PhD University of Exeter. Thesis: "Managing Men: Marriage and Masculinities in Ezra 9-10" Supervisors: Francesca Stavrakopoulou and David Horrell Phone: +50688163092
Capítulo del libro La hermandad desde la Biblia. Aproximaciones textuales, contextuales e interte... more Capítulo del libro La hermandad desde la Biblia. Aproximaciones textuales, contextuales e intertextuales a propósito de Fratelli Tutti. Editado por Juan Alberto Casas Ramírez. Estella: Verbo Divino, 2022, 69-80.
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, ed. Life and Death: Social Perspectives on Biblical Bodies, 2021
This essay focuses on the production and performance of masculinities in Ezra 9-10. I address Ezr... more This essay focuses on the production and performance of masculinities in Ezra 9-10. I address Ezra’s performance of mourning and body modification rituals in Ezra 9–10) and explore the ways in which this performance configures male bodies, gendered identities and socio-religious power relations in the narrative world of the text.
Men, Masculinities and Intermarriage in Ezra 9-10. Routledge Studies in the Biblical World. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2024., 2024
Offering a reading of the intermarriage debate and expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra 9-10, t... more Offering a reading of the intermarriage debate and expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra 9-10, this book engages with the production and performance of masculinities in this biblical text, shifting the focus away from the 'foreign women' to the men who are the primary actors in this work.
This approach addresses the diversity of masculinities and the ways in which they are implicated in the production of power relations in the text. It explores the ‘feminized’ masculinity of the peoples-of-the-lands, the unstable masculinity of the golah, Ezra’s performance of penitential masculinity, and the rehabilitation of divine masculinity. The rejection of the marriages and the call for the expulsion of the women and children are addressed as sites on which masculinities and power relations are configured. In doing so, this book sheds light on how women and the traits and performances culturally ascribed to women, femininity and inferior masculinities, are appropriated to produce masculinities and negotiate power relations between men. It posits that the debate in Ezra 9-10 is not, ultimately, about the women themselves, but about bringing the masculinities, bodies and practices of dissenting men under the ‘management’ of those who wield the Torah in the narrative world of the text.
Research monograph on Ezra 9-10 that explores the expulsion of the foreign women in the context o... more Research monograph on Ezra 9-10 that explores the expulsion of the foreign women in the context of the discourse of gendered otherness in the Hebrew Bible.
II Congreso de Estudios Bíblicos, 29 de junio, 2022
Una lectura de 1 Samuel 25 que explora la irrupción de la fraternidad como horizonte posible. Las... more Una lectura de 1 Samuel 25 que explora la irrupción de la fraternidad como horizonte posible. Las lógicas de poder del "hombre fuerte" son desveladas e intervenidas por la sagacidad de una mujer sensata.
Studies in Second Temple Judaism: A Global Enterprise' Conference (Jan 10-13), 2022
The focus of this presentation is the character of Yhwh in the book of Ezra, specifically the con... more The focus of this presentation is the character of Yhwh in the book of Ezra, specifically the construction of the masculinity of Yhwh. The analytical category I amploy is drawn from critical studies of masculinities and the growing scholarship on ancient West Asian and biblical masculinities. It speaks to an issue that I suggest, is at stake in the text and is a matter of concern for those who are represented by and in this narrative world: the ability of Yhwh to perform as a supreme male deity. I consider some of the issues in the book of Ezra that might raise doubts concerning the masculinity of Yhwh and then address strategies by which Yhwh is rehabilitated in this narrative world so that he may be proven to be “good at being a male god”. I then turn to the debate over the marriages to ‘foreign women’ in Ezra 9-10 to consider the significance of Yhwh’s masculinity for the configuration of social and religious power within the golah and for those represented in and by the text.
Capítulo del libro La hermandad desde la Biblia. Aproximaciones textuales, contextuales e interte... more Capítulo del libro La hermandad desde la Biblia. Aproximaciones textuales, contextuales e intertextuales a propósito de Fratelli Tutti. Editado por Juan Alberto Casas Ramírez. Estella: Verbo Divino, 2022, 69-80.
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, ed. Life and Death: Social Perspectives on Biblical Bodies, 2021
This essay focuses on the production and performance of masculinities in Ezra 9-10. I address Ezr... more This essay focuses on the production and performance of masculinities in Ezra 9-10. I address Ezra’s performance of mourning and body modification rituals in Ezra 9–10) and explore the ways in which this performance configures male bodies, gendered identities and socio-religious power relations in the narrative world of the text.
