Interpreting Exile—Displacement and Deportation in Biblical and Modern Contexts

Interpreting Exile considers forced displacement and deportation in ancient Israel and comparable modern contexts in order to offer insight into the realities of war and exile in ancient Israel and their representations in the Hebrew Bible. Introductory essays describe the interdisciplinary and comparative approach and explain how it overcomes methodological dead ends and advances the study of war in ancient and modern contexts. Following essays, written by scholars from various disciplines, explore specific cases drawn from a wide variety of ancient and modern settings and consider archaeological, anthropological, physical, and psychological realities, as well as biblical, literary, artistic, and iconographic representations of displacement and exile. The volume as a whole places Israel's experiences and expressions of forced displacement into the broader context of similar war-related phenomena from multiple contexts. The contributors are Rainer Albertz, Frank Ritchel Ames, Samuel E. Balentine, Bob Becking, Aaron A. Burke, David M. Carr, Marian H. Feldman, David G. Garber Jr., M. Jan Holton, Michael M. Homan, Hugo Kamya, Brad E. Kelle, T. M. Lemos, Nghana Lewis, Oded Lipschits, Christl M. Maier, Amy Meverden, William Morrow, Shelly Rambo, Janet L. Rumfelt, Carolyn J. Sharp, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, and Jacob L. Wright.

Brad E. Kelle is Professor of Old Testament at Point Loma Nazarene University. He is the author of Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective (Society of Biblical Literature), co-author of Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History (Eerdmans), and co-editor of Writing and Reading War: Rhetoric, Gender, and Ethics in Biblical and Modern Contexts (Society of Biblical Literature). Frank Ritchel Ames is Professor of Medical Informatics and Director of Library Services at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a contributor to and co-editor of Writing and Reading War: Rhetoric, Gender, and Ethics in Biblical and Modern Contexts and Foster Biblical Scholarship: Essays in Honor of Kent Harold Richards (both from Society of Biblical Literature). Jacob L. Wright is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He is the author of Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and Its Earliest Readers (de Gruyter), which won a 2008 Templeton prize.