Research Articles (Old and New Testament)

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Beyond revenge? : responsible Bible reading practices in a traumatized land
(AOSIS Publishing, 2017) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
In this article, I argue that revenge fantasies such as those found in the Oracles Against the Nations (OAN) in Jeremiah 45–51 underscore the necessity for responsible Bible reading practices. I argue that to protect us from our own worst selves, the very human tendency to resort to revenge that inevitably leads to violence, one needs to read these biblical texts in terms of contemporary hermeneutical approaches that may play some role to bring an end to violence. A first such approach that serves as an important tool to help us understand these revenge fantasies as found in the OAN is the relatively new field of inquiry of trauma hermeneutics that is particularly helpful in order to mitigate the violent aspects of these revenge fantasies. Moreover, I propose that recent approaches such as feminist and postcolonial biblical interpretation are also vital for nurturing ethical, just communities that actively pursue justice.
Female resistance in spite of injustice : human dignity and the daughter of Jephthah
(Old Testament Society of Southern Africa, 2013) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
The tragic story of the daughter of Jephthah (Judges 11) offers a chilling account of the dehumanising effects of patriarchy. Not only does the fact that this young woman has no name attests to how little value she and other women held in a society structured around male honor, but it is through patriarchy's power that Jephthah's daughter loses her life. And yet, one finds in the daughter of Jephthah narrative and its reception hints of female resistance in spite of domination. As part of a larger project on Gender and Human Dignity, I propose that reading this narrative through the lens of human dignity, which draws on insights from gender and postcolonial interpretation, may enhance our understanding of this story. In particular, this paper will focus on female resistance in spite of injustice which points to the incontrovertible and indestructible nature of human dignity. In the narrative of the daughter of Jephthah and its interpretation history, one sees an example of a woman, who even though she finds herself trapped in circumstances that violate their self-worth, resists the indignity that had befallen her. This resistance is frequently limited but, as I will argue in this paper, by no means insignificant.
From traumatic to narrative memories : the rhetorical function of birth metaphors in Micah 4-5
(University of the Free State, Faculty of Theology, 2018) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
This article proposes that trauma hermeneutics and, in particular, greater theoretical reflection on the relationship between trauma and metaphor may help explain the birth metaphors in Micah 4:9-5:3, where the woman-in-labour metaphor has been transformed quite dramatically. In the context of Micah, which I propose could also be characterized as trauma literature, there is evidence of a movement from potentially debilitating traumatic memories, associated with the woman-in-labour metaphor, to memories that have been integrated into some kind of narrative framework and that may potentially be considered to be a sign of healing and recovery.
Going home? Exiles, inciles and refugees in the book of Jeremiah
(AOSIS, 2019-01-17) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
Set against the backdrop of the Babylonian Invasion and Exile, the Book of Jeremiah represents a variety of different perspectives on how to survive imperial domination. This article explores three competing visions that can be described in terms of the tension that exists between the pro-golah group that propagated life in Babylon, the anti-golah group that saw the hope for the future back home and the group of refugees who in the aftermath of the Mizpah massacre found themselves fleeing to Egypt. In the current context of global migration, this article considers theological and ethical perspectives generated by the engagement with Jeremiah on home and homecoming in a context where there is no good option.
The hidden wounds of structural violence : exploring an intersectional understanding of violence in Jeremiah 4-6
(Old Testament Society of South Africa, 2018) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
Beyond the virulent portrayal of imperial violence in Jeremiah 4-6 that is rightly described as "terror all around" (Jer 6:25), one also finds other forms of violation that are no less injurious (cf. the repeated reference to "wounds" in Jer 6:7, 14). This paper proposes that it is important also to recognize forms of structural violence in this text that take into consideration factors such as gender, race and class that manifest itself as hidden wounds, which, if left unattended, may fester and return with a vengeance. This paper argues that a more nuanced and multi-faceted understanding of violence in the book of Jeremiah is helpful in dealing with the complex manifestations of violence in many contexts today. Such an intersectional understanding of violence recognizes that the deep wounds caused by poverty, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia will come back to haunt us if we do not engage in what Shelly Rambo calls "wound work" (Resurrecting Wounds: Living in the Aftermath of Trauma, p 92), i.e., surfacing and attending to the wounds caused by structural violence.
