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" Redefining the Roles of the Rural Levites in Deuteronomy "
Wilson, Jim Douglas
Arnold, Bill T.
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1104062
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TLpq2130928207
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| Main Entry
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Arnold, Bill T.
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Wilson, Jim Douglas
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| Title & Author
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Redefining the Roles of the Rural Levites in Deuteronomy\ Wilson, Jim DouglasArnold, Bill T.
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| College
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Asbury Theological Seminary
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| Date
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2019
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.B.S.
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| Page No
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354
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| Abstract
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The present study is an investigation into the roles of the rural Levites in Deuteronomy. In the first chapter I review the identity and roles of the Levites in the Hebrew Bible before and after cult centralization, transitioning from local high place priests to a lack of local cultic function in the wake of cult centralization, though they were able to serve at the central sanctuary. Although the dominant position has been that the Levites were impoverished by centralization (what I refer to as the Impoverished Rural Levite Hypothesis), I will propose an additional interpretation of rural Levitical roles, namely, that the rural Levites may have been responsible for performing several non-cultic roles and social level rituals in the local towns, based on their ongoing cultic roles at the sanctuary and their overarching function as socio-cultic intermediaries and ritual specialists (comparable to Ugarit’s Sitqānu priest and Egypt’s wab and lector priests), who were responsible for [Special characters omitted] and [Special characters omitted] across the socio-cultic spectrum. In the second chapter, I discuss the structuralist socio-anthropological method that guides my research. The socio-anthropological method, exemplified by the ancient Near Eastern hierarchical worldview, informs how we should view the social structure underlying Deuteronomy, i.e., complex groupings of analogically related binary oppositions, which in ancient Israel were arranged in a three tier universe. I also define and clarify the features, goals, and means of ritual in ancient society, following Jan Platvoet and Gerald Klingbeil. Ritual is a special behavior that is distinguished from ordinary behavior in space, time, occasion, and/or message. I nuance this definition for cultic, social, domestic, and non-ritual contexts. After a survey of the elders, judges, [Special characters omitted], and Israelite patres familias, I propose that the rural Levite was the most likely candidate for local ritual specialist. I devote the remaining chapters to considering several roles that the Levite might have performed. In the third chapter, I suggest that Deuteronomy conceived of the rural Levites as socio-cultic firstborn substitutes and performers of [Special characters omitted] and [Special characters omitted], in parallel with their roles in P, based on: 1) the implied need for firstborn substitution in Deuteronomy, though no substitution is explicitly mentioned, 2) the allusion of the Levitical Entitlement Phrase (Deut 10:9) to Numbers 18, which relies upon Numbers 3 (Levitical firstborn substitution as debt-slaves) as the basis for Levitical tithe entitlement, and 3) the suggestion that [Special characters omitted] should be translated as “leave behind” instead of “forsake” in Deut 12:19 and 14:27, based on the need for Levites to be present at the central sanctuary for annual human firstborn substitution rituals, and the annual festivals. In the second half of the chapter, I suggest that the Levites functioned as socio-cultic intermediaries in the roles of [Special characters omitted] and [Special characters omitted]. Although these roles originated in the cultic sphere, the rural Levites extended them into the social sphere as analogous non-cultic [Special characters omitted] and [Special characters omitted]. In the fourth chapter, I suggest that non-cultic Levitical [Special characters omitted] and [Special characters omitted] in Deuteronomy were manifest in rural scribal responsibilities, namely, collecting and distributing the local triennial tithe (Deut 14:28-29), exchanging annual tithes for silver (14:24-25), as [Special characters omitted], administering ritual ordeals and/or judicial oaths, and witnessing, recording, and/or administering locally initiated judicial, commercial, and/or religious oaths and vows. I also synthesize the scribal roles of tithe and vow administration to suggest that the rural Levites may have administered the triennial tithe fulfillment oath (Deut 26:12-15), and/or the initiation of a local corporate rain vow during the triennial tithe. In the fifth chapter, I intend to show that local meat consumption in ancient Israel may have been guided by social and/or domestic ritual practices which set them apart from cultic ritual in some ways, and related them by analogy in other ways. I examine key elements of local meat consumption, including: the method and sequence of [Special characters omitted]/[Special characters omitted] as cutting the throat and collecting the blood, the status and function of non-cultic slaughter blood as “like water,” and limitations in the timing of [Special characters omitted]-based local meat consumption primarily to times of herd culling, and limitations in the scope of consumption to primarily caprine animals. These analyses suggest that local meat consumption was special, although non-cultic, and in some cases may have held the status of social or domestic ritual. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)
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Animals
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Bible
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Biblical studies
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Hebrew language
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Literary translation
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Rituals
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