To Eat or Not to Eat: Studies on the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions

To Eat or Not to Eat: Studies on the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions 

Peter Altmann, Anna Angelini  

Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.

Table of contents:

Preface

1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons

2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis

3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction

4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary

5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion

6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions

7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions

8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice

9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions

Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)

10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why