Ideologies of Attachment in the Story of Naboth's Vineyard

Abstract

According to 1 Kings 21:1–16, Ahab sought to purchase the vineyard of Naboth, which adjoined the royal estate in Jezreel. Although Ahab offered a fair price or replacement land, Naboth declined: “Yahweh forbid that I should sell you the inheritance of my ancestors!” Commentators explain the force of Naboth's reply by comparing attitudes toward land in one of two complexes of biblical literature. According to the Deuteronomistic History, the land was a divine gift allotted by Yahweh to individual clans, and according to the Holiness Code, land could not permanently be sold outside the family. In this context, Naboth's reply seems appropriate. These approaches, however, tend to overstate the case by proposing an overly narrow framework for understanding land rights in the story. They make unwarranted assumptions about the relationships between biblical texts, and they are inconsistent with the narrative logic of the episode. I argue that Naboth's refusal is better understood within the context of a much broader theme in ancient Israelite tribal life—what anthropologist Parker Shipton has called in another context “ideologies of attachment,” connecting households, ancestors, and land. An examination of this theme in a wide variety of biblical literature and in the archaeological record offers a more robust framework within which to appreciate the rhetorical force of Naboth's refusal.