Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story (review)

Mephiboshet, the son of Jonathan and grandson of King Saul, generally gets scant attention. By the time he enters the stage, so to speak, the Davidic/Judah kingship has ascended and the short-lived Saul/Benjamin dynasty is already dead. With this volume, Jeremy Schipper ameliorates this problem. Schipper's analysis uses disabilities studies perspectives, nuanced literary analysis, thorough grounding in ancient Near Eastern history, and rabbinic literature and traditional Biblical commentaries to shed light on this biblical character. Mephiboshet is consistently described as "lame in both legs."

Schipper disproves the notion that this would make him unfit to be king with solid historical data. (Some have suggested that David felt no threat from Mephiboshet's presence for this reason.) Schipper then goes on to show how Mephiboshet's name and disability are part of leitmotif in the Davidic History.

The first chapter provides an excellent overview of biblical critisicism and disability studies. The second chapter reviews the history of interpretation and modern scholarship regarding Mephiboshet. In the third chapter, he demonstrates how characterizations of Mephiboshet as disabled bring out deep cultural assumptions about physical differences, particularly regarding the body of the king, and examines the deep, overlapping motifs and qualities that David and Mephiboshet share. In the fourth chapter, Shipper gives a close reading of Mephiboshet's story and shows how it is intertwined with the rise and (physical) fall of David over time. The fifth chapter offers a summary and conclusions.

The use of disability imagery to present complex motifs has been collapsed, in modern times, by the tendency to infer that a disability is a "master status": overriding any other characterization and washing out differences between persons with disabilities. (Another part of the Jewish world in which this is done, and which may serve as a good analogy, is the term "Holocaust Survivor," as if the experiences of a survivor of Auschwitz are identical to those of a child who was taken in as a refugee in England at three years of age. The "master status" homogenizes meaningful differences and obliterates masses of meaning.)

The review of the literature and bibliography alone would make this a valuable contribution to any library. Schipper's analysis is excellent, and he has created a very valuable contribution to the field. Many people interested in biblical studies and disabilities studies would want to buy this book, but it has clearly been priced for institutions only. This is unfortunate, as I believe it deserves, and could find, a much wider audience at a lower price. Perhaps the publishers can be convinced to alter their marketing strategy so that this book can reach the much larger audience it rightly deserves.