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.
