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This book offers a historical-materialist reading of the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, in an attempt to revive their potential to engage people in truthful discussions about power and pleasure in two historical settings: Jerusalem in the 5th-4th centuries BCE and Brazil in the early colonial period (16th century CE).
List of contents
Acknowledgments viii Preface ix
Introduction 1
A. The Purpose of the Book 1 B. Where I Try to Situate This Work Academically and Present a Method of Reading Genesis-Kings 5 C. Where I Present the Structure of the Book, Introduce Its Content, and Explain Its Title 9 PART I Words of Slaves 21
1 The Hidden Message of Aristeas 23
2 Yhwh as Ideology and Critique 26
Yhwh as a Figure of Speech in the First Temple Period 27 The Persian Period 28 Yhwh and the Satan 30 Between Yhwh and Elohim 33 Ezra's Mission 36 3 In the Great Assembly 39
The First Ceremony - the Reading of "the Torah" 39 The Levites as Go-Betweens 40 Critique of Colonialism 41 The Kings Who "Rule Over Our Corpses" 44 The Levites and the Writing of the Books 45 Yhwh in the Torah 47 PART II War on Brazil 51
4 In Lisbon 53
5 A New Province 57
The Gentiles and the Missionaries 58 6 A Jewish Digression 62
The Word of Yhwh 63 Between Missionaries and Rabbis 67 7 The First Letter 70
The People of the Land 70 The Father, the Lord, and the Language 73 8 Israel in Brazil 78
The Letter to the Settlers of Pernambuco 79 The Suffering Servants 81 9 Satan in the Kingdom 85
Nóbrega's Conversion 85 In the Workshop 89 10 The Sunday Jacket 100
The Poem 101 The Play and the Cross 103 11 Hungry Christ 107
The Sermon on the Conversion of Saint Paul 107 The Two Standards 109 The Wolf and the Lion 111 On the Road to Damascus 112 Conversing with Christ 114 Issue for Violence 116 Food for God 118 PART III When Enemies Became Brothers 123
12 The Brothers and the King 125
13 The Irresponsible Father 131
The Wise Woman 132 Elohim and the King in the Woman's Discourse 134 14 The King and the Snake 137
The Birth of the King 137 Bathsheba, David, and the War against Amon 139 15 In Yhwh's Domain 145
A Story of Power 146 Back to Cain and Abel 151 Epilogue 158
Bibliography 163 Index 169
About the author
Ron Naiweld is a Jewish Studies scholar. He holds a research position at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and teaches at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).
Summary
This book offers a historical-materialist reading of the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, in an attempt to revive their potential to engage people in truthful discussions about power and pleasure in two historical settings: Jerusalem in the 5th-4th centuries BCE and Brazil in the early colonial period (16th century CE).
