Machine generated contents note: The Problem of Death in the Hebrew Bible -- Theories of Mortuary Practice -- From an Idealist to a Representationist Approach -- Ritual and the Body -- Understanding Ancestors -- Contemplating Death -- pt. I The Archaeology of Death in Iron Age Judah -- 1.Death as Transition in Judahite Mortuary Practices -- The Judahite Bench Tomb as Ritual Space -- The Tomb as Separation -- The Liminal Space of the Tomb -- Marginality and Identity in Judahite Mortuary Practices -- Synthesis -- 2.The History of the Judahite Bench Tomb -- Mortuary Practices in the Iron Age -- The First Phase: Iron Age IB to Iron Age IIA -- The Second Phase: Iron Age IIB -- The Third Phase: Iron Age IIIA -- Jerusalem: Iron Age IIB through Iron Age III -- Historical Analysis -- 3.Writing and the Tomb -- The Funerary Inscriptions of the Silwan Necropolis -- The Identification of the Dead at Silwan -- Shebna's Tomb and the Silwan Necropolis -- The Tomb Inscriptions of Khirbet el-Qom -- The Inscriptions of Khirbet Beit Lei Tomb 1 -- The Ketef Hinnom Silver Amulets -- Analysis of Hebrew Funerary Inscriptions -- Summary of Part I A Brief History of Death in Judah during the Iron Age -- pt. II Death and the Afterlife in the Hebrew Bible -- 4.Care for the Dead -- Care for the Defunct Soul -- The as Defunct Soul in Leviticus -- The as Defunct Soul in Numbers -- The nps in Aramaic Inscriptions -- Feeding the Dead -- Deuteronomy 26:14 and Parameters of Feeding the Dead -- Feeding the Dead in Hosea 9:4 -- Feeding the Dead at Zincirli (Sam'al) -- Feeding the Dead in Job 21:25 -- Dedications for the Dead -- Conclusion -- 5.The Narrative of Bones -- Traditions of Joseph and His Bones -- The Death of Joseph -- The Role of the paqidu in Mesopotamian Sources -- Care for the Dead at Khirbet Beit Lei -- Joseph's Bones outside of Genesis -- The Death and Desecration of a Queen -- The Assassination of Joram and Jezebel -- The Destruction of Jezebel's Body -- The Implications of a Bad Death -- Conclusion -- 6.The Tomb and the Identity of the Dead -- The Tomb and Identity -- The Death and Burial of Matriarchs -- Sarah and the Cave of Machpelah -- The Death of Rachel -- Death and Ideologies of Interment at Bethel -- The Man of God from Judah and His Burial in Bethel -- The Desecration of Bethel's Dead in 2 Kings 23 -- Conclusion -- 7.Death, Dying, and the Liminality of Sheol -- The Problem of Sheol in the Literary Sources -- Sheol in the Psalms -- Psalm 16 -- Psalm 49 -- Psalm 88 -- Psalm 116 -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: The Invisible Tomb.
Summary:
The meaning of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is studied through the ideals of a good death, beginning with burial customs. This book uses burial remains from Iron Age Judah to shed important light on the images of death found in biblical literature.
