The Body in the Hebrew Bible

The human body stands at a fascinating intersection between what all people share and what each culture makes of it. Our bodies today are not so different from those of ancient people, allowing us to recognize experiences across time and place. Yet ideas about the body—its meanings, values, and taboos—vary widely.

The Body in the Hebrew Bible takes this insight as its starting point. Written in a lively, conversational style, this book presents a comprehensive introduction to the body in the Hebrew Bible. Organized anatomically from the inside out and from top to bottom, it explores everything from the location of the nefesh (life force) in the throat to the seductive power of hair and the moral symbolism of the kidneys. Along the way, Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme and Søren Lorenzen map out not only human bodies but also animal, angelic, and divine ones, helping readers see both the biblical roots of modern perceptions of the body and the surprising ways in which ancient conceptions differ from contemporary ones.

Drawing on perspectives from disability studies, sensory studies, gender studies, and cognitive linguistics, The Body in the Hebrew Bible remains fully accessible to newcomers. Ideal for undergraduate students in theology, biblical studies, religious studies, and cultural studies—and a valuable resource for instructors—it offers an engaging, easy‑to‑use entry point into the cultural world of biblical bodies.

“Accessible and engaging, The Body in the Hebrew Bible demonstrates that we must understand how biblical authors conceived of various body parts to interpret the language and literary expressions of the Hebrew Bible accurately. Since biblical uses of the body and body-based metaphors differ from those of our own culture, the book’s systematic and comprehensive cataloging of the numerous body parts mentioned in the Bible guides modern readers in understanding these bodily expressions properly.”—Greg Schmidt Goering, author of Wisdom's Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel

Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Oslo. She is the author of Before the God in This Place for Good Remembrance: A Comparative Analysis of the Aramaic Votive Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim.

Søren Lorenzen is an independent scholar and the author of Spoken into Being: Self and Name(s) in the Hebrew Bible.