Men, Masculinities and Intermarriage in Ezra 9-10. Routledge Studies in the Biblical World. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2024., 2024
Offering a reading of the intermarriage debate and expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra 9-10, t... more Offering a reading of the intermarriage debate and expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra 9-10, this book engages with the production and performance of masculinities in this biblical text, shifting the focus away from the 'foreign women' to the men who are the primary actors in this work.
This approach addresses the diversity of masculinities and the ways in which they are implicated in the production of power relations in the text. It explores the ‘feminized’ masculinity of the peoples-of-the-lands, the unstable masculinity of the golah, Ezra’s performance of penitential masculinity, and the rehabilitation of divine masculinity. The rejection of the marriages and the call for the expulsion of the women and children are addressed as sites on which masculinities and power relations are configured. In doing so, this book sheds light on how women and the traits and performances culturally ascribed to women, femininity and inferior masculinities, are appropriated to produce masculinities and negotiate power relations between men. It posits that the debate in Ezra 9-10 is not, ultimately, about the women themselves, but about bringing the masculinities, bodies and practices of dissenting men under the ‘management’ of those who wield the Torah in the narrative world of the text.
Research monograph on Ezra 9-10 that explores the expulsion of the foreign women in the context o... more Research monograph on Ezra 9-10 that explores the expulsion of the foreign women in the context of the discourse of gendered otherness in the Hebrew Bible.
II Congreso de Estudios Bíblicos, 29 de junio, 2022
Una lectura de 1 Samuel 25 que explora la irrupción de la fraternidad como horizonte posible. Las... more Una lectura de 1 Samuel 25 que explora la irrupción de la fraternidad como horizonte posible. Las lógicas de poder del "hombre fuerte" son desveladas e intervenidas por la sagacidad de una mujer sensata.
Studies in Second Temple Judaism: A Global Enterprise' Conference (Jan 10-13), 2022
The focus of this presentation is the character of Yhwh in the book of Ezra, specifically the con... more The focus of this presentation is the character of Yhwh in the book of Ezra, specifically the construction of the masculinity of Yhwh. The analytical category I amploy is drawn from critical studies of masculinities and the growing scholarship on ancient West Asian and biblical masculinities. It speaks to an issue that I suggest, is at stake in the text and is a matter of concern for those who are represented by and in this narrative world: the ability of Yhwh to perform as a supreme male deity. I consider some of the issues in the book of Ezra that might raise doubts concerning the masculinity of Yhwh and then address strategies by which Yhwh is rehabilitated in this narrative world so that he may be proven to be “good at being a male god”. I then turn to the debate over the marriages to ‘foreign women’ in Ezra 9-10 to consider the significance of Yhwh’s masculinity for the configuration of social and religious power within the golah and for those represented in and by the text.
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Papers by Elisabeth Cook
Books by Elisabeth Cook
This approach addresses the diversity of masculinities and the ways in which they are implicated in the production of power relations in the text. It explores the ‘feminized’ masculinity of the peoples-of-the-lands, the unstable masculinity of the golah, Ezra’s performance of penitential masculinity, and the rehabilitation of divine masculinity. The rejection of the marriages and the call for the expulsion of the women and children are addressed as sites on which masculinities and power relations are configured. In doing so, this book sheds light on how women and the traits and performances culturally ascribed to women, femininity and inferior masculinities, are appropriated to produce masculinities and negotiate power relations between men. It posits that the debate in Ezra 9-10 is not, ultimately, about the women themselves, but about bringing the masculinities, bodies and practices of dissenting men under the ‘management’ of those who wield the Torah in the narrative world of the text.
Conference Presentations by Elisabeth Cook
This approach addresses the diversity of masculinities and the ways in which they are implicated in the production of power relations in the text. It explores the ‘feminized’ masculinity of the peoples-of-the-lands, the unstable masculinity of the golah, Ezra’s performance of penitential masculinity, and the rehabilitation of divine masculinity. The rejection of the marriages and the call for the expulsion of the women and children are addressed as sites on which masculinities and power relations are configured. In doing so, this book sheds light on how women and the traits and performances culturally ascribed to women, femininity and inferior masculinities, are appropriated to produce masculinities and negotiate power relations between men. It posits that the debate in Ezra 9-10 is not, ultimately, about the women themselves, but about bringing the masculinities, bodies and practices of dissenting men under the ‘management’ of those who wield the Torah in the narrative world of the text.