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Abstract
My dissertation analyzes portrayals of infertility and anxiety related to reproduction in the Priestly (P), Elohistic (E), and Yahwistic (J) sources of the Pentateuch alongside material evidence from the Iron Age Levant. By situating the composition of the pentateuchal texts in the Neo-Assyrian period, I engage with questions of how biblical authors responded to, described, and solved problems of survival during the period of Assyrian hegemony, an era characterized by death and destruction. In the first section of the project, utilizing the Neo-documentary hypothesis approach, I provide an updated source division and translation of pentateuchal texts employing a philologically rigorous, historical-critical method alongside insights from gender studies and disability studies. I analyze J, E, and P as independent, coherent narratives, arguing that each source differs in its portrayals of divine intervention and male and female autonomy to overcome infertility and challenges to survival of offspring. While synchronic approaches tend to emphasize a singular divine promise of land and progeny, I demonstrate that these sources contain distinct ideological claims about how the Israelite deity intervenes to ensure population growth. In the latter section of the project, I turn to evidence from art and archaeology of the Levant with a focus on Judean Pillar Figurines (JPFs), which emerge as a phenomenon during the Neo-Assyrian period. I argue that written and visual evidence of how Ištar’s cult was adopted, adapted, and integrated alongside local religious symbols offers an important lens for examining JPFs as religious objects. I analyze nine complete figurines and the archaeological contexts in which they were excavated, which include which include domestic, funerary, and administrative loci. By discussing the figurines as evidence of cultural discourse related to reproduction, I conclude that they offer a point of contrast to biblical ideas, indicating a plurality of beliefs and practices among scribal elites and members of non-elite households in Judah during this period. As biblical writers may have written their accounts to gain authoritative status or to stand apart from alternate views, my project analyzes archaeological evidence as an “additional voice,” representing a perspective that existed alongside the variety of ideas contained in the biblical texts.