Just emotions : reading the Sarah and Hagar narrative (Genesis 16, 21) through the lens of human dignity
(AOSIS OpenJournals, 2013-09) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
This article seeked to read the interconnected narratives of Sarah and Hagar (Genesis 16, 21) in terms of the hermeneutical lens of human dignity. For the purpose of this article, recent studies on the performative nature of emotions, which considered the central role of emotions such as pain, disgust and hatred in shaping the lives of individuals as well as the ways in which people relate to one another, were helpful in contemplating the situations of dehumanisation faced by both Sarah and Hagar as well as the broader question regarding upholding human worth in a context of indignity. This article furthermore considered the role of emotions in a conversation on ethics and particularly the way in which the narrative offered a fruitful avenue for considering Israel’s relationship to their neighbours – a line of interpretation that holds potential for reflecting on complex interracial and interethnic relationships in today’s global context.
Not being content with God : contestation and contradiction in communities under duress
(Old Testament Society of South Africa, 2017) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
Drawing on recent insights from trauma hermeneutics, this article sets out to investigate the sharply divergent divine metaphors used by Jeremiah while being in prison (Jer 20). In this text, one finds Jeremiah saying in so many words that he hates God; that God had violatedhim (Jer 20:7). However, in the same breath, he also confesses God to be the Liberator-Warrior God who delivers the needy from the hands of evildoers (Jer 20:11, 13). These divine metaphors that are rooted in contestation and contradiction reflect the deep-seated paradox of faith experienced by the prophet that quite likely also manifested in the people during the time of the Babylonian invasion and exile. In addition, this article explores the dramatic (re)descrip-tions of God in Jer 20 that supplement and challenge the more traditional ways of speaking about God with equally contentious and contradictory images for God that emerged in communities experiencing severe trauma such as during the Holocaust as well as the forced removals during the Apartheid era in South Africa. I propose that new images for God that are marked by contradiction serve as a vital means to challenge traditional, often simplistic understandings of God in the name of God that is essential if God is going to survive together with the people.
Preaching the Pentateuch : reading Jeremiah’s sermons through the lens of cultural trauma
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2017) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
This article seeks to investigate the rhetorical function of Jeremiah’s Temple, Covenant and Sabbath Sermons against the backdrop of cultural trauma. I propose that the three sermons found in Jeremiah 7, 11:1-14 and 17:19-27 provide a good illustration of what is understood under the notion of cultural trauma according to which one or more of the public intellectuals of the time seeks to offer an interpretative framework that is focused on making sense of the calamity that threatened to destroy not only the community itself, but also everything they regarded to be sacred and true. By means of these three sermons, Jeremiah is reminding the people of Judah once again of the important tenets of their faith such as the Temple, the Covenant and the Sabbath as found predominantly in the Pentateuch. By ‘preaching’ on Judah’s earlier traditions, the prophet reconstitutes these ancient customs in a new way in an attempt to rebuild the fractured community.
Reading for the dignity of all : overcoming the troubling legacy of the Old Testament
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2015) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
In light of the numerous instances in the Hebrew Bible in which the dignity of its characters are threatened, violated or potentially violated, this article seeks to identify a number of strategies that may be used to read the Bible for the dignity of all so overcoming the Old Testament’s troubling legacy. These strategies have been inspired by the work of Martha Nussbaum who, in one of her recent books, The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age, names three principles that may help a society to become more compassionate in nature and to transcend, what she calls, a narcissistic notion of fear: (1) Political (and I would add religious) principles that express equal respect and dignity for all people (2) Rigorous critical thinking that criticizes inconsistencies that may lead to human rights violations (3) Developing an empathetic or participatory imagination, in which one is able to consider how the world looks from the point of view of a person of a different cultural or religious point of view.
Reading trauma narratives : insidious trauma in the story of Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah (Genesis 29-30) and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
(OTSSA, 2020-05-13) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
This article investigates the notion of insidious trauma as a helpful means of interpreting the story of Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah as told in Genesis 29-30 that has found its way into the haunting trauma narrative of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In the first instance, this article outlines the category of insidious trauma as it is situated in terms of the broader field of trauma hermeneutics, as well as the way in which it relates to the related disciplines of feminist and womanist biblical interpretation. This article will then continue to show how insidious trauma features in two very different, though intrinsically connected trauma narratives, i.e., the world imagined by Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale, and the biblical narrative regarding the four women through whose reproductive efforts the house of Israel had been built that served as the inspiration for Atwood’s novel. This article argues that these trauma narratives, on the one hand, reflect the ongoing effects of systemic violation in terms of gender, race and class, but also how, embedded in these narratives there are signs of resistance that serve as the basis of survival of the self and also of others.
