<p> Postcolonial theory, while often reserved for analysis of modern political conditions, is often overlooked in biblical studies. The purpose of this thesis is to employ postcolonial analysis to the book of Ezekiel and demonstrate its value in biblical studies. Postcolonialism critiques national origin myths as political propaganda; seeks to retrieve the voices of those suppressed by hegemony; explores the power relations involved in ethnic and religious representation and authority; and examines how gender is used in hegemonic discourse. This study begins with an interrogation of the imperial politics behind several biblical national origin myths. A polyphony of contrapuntal voices are retrieved through archaeological, textual, and comparative evidence, demonstrating a plurality of Israelite religions for both the popular, illiterate, agrarian majority, as well as for officially state-sanctioned religions of the literate, urban, male elite. Finally, portions of the book of Ezekiel, a byproduct of imperialism itself, are analyzed for its use of gendered and sexualized language in continued polyphonic conflicts over religious representation and authority during a period of imperial crisis.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the use of Leviticus 26 in four Second Temple-era Jewish texts: Chronicles, Jubilees, Words of the Luminaries, and the Damascus Document. Prevailing scholarship will cite the fact that these texts&rsquo; review the history of how Israel&rsquo;s disobedience provoked the covenant chastisements epitomized by exile as proof that Second Temple Jews believed that they had fallen under the curses. The Chronicler&rsquo;s views on chastisement have been attributed to extreme (Deuteronomic) doctrines of immediate retribution and human initiated repentance. A contrasting belief that true repentance, bringing salvation, was only possible through a divinely initiated recreation of the human spirit has been increasingly imputed to the latter three texts. However, this dissertation argues that Chronicles, Jubilees, Words of the Luminaries, and the Damascus Document texts&rsquo; are all fundamentally oriented to the Leviticus 26 teleological paradigm of chastisement-induced repentance, more than the concept of tit-for-tat retributive cursing generally associated with Deuteronomy 28&ndash;29. All four texts read and reference Leviticus 26 for an optimistic, reassuring understanding that the covenant chastisements epitomized by exile are a God-guided experiential process whose <i>telos </i> is their repentance. Israel&rsquo;s suffering serves a purpose, bringing about a reversal of deliberately-committed ancestral trespass (<i> ma&lsquo;al</i>; Lev 26:40&ndash;41). In conceptualizing repentance in these texts as a divinely initiated process of inner transformation, this study moves beyond the dichotomy of &ldquo;human-initiated&rdquo; and &ldquo;divine-initiated&rdquo; repentance assumed by earlier scholarship. The latter three texts draw overt&mdash;but by scholars unappreciated and/or actively denied&mdash;references to the simple meaning of Lev 26:44&ndash;45 promising that God will preserve the people and the covenant he struck with them at Sinai no matter what the people do.</p><p>