Ritual has a primal connection to the idea that a transcendent order - numinous and mysterious, supranatural and elusive, divine and wholly other - gives meaning and purpose to life. The construction of rites and rituals enables humans to conceive and apprehend this transcendent order, to symbolize it and interact with it, to postulate its truths in the face of contradicting realities and to repair them when they have been breached or diminished. This Handbook provides a compendium of the information essential for constructing a comprehensive and integrated account of ritual and worship in the ancient world. Its focus on ritual and worship from the perspective of biblical studies, as opposed to religious studies, highlights that the world of ritual and worship was a topic of central concern for the people of the Ancient Near East, including the world of the Bible.

Given the scarcity of the material in the Bible itself, the authors in this collection use materials from the ancient Near East to provide a larger context for the practices of the biblical world, giving due attention to historical, anthropological, and social scientific methods that inform the context of biblical worship. The specifics of ritual and worship life-the sacred spaces, times, and actors in worship-are examined in detail, with essays covering both the divine and human aspects of the sacred dimension. The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible considers several underlying concepts of ritual practice and closes with a theological outlook on worship and ritual from a variety of perspectives, demonstrating a fruitful exchange between biblical studies, ritual theory, and social science research.

Samuel E. Balentine is Professor of Old Testament and Director of Graduate Studies, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA.

Contents

Preface

List of Contributors

1. Introduction, Samuel E. Balentine

Part I. Historical Contexts

2. Mesopotamian Religion, Tzvi Abusch

3. Ritual and Worship in Ancient Egypt, Emily Teeter

4. The Hittites Serve their Gods, Gary Beckman

5. Syria-Palestine: Worship and Rituals, Adrian Curtis

6. The Greeks and their Rituals, Barbara Kowalzig

Part II. Interpretive Approaches

7. History of Religion, Lester Grabbe

8. Rituals and Ritual Theory: A Methodological Essay, Ithamar Gruenwald

9. Social and Cultural Anthropology, William Gilders

Part III. Ritual Elements: Participants, Places, Times, Objects, Practices

10. God, Gods, and Humankkind (Worldview), Friedhelm Hartenstein

11. Sacred Space and Common Space, Michael Hundley

12. Ritual Experts and Participants in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible, Thomas Hieke

13. Sacred Times and Ritual Times, Andrew Davis

14. Ritual Objects and Artifacts, Ryan Bonfiglio

15. Ritual and Religious Practices, Roy Gane

16. Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts, James W. Watts

17. Ritualizing Christian Iconic Texts, Dori Parmenter

18. Ritualizing Muslim Texts, Jonas Svensson

Part IV. Cultural and Theological Perspectives

19. Sin and Expiation, David Janzen

20. Clean/Unclean, Pure/Impure, Holy/Profane, Jonathan Lawrence

21. Sickness and Healing, Deborah Rooke

22. Death and Afterlife, Brian Schmidt

23. Divine Presence and Absence, Angelika Berlejung

Part V. History of Interpretation

24. Ritual and Worship at Qumran, Eileen Schuller

25. Influence on Early Christian Worship, Paul Bradshaw

26. Ritual and Worship in Early Judaism, Judith Newman

27. Rabbinic Judaism, Stefan Reif

Part VI. Socio-Cultural Functions

28. The Politics of Worship, William S. Morrow

29. The Ethics of Worship, Eryl Davies

30. Socio-Religious Functions of Worship, Stephen L. Cook

31. The Economics of Worship in Ancient Israel and Judah, Joachim Schaper

Part VII. Theology and Theological Heritage

32. Ritual Theology in/and Biblical Theology, Gerald Klingbeil

33. Welcoming the Sabbath on the Kibbutzim: Secular Religiosity, Dalia Marx

34. One God, Multiple Rituals and Theologies: Christianity, Rodney A. Werline

35. Islamic Ritual, Richard Gauvain

Scriptural and Ancient Texts

Subject Index