Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible

Publisher Description

This unique interdisciplinary book uses a fresh approach to explore issues of disability in the Hebrew Bible. It examines how disability functions in the David Story (1 Samuel 16; 1 Kings 2) by paying special attention to Mephibosheth, the only biblical character with a disability as a sustained character trait. The David Story contains some of the Bible's most striking images of disability.?Nonetheless, interpreters tend to focus on legal material rather than narratives when studying disability in the Hebrew Bible. Often, they neglect the David Story's complex use of disability. They overlook its use of disability imagery as open to critical interpretation because its stereotypical meanings may seem so commonplace and transparent. Yet recent work in the burgeoning field of disability studies presents disability as a complicated motif that demands more critical engagement than it typically receives?Informed by exciting developments in the field, this book argues that the David Story employs disability imagery as a subtle mode of narrating and organizing various ideological positions regarding national identity. Images of disability emerge not as simple or isolated character descriptions, but carefully choreographed depictions that underwrite the poetics of the story. This book starts an important and much needed conversation between biblical and disability studies, and in doing so makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the David Story.