Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story

(Paperback)

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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, it argues that the David Story employs disability imagery as a subtle mode of narrating and organizing various ideological positions regarding national identity.

Reviews

"Schipper's fascinating and challenging engagement with how Mephibosheth is figured in the David story is at the same time an insight into how a physically disabled scholar is negotiating the gap in conversation between the guilds of disability and Biblical Studies." 32.5 (2008) -- A.G. Auld * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *

Author Bio

Jeremy Schipper is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Temple University.