Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts by T. M. Lemos

Abstract

Reviewed by: Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts by T. M. Lemos Eric A. Seibert t. m. lemos, Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). Pp. xiv + 225. $80. In this very timely and revealing study, Lemos explores the relationship between personhood and violence in the ancient Near East generally, and in ancient Israel specifically. L. attempts "to establish that in very many cases personhood and violence were closely connected in this region," and she considers "the most important nuances and implications of this connection" (p. 24). The book consists of six chapters, with the first and last serving as introduction and conclusion. The intervening chapters explore the main concerns of the book with respect to four specific groups of individuals: foreigners, women, slaves, and children. Her work fills a gap in biblical scholarship, which has paid little attention to the concept of personhood and even less to the intersection of personhood and violence (p. 4). In the introduction, L. discusses her methodology, defines key terms (personhood and violence), and provides an overview of the book. She describes her approach as one that will consider a diverse array of ancient sources—textual and otherwise—synchronically. This is done with an eye toward determining "who was considered a person" in ancient Israel (p. 15; emphasis original). This has significant relevance for conversations today about who counts as a person, and L. explores contemporary examples related to this in the final chapter. In chaps. 2–5, L. explores the extent to which foreigners, women, slaves, and children were considered persons in ancient Israel. L. convincingly demonstrates that personhood [End Page 318] in the ancient world was not fixed or static, but rather "fleeting, mutable, and subject to erasure" (p. 172). While foreigners, women, and slaves were all granted a degree of personhood, if they were "transgressive," their personhood could be diminished by dominant individuals (typically men) who used violence to subordinate them. Lemos further argues that this violence often took the form of animalizing those being subordinated by actions such as mutilating or mangling their bodies, leaving them unburied, or removing their skin. Some readers may not be fully convinced by all the connections L. makes between violence and animality in this regard. Did people in the ancient Near East view human sacrifice as a form of animalization as L. suggests (pp. 54, 148)? Would people have regarded the Levite's carved-up concubine as a form of butchering, like the kind of thing one does with an animal (p. 81)? Perhaps. It is difficult to know for sure. That notwithstanding, L. draws on numerous sources that make these connections strikingly clear (e.g., curses against transgressors of treaties, royal bravado about slaying both animals and enemies), demonstrating that her general point is surely valid. Of the four categories of people considered, foreign slaves and children fare most poorly. With regard to personhood, L. believes the status of foreign slaves "is possibly the lowliest of any social group in biblical sources" (p. 130). Yet with children, it was even worse. Practices such as child sacrifice, selling children as slaves, and cannibalism lead her to conclude "that children, and young children in particular, were not accorded the privileges and protections of personhood in ancient Israel" (p. 168). They were, in other words, non-persons. At various points, L. challenges and overturns some well-entrenched assumptions in biblical scholarship. Perhaps most notable in this regard is the oft-made assertion that women were viewed as property in the ancient world. L. finds no evidence for this. Instead, she argues that "it was patterns of domination and subordination that governed relations between husbands and wives and fathers and daughters" (p. 68). L. also forcefully critiques those who argue that slavery was not really all that bad in the ancient world. She takes to task those who cherry-pick certain verses that seem to evince a more benevolent attitude toward slaves while at the same time ignoring, or minimizing, those that clearly demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of those enslaved such as female slaves, who were constantly at risk of "sexual exploitation" (p. 125). This is a...