King Solomon’s Gold: Ophir in an Age of Empire

Contemplating King Solomon’s enormous importation of gold from the mysterious land of Ophir filled Victorians with vicarious pride and glutted their pedantic appetite with no end of tempting antiquarian puzzles concerning the identity of his trading partners. This article provides details and context regarding the various putative Ophirs proposed by British travellers during the nineteenth century, which ranged from Sumatra to the Gold Coast. It concludes in the latter decades of the century, when the legend of King Solomon’s mines converged with the discovery of gold in South Africa. As scholars have noted, the mid-century discovery of ancient ruins in present-day Zimbabwe by the German explorer Karl Mauch rekindled the Ophir debate and focused most people’s attention on South Africa as its location. This was also the immediate context to Rider Haggard’s fascination with ancient African civilization in his immensely popular novel King Solomon’s Mines. Numerous subsequent explorers, adventure novelists, and armchair archaeologists added to this wave of speculation about Ophir in the three decades that followed Mauch’s original identification of Great Zimbabwe with the biblical Ophir. By connecting these later depictions of Ophir (both fictional and archaeological) with speculations from earlier in the nineteenth century, this article presents King Solomon’s gold as a common context for evolving justifications, ambivalences, and understandings of British imperialism, from an empire of trade to one of conquest and annexation.     

The Siloam Pool — 'Solomon's Pool' — was a Swimming Pool

Abstract

The Herodian Siloam pool discovered recently by Reich and Shukron was probably the 'Solomon's Pool' mentioned by Josephus (War 5. 145). It seems likely that it functioned as a swimming pool. Other pools in Jerusalem may have served in the same role.     

Oxen Can Plow,But Women Can Ruminate: Animal Classification and the Helper in Genesis 2,18-24

ABSTRACT

In describing the finding of a helper for the newly created man in Gen 2,18-24, the author established a contrast between the woman, who is suitable for the role, and various types of animals, which are unsuitable for the role. The author did this to use the characteristics which the Israelites associated with each type of animal, and which disqualified them from being the helper, as a foil to draw the reader's attention to the various characteristics of the woman which qualified her to be the helper. These qualifying characteristics were the woman's terrestrial existence, her physical and helpful association with the man, and her intelligence. In particular, it was intelligence which set the woman apart from the animals and most definitively characterized her as the one who, unlike the animals, was qualified to be the corresponding helper to the man.     

Man,Woman and God in Judg 4

This paper attempts to explain the peculiarities of the Deborah narrative. In contrast to other savior- judges, Deborah is a prophetess, a judiciary, and a woman. Her role as a savior differs from other judges in that she is a high commander, but Barak carries out the actual task of battle. Deborah's rule conveys the lesson that God is responsible for victory. This is why she is presented as a prophet and a messenger of God and her personality is not portrayed in the story at all; rather, she is shown as a well-established judge and therefore an anti-charismatic figure. The emphasis on her status as a woman is meant to prevent her from becoming involved in an actual battle; this is left for Barak to carry out. When Barak demands the presence of Deborah on the battlefield, it might be thought that her presence is necessary to gain victory; then, as in the Ehud narrative, an unhealthy dependency between the people and Deborah might have been produced. Deborah responds with a prophecy that a woman will kill Sisera; in this way she reinforces her prophetic role rather than her personality, rectifying the damage caused by Barak's request.     

Religion,Community and The Infanticidal Mother: Evidence From 1840s Rural Wiltshire

Abstract

The existing literature on the history of infanticide has typically considered the crime as a reaction to a specifi c set of diffi cult individual circumstances, but has not attempted to place the infanticidal mother within a longer personal timeframe. Nor has the role of her religious belief been much examined. This article investigates three key elements in the case of Rebecca Smith (1807–1849), the last woman executed in England for the murder of her own infant: her bad marriage; her poverty; and her Baptist religion. These factors provide context for her socio-economic and psychological development, and thus for her status as England's best documented serial infant killer. The article suggests that, as a married woman, Smith's choices were infl uenced by conditions both wider and deeper than the more immediate issues which have tended to be associated with infanticide by unmarried women.     

