Disability, Faciality, and Redaction

Grant F. Gates approaches the early historical books of the Hebrew Bible through disability studies and critical theory. He argues that Israel and Judah developed distinct conceptions of disability, offering new insights into redactional processes and the formation of the Deuteronomistic Collection.

Most studies approaching biblical studies with disability studies primarily utilize synchronic approaches to the biblical text. While historical concerns have not been ignored, historical critical approaches have not been brought into dialogue with disability studies. Grant F. Gates reads the Deuteronomistic Collection with insight from disability studies diachronically to engage redaction critical questions. He argues that different conceptions of disability emerged in Judah than in the northern kingdom of Israel in the ninth through sixth centuries BCE. The author draws on the critical theory of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, particularly their concept of faciality. Later developments on Deleuzoguattarian theory have developed non-representational theory; the author proposes a non-representational approach to disability primarily built on faciality. Using this methodology, different facialities for similar impairments distinguish northern from southern conceptions of disability in the Deuteronomistic Collection.
Using faciality to explore visual impairments, skin disease, and mobility impairments in the Deuteronomistic Collection, the author argues that the north exhibits less developed, less identitarian, more fluid conceptions of disability, and the south more developed, more representational, more territorialized conceptions of disability. Recognizing these distinctions provides a means for engaging redactional questions, particularly in texts with complicated histories involving both kingdoms, such as the David story. Pressing against representations of disability with a non-representational approach reveals the inherent instability of disability categories. As this breakdown underscores the representational nature of disability as faciality, the study critiques representation more broadly, allowing a deterritorialization of disability in the Deuteronomistic Collection.

1. Introduction
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Proposed Thesis
1.3. Literature Review: Disability and the Bible
1.4. Literature Review: Deuteronomistic History
1.5. Place of This Study
1.6. Plan of This Study
2. Toward a Non-Representational Methodology for Disability
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Deleuzoguattarian Concepts for Theorizing Non-Representational Disability
2.3. Non-Representational Disability
2.4. Concerning Historical Method
2.5. Conclusion
3. Visual Impairment in the Deuteronomistic Collection
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Pair 1: Blindness in Deuteronomy and 2 Kings 6:8-23
3.3. Pair 2: Prophets and Blindness; Eli and Ahijah
3.4. Pair 3: Samson and Zedekiah
3.5. Conclusions on Visual Impairments in the Deuteronomistic Collection
4. Skin Disease in the Deuteronomistic Collection
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Skin Disease in the Ancient Near East
4.3. Skin Disease in the Northern Kingdom
4.4. Skin Disease in the Southern Kingdom
4.5. Conclusion
5. Mobility Impairments in the Deuteronomistic Collection
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Semantics of Mobility Impairments in the Hebrew Bible
5.3. Reading the David Story with Mobility Impairment
5.4. Mobility Impairments Elsewhere in the Deuteronomistic Collection
5.5. Conclusion
6. Conclusion
6.1. Review of Argument
6.2. Faciality and Disability
6.3. North, South, and Disability
6.4. Redactional Development of the Deuteronomistic Collection
6.5. Potential for Future Research in Biblical Studies

• By (author) Grant F. Gates