Resisting dehumanization : acts of relational care in Exodus 1-2 as image of God's liberating presence
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2010) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
In her provocative book, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: A Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust (2003), Melissa Raphael argues that the exceedingly ordinary acts of women washing or caring for their own bodies or the bodies of others reflected something of the liberating presence of God in Auschwitz. These 'simple acts of humanity' had the purpose of restoring the personhood that was seriously imperiled by the dehumanizing acts of the Nazis in the death camps. Raphael's constructive theological construction that uses the lives of ordinary women to image God's liberating presence in Auschwitz will be used as hermeneutical lens in rereading the stories of the five women in Exodus 1-2, whose acts of relational care for the baby Moses serve the function of resisting the dehumanization underlying the acts of genocide reflected in this text. Moreover, the decision of these women to protect the vulnerable and to preserve life precedes or foreshadows God's liberation, so serving as an image of God's liberating presence.
Sabbath reconsidered : human dignity and the fourth commandment
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2011) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
This paper will consider the meaning and significance of the Sabbath commandment through the lens of human dignity, considering how various communities in the biblical traditions wrestled with the question of how to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. So the Sabbath commandment will be read in terms of the dual commandment to work as well as to rest underlying this commandment, showing how the basic human right to work as well as to rest forms an important part of reading this commandment in terms of a human dignity framework. In particular, this paper will show that reading the Sabbath in terms of human dignity may offer theological resources to contemporary communities to resist the growing tendency of disrespecting or violating people’s humanity when it comes to the central desire and need to work.
"Trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored" : assessing the legacy of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2014) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” written in 1861 by Julia Howe in the context of the American Civil War, indeed has a rich reception history in American public discourse and popular culture. So this hymn was cited by Martin Luther King in his last speech before being assassinated in 1968; it was sung at the memorial service for 9/11 at the National Cathedral in Washington DC and most recently at Barack Obama’s inauguration service in January 2013. Th is hymn moreover has served as inspiration for John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath as well as John Updike’s novel In the Beauty of the Lilies. And yet, this hymn is steeped in violence as it draws on biblical imagery that imagines God as a violent warrior who will deal decisively with God’s enemies. Th e first stanza in particular utilizes imagery of God trampling the wine press in Isaiah 63 in which the blood of the enemies are staining God’s robes red, which in turn is picked up by the author of the book of Revelation. Th is violence at the heart of the “Battle Hymn” is problematic indeed. As Dominic Tierney writes in an article in The Atlantic, “the ‘Battle Hymn’ is a warrior’s cry and a call to arms. Its vivid portrait of sacred violence captures how Americans fight wars, from the minié balls of the Civil War to the shock and awe of Iraq” (Nov 4, 2010). In this paper, I will investigate the complex reception history of this popular hymn in (American) public discourse as well as its biblical origins in the portrayal of God and violence in prophetic literature of the Old Testament. I will ask whether the violent origins of the divine metaphor hamper its applicability to just causes such as the fi ght for gender and racial justice. This question is particularly important to consider as we are faced globally with the question of how God is invoked in public discourse – most recently in my South African context by President Jacob Zuma, who famously has said that the ANC would rule until Jesus will come again. In an address to the 33rd Presbyterian Synod in Giyani, Limpopo in October 2013, Pres Zuma is reported to have invoked the wrath of God upon those individuals who do not respect his leadership, raising disconcerting questions regarding the link between divine violence and violence in political discourse.
Transforming God-language : the metaphor of God as abusive spouse (Ezekiel 16) in conversation with the portrayal of God in 'The color purple'
(Stellenbosch University, 2014) Claassens, L. Juliana M.
In probably one of the most disturbing texts in the Hebrew Bible, God is imaged in Ezekiel 16 (and 23) in terms of the metaphor of an Abusive Spouse (cf. also Hosea 1-2 and Jeremiah 2-3). In view of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ concern regarding the impact of violent (sacred) texts in a context of violence against women and children, I propose that Ezekiel 16 in all of its shock value offers a powerful teaching opportunity to raise awareness regarding a number of important issues such as the nature of God-language, the reality of sexual violence, and the impact of gender and race when it comes to interpreting the biblical witness. From experience, though, this text is not the easiest to teach. When teaching on difficult topics such as exemplified by this text from Ezekiel, I have found that it helps students to enter the topic by means of a creative interjection coming from the world of popular culture. This essay will bring into conversation the God-language in Ezekiel 16 with the portrayal of God in Alice Walker’s novel ‘The Color Purple’ (1982), which tells, in the form of letters to God, the story of a young African-American woman, Celie, who is the victim of rape by her abusive, domineering father. A creative engagement between Ezekiel 16 and ‘The Color Purple' that asks critical questions about the nature of God-language and how it relates to a situation of physical and sexual abuse may offer some intriguing possibilities for teaching on this difficult topic – in particular raising awareness about the multi-faceted phenomenon of violence against women.

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