Constructions of Space IV: Further Developments in Examining Ancient Israel’s Social Space

Critical studies and analyses of space are becoming increasingly common in scholarship, although it is not always clear how such studies proceed, what theoretical works inform them, or what are their potential benefits for biblical studies. This volume helps address those questions, by including the work of biblical scholars working in a range of historical periods and locations, from Deuteronomy’s idealized spaces to the Qumran community on the shores of the Dead Sea. Each of the scholars in this volume is actively involved in the critical study of space, having presented work on this topic in regional, national, or international meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature. The essays included in this volume combine theoretical and interpretive concerns in the analysis of texts from the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Scholars in Biblical Studies, Archaeology, Religious Studies, and Anthropology will find this to be a valuable resource for gaining new understandings of the critical study of space in antiquity.