The Continuity of Victorian Traces: A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book

Both King Solomon's Mines (1885) and Allan Quatermain (1887) pursue a quest to regenerate the authority of the English gentleman as ‘the highest rank that a man can reach upon this earth’. The present essay focuses upon Haggard's construction of this ideal of masculinity through the combination of the qualities of the gentleman with those of the barbarian. The discussion follows both Laura Chrisman and Bradley Deane in attending to the relationship between the ideological structures of metropole and colony. This article, however, situates Haggard's masculinist ideology in relation to the wider cultural poetics of late-Victorian material culture, particularly as manifested in the imperial souvenir – a complicated category of thing that comprises artefacts, hunting trophies and human relics. Attention to their thingness entails reflection upon the complexity of textual representations of objects and practical encounters with them as constituent elements of late-Victorian material culture. In addition to examining the significance of hunting and battle trophies in Haggard's fiction, close attention is also paid to the keynote spectacle of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum in 1886, Rowland Ward's habitat diorama, ‘The Jungle’, and to Ward's subsequent forays into ‘animal furniture’. Through reflection on such formations of objects, the thingness of the imperial souvenir illuminates the ideological formations within which hegemonic masculinity and imperialism were articulated at this key moment in the mid-1880s.     

Molly Bloom’s nostalgic reverie: a phenomenology of Modernist longing

ABSTRACT

I propose to reverse the prevailing understanding of the novel’s concluding episode, “Penelope,” as affirming and optimistic, and instead situate it as the wellspring of Modernist nostalgia. This darker reading of Molly Bloom’s nostalgic reverie depends, as we will see, upon Molly’s resonant psychological ties to her mythological antecedent: Homer’s Penelope. Despite Molly’s manipulative, contradictory, and at times self-deceptive consciousness, scholars still tend to read her famous final utterance as one of firm affirmation. Taking into consideration her semblance to Homer’s Penelope, Molly’s final “Yes” is likely less sanguine than previously considered. And even my own “reading” may confine her role too narrowly. Nevertheless, we should establish this countersign as a means of exploring the consequences of her nostalgic reverie.     

From Republican Party to Republican Religion: The New Political Evangelists of the Right

Abstract

This essay shows an important shift in the Religious Right from Evangelical participation to Renewalist participation in politics. Renewalists, who are largely Pentecostals, Charismatics and non-denominational Christians, have been lumped into the "Evangelical" category by scholars and the media alike. Yet their theological orientations and concerns drive political questions and actions in different ways. Sarah Palin's placement on the Republican ticket in 2008 as the Vice Presidential candidate represents the first time an explicitly Renewalist Christian has been nominated. Since then, Palin's weaving of her theological orientation has influenced both political activity and Republican candidates in the 2012 election. Butler's essay explores Palin's contribution to this change, and poses questions about how this shift affects the future of the Religious Right.     

Ideology,archaeology and history in the old testament

Abstract

While Ottosson's approach to historical studies may be correct, his understanding of the ideological character of the OT narratives may be to narrowly defined, as this ideology has many layers and reflects a diversified tradition.     

Confronting Contradictions: Genre Subversion and Feminist Politics in Agnès Varda's L'une chante,l'autre pas

French filmmaker Agnès Varda's career has been largely defined by contradiction. She is acknowledged as influential, yet often discussed independently from the advanced filmmaking practices and intellectual debates of her New Wave generation. Her musical, L'une chante, l'autre pas, was particularly misunderstood: film critics and feminist scholars praised the film's feminist storyline, but found that the unexpected musical numbers undercut the seriousness of the feminist message, resulting in a film that is ultimately incongruous. Through archival excavation of Varda's sources, I argue that the film's incongruity was in fact intentional, an expansion of advanced filmmaking theories and strategies, in dialogue with influential Brechtian texts and contemporary feminist debates. This essay reveals specific social and economic factors that influenced the production and reception of the film and reconsiders apparent contradictions in Varda's career.     

