List of Contributors viii

Acknowledgments x

Introduction 1
R. S. Sugirtharajah

Part I: Theoretical Practices 3

Introduction: Theoretical Practices 5
R. S. Sugirtharajah

1 Charting the Aftermath: A Review of Postcolonial Criticism 7
R. S. Sugirtharajah

2 Biblical Criticism and Postcolonial Studies: Toward a Postcolonial Optic 33
Fernando F. Segovia

3 Making the Connections: Postcolonial Studies and Feminist Biblical Interpretation 45
Kwok Pui-lan

Part II: Empires Old and New 65

Introduction: Empires Old and New 67
R. S. Sugirtharajah

4 Renewal Movements and Resistance to Empire in Ancient Judea 69
Richard A. Horsley

5 Postcolonialism and Imperial Motives for Canonization 78
Jon L. Berquist

6 Roman Imperialism and Early Christian Scribality 96
Werner H. Kelber

7 Desiring War: Apocalypse, Commodity Fetish, and the End of History 112
Erin Runions

Part III: Empire and Exegesis 129

Introduction: Empire and Exegesis 131
R. S. Sugirtharajah

8 The Implications of the Text of Esther for African Women’s Struggle for Liberation in South Africa 134
Itumeleng J. Mosala

9 Rahab Says Hello to Judith: A Decolonizing Feminist Reading 142
Musa W. Dube

10 The Sign of Orpah: Reading Ruth through Native Eyes 159
Laura E. Donaldson

11 On Naming the Subject: Postcolonial Reading of Daniel 1 171
Philip Chia

12 Decolonizing Yahweh: A Postcolonial Reading of 2 Kings 24–25 186
Kari Latvus

13 Mark and Empire: ‘‘Zealot’’ and ‘‘Postcolonial’’ Readings 193
Stephen D. Moore

14 Tyranny, Boundary, and Might: Colonial Mimicry in Mark’s Gospel 206
Tat-siong Benny Liew

15 Maori ‘‘Jews’’ and a Resistant Reading of John 5.10–47 224
Mary Huie-Jolly

16 God at the Crossroads: A Postcolonial Reading of Sophia 238
Mayra Rivera

Part IV: Postcolonial Concerns 255

Introduction: Postcolonial Concerns 257
R. S. Sugirtharajah

17 How Local Divine Powers were Suppressed: A Case of Mwari of the Shona 259
Dora R. Mbuwayesango

18 Cutchery Tamil versus Pure Tamil: Contesting Language Use in the Translated Bible in the Early Nineteenth-Century Protestant Tamil Community 269
Hephzibah Israel

19 Canonization and Marginalization: Mary of Magdala 284
Karen L. King

20 Exodus-toward-Egypt: Filipino-Americans’ Struggle to Realize the Promised Land in America 291
Eleazar S. Fernandez

Index of Biblical References 305

Index of Names and Subjects 313