Blood, War, and Ritual Meals: Transgressive Consumption in 1 Samuel 14:31–35
In this article, I explore the curious story of transgressive consumption in 1 Sam 14:31-35 and its significance for scholarly theories about butchery in ancient Israel. After a brief assessment of the literary history of 1 Sam 14:31-35, I review the claim that Saul’s troops at the battle at Michmas...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Catholic Biblical Association of America
2024
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| In: |
The catholic biblical quarterly
Year: 2024, Volume: 86, Issue: 4, Pages: 639-658 |
| Further subjects: | B
Divination
B 1 Samuel 14 B Saul B butchery B ritual meals B chthonic ritual B Blood |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this article, I explore the curious story of transgressive consumption in 1 Sam 14:31-35 and its significance for scholarly theories about butchery in ancient Israel. After a brief assessment of the literary history of 1 Sam 14:31-35, I review the claim that Saul’s troops at the battle at Michmash slaughtered their animals [inline-graphic 01i], "on" or "toward the ground" and, second, that they ate [inline-graphic 02i], "with" or "over the blood." Drawing on philological, inner-biblical, and comparative evidence, I argue that the troops appear not to have eaten meat with the blood still in it but rather to have engaged in a ritual meal that involved chthonic forces. This interpretation, in turn, suggests that 1 Sam 14:31-35 was written as a late supplement to the account of Saul’s disastrous battle oath at Michmash, with the aim of advancing the narrative focus on how prohibited consumption, on the one hand, and divination, on the other, contributed to the events that unfolded during the battle. I conclude by cautioning against the use of 1 Sam 14:31-35 to reconstruct generalized norms surrounding butchery in the early history of ancient Israel: this text is not about butchery per se, but rather about the particular problem of using blood to solicit oracular messages from the dead. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-2529 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The catholic biblical quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/cbq.2024.a940005 |