A New Approach to Ezekiel 23,20

Scholars during the years have noted that Ezek. 23,20 is the only passage in the OT in which pi¯lεgε? appears as a masculine noun with masculine reference. The author of this essay, while using mainly linguistic approach, proves that these scholars were not correct, and that pi¯lεgε? in Ezek 23,20 is a feminine noun with feminine meaning like in all other appearances in the OT.     

Radical (Evangelical) Democracy: The Dreams and Nightmares of Martin Luther King,Jr. and Antonio Negri

Abstract

This essay critically examines the theories of radical democracy offered by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of the beloved community and Antonio Negri's vision of the multitude. The radical democratic visions of King and Negri continue to critically inform progressive reflections on democratic theory and propel new dreams of democracy. Despite their similarities, the differences between Negri and King are substantial. I argue that Negri's dream of the multitude and King's dream of beloved community have been shaped by different conceptions of radical democracy. While Negri works out of a tradition of Italian Marxism, King works within a critical tradition of prophetic evangelicalism. Thus, the political task, according to King, is to translate Jesus' teaching of the Kingdom of God into a beloved community on earth. King's creative negotiation of transcendence and history provides the requisite theological and political resources to develop a truly transcendent and immanent vision of a radical democratic society that is attentive to the demands and dignity of "all God's children."     

Book Reviews

Letters from the Dust Bowl by Caroline Henderson Alvin O. Turner (Ed.), 2001 Norman, OK, University of Oklahoma Press 320 pp., $34.90 hardback ISBN 0-8061-33-3 hardback The American ‘Dust Bowl’ landscape of the 1930s has been etched into the global imagination through powerful narratives: Farm Security Administration photography (1935-43), Per Loretz's film, The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939). In the last quarter of the twentieth century, historians such as Donald Worster (1979) have constructed their own narratives of this time and place. Caroline Henderson's Letters from the Dust Bowl, edited by Alvin O. Turner, provides a counterpoint, in the form of a first-hand account and a woman's voice, to the news stories, government propaganda, and historians' analyses that construct our understanding of the Dust Bowl. Henderson's letters reveal not only the ‘real’ experience of living in that place during a particularly difficult time, but also the ‘before’ and ‘after’–what led these individuals to the Great Plains and what became of them afterward. Educated at Mt Holyoke, Caroline Henderson ventured out onto the panhandle of Oklahoma to homestead in 1907 as a single woman, who ‘hungered and thirsted for something away from it all and for the out-of-doors’ (p. 33). She met her future husband Will when she hired a crew to dig a well on her land. Letters from the Dust Bowl captures Caroline's transformation from an idealistic young woman to a woman ‘worn by years of struggle with land and life’. Caroline's ‘letters’ are an amalgamation of letters to family and friends, and letters and essays written for publications such as the Atlantic Monthly. Letters begins with Henderson's optimism and delight in both life and landscape. Caroline's early writings capture the excitement of homesteading, of marriage, of being a young mother. Her writings eventually shift from purely personal letters to family and friends to being a source of additional income. Drought and failed crops led Caroline to begin writing for publication in 1913; her first published article was on her first years homesteading. She became a regular contributor to Ladies' World magazine, as their ‘Homestead Lady’, until its demise in 1918.     

Possible hellenistic influences in the historical parts of the old testament

There is an agreement among scholars concerning the meaning of the Hebrew verb from the root in the OT. They all suppose that this verb means “sexual desire”. However, they base their opinion neither on the origin of this root nor on the study of all the verses in which it appears in the OT. The aim of the present study is to show that this Hebrew verb is originated in another language where it has many other meanings. In addition, it aims to prove that in most of the appearances of this verb in the OT there is no need to assume it has a sexual meaning.     

