Licit Idols: The Roles of Divinized Furniture in the Hebrew Bible

Though scholars have argued for at least the past fifteen years that YHWH overlaps with material realia in the Bible, the exegetical implications of that overlap have tended to go unnoticed. Specialized studies of YHWH and materiality are not exegetical in scope, and works of exegesis normally do not allow “identification” as a conceptual category for explaining how texts present YHWH’s relation to an object. This dissertation aims to bridge these two worlds by proposing that YHWH overlaps with cultic appurtenances in 1 Samuel 4–6 and Numbers 31 and that this overlap serves to situate the deity in relation to specific events in Israel’s (biblical) past.

The dissertation adopts and adapts three criteria that the Assyriologist Barbara N. Porter created for identifying non-anthropomorphic gods in Mesopotamian texts. Biblical scholars have become aware of these criteria but have yet to use them for appreciating YHWH’s relation to materiality. Applying them to 1 Samuel 4–6 reveals multiple points at which characters call the ark YHWH or ascribe agency to it—without correction or censure from the narrator. In addition, Porter’s criteria assist in appreciating that ?????? ????????? transport YHWH to the battle with Midian in Numbers 31.
The dissertation concludes that 1 Samuel 7 draws from YHWH’s identification with the ark from 1 Samuel 4–6 to protest the rise of the monarchy in Israel, while YHWH reappears as the ark in 2 Samuel 6 and 15 to express divine approval for the Davidic dynasty. As for Numbers 31, YHWH’s overlap with ?????? ????????? contributes to the chapter’s reversal of the disaster of Israel’s first attempt to take Canaan in Numbers 14: whereas the ark expresses YHWH’s absence in battle in Numbers 14, ?????? ????????? in Numbers 31 shows the deity’s accompaniment to war. These findings suggest that YHWH appears in unexpected forms elsewhere in the Bible and invite a consideration of whether contemporary theologies need to make room for God’s physically manifest presence in the unfolding of events in our world.