Available Formats
Body, Gender and Purity in Leviticus 12 and 15
By (Author) Dorothea Erbele-Kuster
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
T.& T.Clark Ltd
25th August 2022
United Kingdom
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Judaism: sacred texts and revered writings
Religious aspects of sexuality, gender and relationships
222.13083053
Paperback
288
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
The so-called purity laws in Leviticus 11-15 reflect a cultic and social view of the male and female body. These texts do not give detailed physiological descriptions. Instead, they prescribe what to do in the cases of skin disease, delivery and wo/man's genital discharges, but the particular way of dealing with the body and the language used in Leviticus 12 and 15 ask for clarification: how do these texts construct the male and female body Which roles does gender play within this language By means of themes such as menstruation and circumcision, Erbele-Kuester unfolds the language used for the body in Leviticus and its interpretation history. Her study provides material for a contemporary anthropology of bodies which relates the human sexed body to God's holiness.
On the whole there is much here to appreciate ... There are observations aplenty to debate ... It would not be safe for anyone working in the area to ignore this book. * The Expository Times *
Dorothea Erbele-Kuester teaches Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible at the Protestant Faculty in Brussels, Belgium, and in Kampen, the Netherlands.