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Performing Domination/Theorizing Power: Israelite Prophecy as a Political Discourse beyond the Conflict Model

Performing Domination/Theorizing Power: Israelite Prophecy as a Political Discourse beyond the... This essay considers the image of the yoke (Akk. nīru/abšānu; Heb. ʿōl) in the context of ancient Near Eastern political discourse. It analyzes the yoke’s function in Jeremiah 27–29 as a means to developing a clearer understanding of how biblical prophecy operated as political speech. The yoke finds abundant attestation in the neo-Assyrian imperial rhetoric that immediately preceded the period of Babylonian domination in Judah. In manipulating this image, the Jeremian poetry strategically reframed an element of imperial ideology within the discourse of the patriarchal, agrarian household. In the course of this critical engagement, the prophet also restructured the basis for his Judean audience’s political identity, grounding it not in complex bureaucratic structures, but in the lifeworld of the basic kinship unit. The prophet’s speech functioned as a type of subaltern political theorizing in a poetic mode; it discloses a coherent theory of power and models intellective practices capable of operation under conditions of political domination. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions Brill

Performing Domination/Theorizing Power: Israelite Prophecy as a Political Discourse beyond the Conflict Model

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions , Volume 14 (2): 186 – Nov 24, 2014

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References (3)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1569-2116
eISSN
1569-2124
DOI
10.1163/15692124-12341262
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This essay considers the image of the yoke (Akk. nīru/abšānu; Heb. ʿōl) in the context of ancient Near Eastern political discourse. It analyzes the yoke’s function in Jeremiah 27–29 as a means to developing a clearer understanding of how biblical prophecy operated as political speech. The yoke finds abundant attestation in the neo-Assyrian imperial rhetoric that immediately preceded the period of Babylonian domination in Judah. In manipulating this image, the Jeremian poetry strategically reframed an element of imperial ideology within the discourse of the patriarchal, agrarian household. In the course of this critical engagement, the prophet also restructured the basis for his Judean audience’s political identity, grounding it not in complex bureaucratic structures, but in the lifeworld of the basic kinship unit. The prophet’s speech functioned as a type of subaltern political theorizing in a poetic mode; it discloses a coherent theory of power and models intellective practices capable of operation under conditions of political domination.

Journal

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern ReligionsBrill

Published: Nov 24, 2014

Keywords: Prophecy; politics; symbolism; yoke; Jeremiah

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