Tracy Lemos, “Dehumanization and Rehumanization in Early Judaism: Isaiah and Leviticus” - Part 2

This lecture will explore how biblical texts dating to the exilic and postexilic periods responded to different forms of dehumanization.  The lecture will examine Mesopotamian sources to demonstrate the use of particular dehumanizing practices and metaphors by the empires of the first millennium BCE, as well as how Israelite/Judean texts both promote and call into question those dehumanizing frameworks.  Lemos will argue that the book of Leviticus in fact goes so far as to present coherent and detailed rituals of rehumanization by which the postexilic community could alleviate the effects of imperial violence. 

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