Marriage by Capture in the Book of Judges
An Anthropological Approach

This book explores the concepts of marriage, ethnicity, rape, and power in Judges 21 as means of ethnic preservation and exclusion.

Katherine E. Southwood (Author)

9781107145245, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 March 2017

280 pages
22.3 x 14.4 x 1.9 cm, 0.47 kg

'In the best tradition of radically innovative biblical interpretation, Southwood has established a framework for the discussion of the historical meaning of Judges 21 that is now the inevitable starting point for future analysis, whether or not one agrees with all the details of her particular conclusion. The members of the Society for Old Testament Study should be gratified that their new Monograph Series has been inaugurated by so substantial a work of original scholarship as this.' Philip F. Esler, Journal of Jewish Studies

In this book, Katherine E. Southwood offers a new approach to interpreting Judges 21. Breaking away from traditional interpretations of kingship, feminism, or comparisons with Greek or Roman mythology, she explores the concepts of marriage, ethnicity, rape, and power as means of ethnic preservation and exclusion. She also exposes the many reasons why marriage by capture occurred during the post-exilic period. Judges 21 served as a warning against compromise - submission to superficial unity between the Israelites and the Benjaminites. Any such unity would result in drastic changes in the character, culture, and values of the ethnic group 'Israel'. The chapter encouraged post-exilic audiences to socially construct those categorised as 'Benjaminites' as foreigners who do not belong within the group, thereby silencing doubts about the merits of unity.

1. Methods, considerations, and recent approaches to Judges 21
2. Contextualised outline of the causes for and consequences of marriage by capture
3. Virginity, marriage, and rape in the Hebrew bible
4. Judges 21 as an example of marriage by capture in the Hebrew bible
5. Marriage by capture within an ethnic narrative: Judges 21 as a social critique of superficial unity in the Persian period
6. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Biblical commentaries [HRCG1], Old Testaments [HRCF1], Bibles [HRCF], Religion & beliefs [HR]