Food and Pandemic

Food provides a helpful hermeneutical tool for considering the different strategies seen in the biblical texts and their context for dealing with crisis as meals and foodways are at the intersection of personal, social and political sphere. Most of the articles respond to the recent global pandemic by juxtaposing it with the ancient world, especially the literature of Ancient Israel. Striking parallels exist between the current crisis and ancient ones in manifold ways: the renewed centrality of meals when other constructed daily rhythms are disrupted, as well as the relation between scarcity of food and the rise of oppressive structures in times of crisis. Food in times of pandemic lays bare human ontological and contextual vulnerability. Likewise, food serves as a means of resilience. The articles draw primarily from papers given in sessions sponsored by the ‘Meals in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Its World’ program unit at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2020 and 2021.