When, where, how and for what purpose were the categories of foreignness and gender connected and activated in literary tradition? In this volume of papers read during three workshops held in Leipzig (2016), Jerusalem (2017), and Vienna (2018), international scholars from different disciplines and methodological approaches explore gender-specific constructions of foreignness/strangeness in the Old Testament, Egypt, and Mesopotamia from their particular perspectives.

The volume presents a collection of papers read during three workshops held in Leipzig (2016), Jerusalem (2017), and Vienna (2018). International scholars from different disciplines and methodological approaches explored gender-specific constructions of foreignness/strangeness in the Old Testament, Egypt, and Mesopotamia from their particular perspectives. They showed that when combined, strangeness/foreignness and gender can take on very different forms. Various processes of the "othering" of women are of importance, which differ from the "othering" of men. The contributions investigate specific questions, individual female figures and individual phenomena as model cases. The basic question was when, where, how and for what purpose the categories of foreignness and gender were connected and activated in literary tradition. The collection is a preliminary and basic work for further study of gender-specific concepts of foreignness/strangeness in the ancient Mediterranean cultures of the first millennium BCE.

Autorentext
is Professor for "History and Religion of Israel and its Environment" at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Leipzig, an Extraordinary Professor for Ancient Studies at the University of Stellenbosch/South Africa, a Visiting Full Professor for Biblical Archaeology at Bar Ilan University/Israel, and a Full Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences. is professor for Old Testament Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria.

Inhalt
Lars Allolio-Näcke: How to Become an Alien (Woman)? - Sara Japhet: Marriage with Foreign Women: Yes or No? - Nili Wazana: Rahab, the Unlikely Foreign Woman of Jericho (Joshua 2) - Marianne Grohmann: The Philistine Woman from Timnah in Judges 14:1-15:8 - Angelika Berlejung: Solomon's Soulmate: The Queen of Sheba as Foreign Woman - Daniel Bodi: When Yhwh's Wife, Jerusalem, Became a Strange Woman: Inversion of Values in Ezekiel 16 in Light of Itar Cult - From Spouse to Brothel Boss (iâ zônâ allet) - Stefan Fischer: Foreign Women in the Book of Proverbs - Jan Dietrich: The Image of the Foreign Woman in Proverbs 1-9 - Hans-Peter Mathys: Phoenicians and Money Bags. Observations on Prov 7 - Hans-Peter Mathys: The Valiant Housewife of Prov 31:10-31: A Phoenician Businesswoman - Jutta Hausmann: Pharaoh's Daughter and Ruth - Cornerstones in the History of Israel - Agnethe Siquans: A Moabite Woman as the 'Right Son': Ruth as Naomi's and Boaz's Daughter - Kristin Joachimsen: Esther in Shushan: Narrative Constructions of Otherness related to Gender, Ethnicity and Social Status within the Persian Empire - Franziska Naether: Ancient Expats? Wise Women and Witches in Egyptian Literary Sources - Angelika Berlejung: Forever Foreign? Marriage Rules in Urban Babylonia and their Impact on the Exiles and Returnees