Bees, Wasps, and Weasels

Blaženka Scheuer

doi:10.5771/9781978714533

Summary

In this book, Blaženka Scheuer explores the zoomorphic content of Zibburta (bee/wasp) and Karkušta (weasel)—demeaning names given by R. Naḥman of b. Meg 14b to Deborah and Huldah, two distinguished prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Looking closely at relevant texts, she explores ancient beliefs about bees, wasps, and weasels, recounting a variety of key literary and visual motifs that highlight the different attributes of these animals. Scheuer demonstrates the multiple ways in which zoomorphic images were used as interpretative keys both in the formation of Deborah and Huldah stories in the Hebrew Bible and in their subsequent versions. In a constant process of interaction with their cultural contexts, such zoomorphism represents an attempt to define the rabbinic beliefs about the role of women in Jewish tradition but also about the nature of God. Scheuer argues that the symbolic association of bees and weasels with asexual conception and birth also made the zoomorphic slurs about Deborah and Huldah effective as an argument against the doctrine of virgin birth in early Christianity. Emphasizing the foundational process of constant negotiation of traditions and textual interpretations, Scheuer exposes the culturally rich and religiously competitive world in which the biblical texts were transmitted.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-9787-1452-6
ISBN-Online: 978-1-9787-1453-3
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 216
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. List of Figures No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Abbreviations No access
1. Thoughts on Theory and Method No access
2. Lines of Inquiry and Outline of the Book No access
3. Notes No access
1. Male and Female Prophets in the Hebrew Bible No access
2. Gendered Ideas of Prophecy No access
3. Deborah in the Hebrew Bible No access
4. Huldah in the Hebrew Bible No access
5. Deborah and Huldah in b. Megillah 14ab No access
6. Wordplay in Biblical and Rabbinic Literature No access
7. Slurs and Pejorative Naming No access
8. Nomen est Omen: Zoomorphic Names as Speaking Names No access
9. Conclusions No access
10. Notes No access
1. 1. Deborah: The Name and the Legacy No access
  2. Deborah’s Name in b. Megillah 14b No access
  3. Zibburta in the Babylonian Talmud No access
  4. Wasps, Bees, and Honey in the Hebrew Bible and in Its Early Translations No access
  5. Conclusions No access
  6. Notes No access
2. 1. Bees in Greek Traditions No access
  2. Wasps in Greek Traditions No access
  3. Deborah: The Bee of Jewish Diaspora? No access
  4. 1. Josephus on Deborah No access
    2. Pseudo-Philo: Biblical Antiquities No access
  5. Conclusions No access
  6. Notes No access
3. 1. Yahwistic Negotiations in the Hebrew Bible No access
  2. Deborah, Bees, and the Christian God No access
  3. Negotiating the Divine No access
  4. Concluding Remarks to Part I No access
  5. Notes No access
1. 1. Huldah: The Name No access
  2. Weasels in the Babylonian Talmud No access
  3. Weasel Symbolism in Mesopotamian Sources No access
  4. Weasels in Greek and Roman Traditions No access
  5. The Weasel Symbolism behind b. Megillah 14b No access
  6. A Woman Prophet at the Court of Josiah No access
  7. Huldah and History No access
  8. Conclusions No access
  9. Notes No access
2. 1. What Is Authority? No access
  2. The Rabbis and Gendered Dimensions of Authority No access
  3. Social Realities and Rabbinic Interpretation No access
  4. Concluding Remarks to Part II No access
  5. Notes No access
1. 1. Conceptual Links between Deborah, Huldah, and Virgin Mary No access
  2. Female Prophets and Sexuality No access
  3. Technicalities of Virginal Motherhood: Conceptio sine coitu No access
  4. Technicalities of Virginal Conception: Conceptio per aurem No access
  5. Zoology of Virginal/Aural Conception No access
  6. Virginal Conception and B. Megillah 14b No access
  7. The Virgin Mary and the Jews of the Roman East No access
  8. Conclusions to Part III No access
  9. Notes No access
2. 1. Women at the Fence of the Torah No access
  2. The Power of Zoomorphic Images No access
  3. The Multivalence of Zoomorphic Images No access
  4. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 185 - 206
Ancient Sources Index No access Pages 207 - 214
About the Author No access Pages 215 - 216