The House of the Mother: The Social Roles of Maternal Kin in Biblical Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)

✍ Scribed by Cynthia R. Chapman

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 355
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A novel approach to Israelite kinship, arguing that maternal kinship bonds played key social, economic, and political roles for a son who aspired to inherit his father’s household

Upending traditional scholarship on patrilineal genealogy, Cynthia Chapman draws on twenty years of research to uncover an underappreciated yet socially significant kinship unit in the Bible: “the house of the mother.” In households where a man had two or more wives, siblings born to the same mother worked to promote and protect one another’s interests. Revealing the hierarchies of the maternal houses and political divisions within the national house of Israel, this book provides us with a nuanced understanding of domestic and political life in ancient Israel.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Disrupting the Begats (tôledôt)
1. House (bayit)
2. The House of the Mother (bêt ’em)
3. Chamber of Her Who Conceived Me (heder hôratî)
4. My Brothers, the Sons of My Mother (’ahay bêne-’immî)
5. No, Son of My Womb (ma-bar-bitnî)
6. Like a Brother to Me, One Who Had Nursed at My Mother’s Breasts (ke’ah lî yôneq šedê ’immî)
7. The One Who Opens the Womb (peter rehem)
8. The House of the Father of His Mother (bêt-’abî ’immô)
9. Like Rachel and Leah Who Together Built Up the House of Israel (kerahel ûkele ’â ’ašer banû šetêhem ’et-bêt yisra’el)
Notes
Index of Subjects
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
Z
Index of Ancient Sources