New Publication on Psalms as Resistance Poetry

I'm pleased to note that my article that examines the first century BCE Jewish text Psalms of Solomon in light of the features of resistance poetry has just been published in the Journal of Ancient Judaism 9 (2018): 366–385. Here is a link to the article: Psalms of Solomon as Resistance Poetry. The abstract is below:

Two trends in recent scholarship provide a new set of lenses that enable contemporary readers to appreciate more fully the contents and genre of Pss Sol. On the one hand, scholars such as Richard Horsley, Anathea Portier-Young, and Adela Yarbro Collins have now explored the ways in which early Jewish writers engaged in a kind of compositional resistance as they grappled with their traditions in light of the realities of oppressive empires. These approaches enable us to consider the extent to which Pss Sol also may embody a kind of resistant counterdiscourse for the community in which it was edited and preserved. On the other hand, scholars within biblical studies (e.g., Hugh Page's Israel's Poetry of Resistance) and beyond have examined the dynamics of the poetry of resistance. Such poetry has existed in many times, places, and cultures, giving a voice to the oppressed, protecting the memory of victims, and creating a compelling vision of a possible future in which the oppression is overcome. In this article the poetry of Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel is interwoven with Pss. Sol. to illustrate these dynamics and to illuminate the kinds of concerns that scholars like Barbara Harlow and Carolyn Forché have highlighted within the poetry of witness. Since Pss Sol has yet to be explored through these dual lenses of resistance and resistance poetry, this article examines these early Jewish psalms in light of these scholarly trends. I argue that Pss Sol can be understood as a kind of resistance poetry that enabled a community of Jews in the first century BCE to resist the dominant discourse of both the Roman Empire and its client king, Herod the Great. The themes of history, identity, and possibility that pervade resistance poetry in other times and places are central features of Pss Sol.

Some of this research is reflected now in how I read the early Christian hymns that are embedded in the New Testament. Several of these hymns resonate strongly with the kind of "spirituality of resistance" that the Psalms of Solomon demonstrate, suggesting to me that the earliest Christian hymns were not strictly religious but also reflected other concerns of the early followers of Jesus in their Roman imperial context.