Gaming with Rahab and the Spies

Traditional readings of Joshua 2 cast Rahab as a clever Canaanite heroine who saves both herself and her family from God’s ban on Jericho. Such a reading re-inscribes an androcentric model of living with one’s enemy via a warrior-styled conquest. But more importantly, such an approach bypasses the r...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Rix, Charles M. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Oxford University Press 2020
Dans: The Oxford handbook of feminist approaches to the Hebrew Bible
Année: 2020
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Théorie du jeu / Rahab, Personnage biblique / Dilemme du prisonnier / Équilibre de Nash / Dominance / Stratégie / Bibel. Josua 2 / Identité sexuelle
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
HB Ancien Testament
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:Traditional readings of Joshua 2 cast Rahab as a clever Canaanite heroine who saves both herself and her family from God’s ban on Jericho. Such a reading re-inscribes an androcentric model of living with one’s enemy via a warrior-styled conquest. But more importantly, such an approach bypasses the reality that Rahab and the spies survive via a strategy of mutual cooperation, an unexpected move in a game of war. I propose game theory’s classic situation of The Prisoner’s Dilemma as a means to observe Rahab and the spies as players on equal footing in a high stakes game of survival. As gamers who cooperate rather than conquer, Rahab and the spies undercut the expected, or rational, means for Israelite/Canaanite engagement: war, conquest, and strategies of “othering” and violence found in the Torah. Rather than domination, cooperation surfaces as the unexpected, or irrational, strategy that results in the preferred path to achieving the maximum mutual benefit: survival and subsequent sharing in life together.
ISBN:0190462698
Contient:Enthalten in: The Oxford handbook of feminist approaches to the Hebrew Bible
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190462673.013.24