Making a Name for Oneself: Martial Valor, Heroic Death, and Procreation in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

Surveying a wide range of ancient sources, this discussion of the political thought of the Hebrew Bible treats name-making in relation to (1) martial prowess, (2) heroic death, and (3) procreation. Commemoration of the war dead is one of the chief expressions of statehood in both the ancient and the modern world. Tellingly, the Bible is completely devoid of texts that glorify the names of the fallen. Combining this fact with observations related to the strong emphasis in biblical literature on name-making through procreation, this article argues that what propelled the redaction and transmission of the sources transmitted in the Bible was an interest in creating a form of peoplehood that could withstand the loss of statehood.