»Momentaufnahmen« of Israelite Religion: The Importance of the Communal Meal in Narrative Texts in I/II Regum and Their Ritual Dimension

Abstract

Narrative texts containing descriptions of ritual or ritualized actions are useful and important building blocks for the reconstruction of ancient Israelite reality and religion. Since these texts generally are to be classified as descriptive ritual texts, attention should be paid to specific categories of ritual (such as time, action[s], sequence, objects, space, intention, etc.), which may or may not be present in the text. For the ancient Israelite, ritual was such an integral part of his/her life that the narrator did not always supply the most detailed or complete description of the ritual, because knowledge of the social and religious dimensions of the specific ritual or action was presupposed. Modern readers and interpreters of the Hebrew Bible record do not always pay sufficient attention to these important ritual markers (and building blocks) or simply do not understand their socio-ritual dimension. After providing a brief introduction to recent work on ritual in the context of narrative historiographical literature, the important ritual building block of the communal meal will be studied in the context of I/II Regum and its importance for our understanding of Israelite religion will be highlighted.