Hugh Page on Israel's Poetry of Resistance

I just finished reading through Hugh Page’s Israel’s Poetry of Resistance: Africana Perspectives on Early Hebrew Verse (Fortress Press, 2013). In this stimulating volume, Page (associate professor, associate provost and dean at the University of Notre Dame) offers fresh readings of the earliest poems within the Hebrew Bible examining the ways in which these poems facilitated the promotion of communal identity for early Israelite society. With careful attention to the historical context of these poems as well as their placement within the larger narratives and collections of the Old Testament, Page is able to read these poems as offering a kind of resistance to cultural, social, and historical forces that threatened the Israelite community. Page writes, “One assertion that can be made with confidence is that the curating of the poems, and of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, was a means of dealing with at least some of the uncertainties associated with living in dispersion and under foreign domination” (15). And further, “One can see manifest in them [early Hebrew poems] some of the realities that typify diasporan life, such as pressure to adapt and assimilate. One also finds in places a concomitant impulse to resist, or at least to challenge the privilege of, established orthodoxies” (17). Central to his approach here is the conscious reading of these poems in conversation with similar kinds of cultural factors at work within the world of the African diaspora.

By taking this approach Page offers readers a fruitful juxtaposition of the ancient and the contemporary. He thoughtfully identifies contemporary elements from within the Africana community that involve dynamics similar to those at play in each early Hebrew poem. Then he allows the two distinct cultural worlds to inform and interrogate each other. The result is a series of chapters that illumine both the dynamics of the biblical text as well as some facets of contemporary Africana culture. The interplay is provocative. For example, Moses in Deut 31:30 “began woofin' in the presence of the entire Israelite assembly,” and David “sang the blues concerning Saul and his son Jonathan” in 2 Sam 1:17. The real heart of Page's treatments, however, is not in his translations (as compelling as those are). The real impact is felt as he brings the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) into contact with figures like Harriet Tubman and Benjamin Banneker, or Balaam into contact with practices of indigenous African spirituality, or the Song of Hannah into contact with “Black women who have relied on mother wit and common sense” (79) and are now at the end of their lives. Such readings highlight issues of justice, cultural adaptation and assimilation, and the struggle for freedom, among others.

For my part, what first attracted me to the volume was the notion of reading these biblical poems as “poetry of resistance” since that is an angle I have been pursuing particularly with regard to the Colossian hymn (Col. 1:15-20) and with regard to the Psalms of Solomon (more on that in a future entry). By placing ancient Hebrew poetry in conversation with poets and figures from within the African diaspora, Page is able to draw attention to dynamics within the Hebrew text that are typically overlooked in more traditional scholarly treatments. By attending to the dynamics of diaspora, Page reads these poems with an ear that is attuned to some of the muted overtones, and can thereby make connections with the contemporary world as well. Among the features he identifies are:

·         “Disparate social groups forging a collective identity while struggling to maintain their uniqueness” (Gen 49; Dt 33)

·         “Ancestral traditions, particularly those relating to communal origins, being codified and curated” (Ex 15; Dt 32; 2 Sam 22; Ps 18)

·         “The adaptation and inversion of indigenous and externally appropriated legend and lore” (Pss 29, 68)

·         “Resistance strategies being negotiated and tested” (Judges 5)

·         “The costs and benefits of cultural exchange and assimilation being contemplated” (Num 23-24)

·         “The fate of women, the poor, and others on the social margins being pondered” (1 Sam 2)

·         “The tragic dimensions of intergroup strife being debated” (2 Sam 1)

·         “The relationship between centralized forms of governance and the social welfare of communities in transition being considered” (Ps 72)

·         While some of the poems are “unapologetic in their opposition to political hegemonies that foment diasporas” (Ex 15; Judges 5) others “deftly engage and subtly transmute motifs well known from the mythological lore of Canaan and the cultural milieu of Israel’s socially diverse mélange” (Ex 12:38) (taken from pp. 17-18)

Part of what makes Page’s investigation so meaningful is his taking into account of the dynamics associated with living in diaspora—a dynamic he sees at work in ancient Israelite as well as contemporary Africana culture. He explains, “Whether they are physical, emotional, spiritual, imagined, eschatological, or of some other type, diasporas require complex negotiations between locations and social groups. Removal from an actual or illusory homeland, through either coercion or voluntary relocation, is often an occasion for rethinking identity. It can also lead to a reassessment of the relationship between those living remotely and the kin they have left behind. Feelings of grief, loss, and disorientation are not uncommon by-products of such an experience” (15). When these dynamics are kept in the foreground, the early Hebrew poems that Page examines show that they are compositions designed to speak into just those kinds of situations.

While Page’s focus is on the earliest biblical poetry and peoples, one can readily notice that some of these kinds of pressures and dynamics, or ones very similar to these, were also faced by Jews living in the period of the Second Temple, as well as by the early Christians. Thus, Page’s study provides many suggestive connections between the kind of reading of these early Hebrew poems that he offers and the kinds of readings of Second Temple Jewish and early Christian psalms and hymns that still need to be contemplated. For my part, I intend to utilize some of Page’s work in the coming months in my current research on Psalms of Solomon and on early Christian hymns.

While I came to the volume for its analysis of the ancient Hebrew poetry, I found that Page’s exegesis of the cultural dynamics facing people of color, and particularly those of African descent, to be even more significant. Page’s candor and honest reflections of his own experiences growing up in Baltimore add a richness and depth to the volume that is not normally found in scholarly writing. Page’s book is also very challenging as he rightly encourages contemporary readers to emulate the boldness of the biblical poets in embracing their cultural-rootedness and engaging the dynamics of their own cultures, both positively and critically. This is a very rich volume and one that offers a promising model for scholars wishing to read the poetry of the Bible in a way that honors both the biblical text as well as the context of the reader and his or her community.

In the final paragraph of the book, Page summarizes: 

Early Hebrew poetry gives us ready access to the spiritual musings of some of our ancient Jewish spiritual forebears. It takes us to the fountainhead of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the root from which the branches of Second Temple Judaism, Christianity, and Islam would later grow. It brings us face-to-face with the intractable mysteries surrounding the formation of community. It shows us the role that poets and poetic language played in shaping our conceptions of the divine and our understanding of how God’s self-disclosure to humanity unfolds. It forces us to deal with the symbolic nature of theological and poetic language and asks that we stretch ourselves intellectually as people of faith. (129-130)

By bringing these biblical texts into conversation with the experiences of contemporary Africana peoples, Page models a fruitful and provocative way of doing just those things.