Moses' Cushite Wife echoes Hosea's Woman of Harlotries: Exposure of Unfaithfulness in the Wilderness

ABSTRACT

This paper suggests that Numbers 12 implies that the Cushite woman whom Moses marries is an immoral woman and that Moses' marriage with her is based on an implicit divine command which echoes the one God gives Hosea when exhorting him to marry a woman of harlotries. In both cases God wants the prophetic protagonist to experience infidelity, thus enabling him to experience what God feels like when Israel acts unfaithfully to Him. However, after experiencing the unfaithfulness of the Israelites in the narrative of the scouts Moses himself demonstrates unfaithfulness in Meribah. Moses' inability to respond appropriately to Israel's unfaithfulness at Baal-peor, an incident mentioned in Hos 9,10, reflects his inability to contend with the Israelites in the manner of Hosea.     

Unravelling the Alexiad: Who was ‘Devgenevich’of the Russian Primary Chronicle and ‘Pseudo-Diogenes’ of the Greek sources?

Abstract

An individual claiming to be related to the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (1068–71) took part in a major Cuman invasion of Byzantium on the eve of the First Crusade. This article assesses the date of the assault, which is recorded by the Russian Primary Chronicle, by John Zonaras, and by Anna Komnene in the Alexiad . The identity of the man referred to as the False Diogenes by the Byzantine sources is considered, and it is argued that, rather than being an impostor, the individual in question may well indeed have been the son of Romanos IV Diogenes. Modern scholars have tended to ignore this possibility, instead following Anna Komnene's meticulous character assassination of the man who accompanied the nomad attack. This paper therefore also seeks to address the question of the identity of ‘Pseudo-Diogenes’, to examine Anna Komnene's methods of savaging a natural rival to her father for the imperial throne, and to assess her motives for doing so.     

’When Men Are Weak‘: The Imperial Feminism of Frieda von Bülow

Frieda von Bülow was a colonialist woman author and activist who also engaged the bourgeois women's movement of pre-First World War Germany. She is of interest to scholars of German colonialism, racial thought, feminism, and women's literature. This article interprets her life experiences, including travel to German East Africa (mainland Tanzania) and her affair with Carl Peters, together with her feminist non-fiction and anti-feminist fiction, to argue that she developed an imperial feminism in which German women's emancipation was predicated on the subordination of racialised ‘others’.     

A Byzantine hagiographical parody: Life of Mary the Younger

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that The Life of Mary the Younger, an anonymous Byzantine text of the eleventh century, has a conscious intertextual dialogue with the oldest Byzantine Life venerating a holy woman, the Life of Macrina written by her brother, Gregory of Nyssa, between 380 and 383. The intertextual relation between these two female Lives takes the form of parody. Following Linda Hutcheon's theory of parody, this article shows how the anonymous hagiographer of Mary reworks Gregory's authoritative text to create a new work, a parody in terms of postmodern literary criticism, whose aim was to criticise old and contemporary customs, conventions and ideologies. In other words, the present article approaches and decodes the literariness, the function and ideology of Mary's Life in the light of Macrina's Life.     

A Walk on the Wild Side with Yahweh: A Spatial Perspective on the Hebrew Deity in the National Epic

ABSTRACT

Although there is general agreement among biblical scholars that Chronicles developed an own historiography in contradistinction to the Deuteronomistic History, some scholars have started emphasizing the commonalities between these histories. The present contribution is an attempt to contribute to this investigation in Chronicles studies. The investigation particularly focuses on a disputed example from Chronicles, namely the legal reforms of King Jehoshaphat, in order to establish what the relationship is between Chronicles and the Deuteronomic legal traditions.     

The King of Asine,Makriyannis, Seferis and ourselves

Abstract

‘The King of Asine', one of George Seferis's best-known poems, is the subject of the present article, which falls into two parts. The first part follows the standard interpretation, but with an emphasis on aspects that have not (at least sufficiently) been commented on hitherto. The second part pursues a new approach and concludes by proposing another, parallel, reading whereby ‘The King of Asine’ is also seen as exploring the poetic experience.