’s political identity and circumstances changed drastically. Scribes wrote and rewrote, transmitted and revised the Deborah Story in response to these changes, and left visible traces of their process in the text. We will examine these traces and consider how this single biblical text allows us to see changes in what it meant to be Israel over the long period of time during which the Deborah Story was composed.
Lauren Monroe is Associate Professor in the Near Eastern Studies department at Cornell University. She received her PhD in Bible and Ancient Near East from the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Her teaching interests include Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at all levels, Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, and Ancient Israelite Religious and Social History. She is particularly interested in the way what it meant to be Israel changed over time, and how such changes are reflected in the stratigraphy of the biblical text and the archaeological tel.
For more information, please contact Denice (denicecassaro@gmail.com).