Review: Not Just Threshing Floors

This monograph is part of the Emerging Scholars series from Fortress Press designed to highlight innovative and creative projects from new scholars in Biblical studies, theology and Church history. This volume by Jaime L. Waters fits well into the series; it is based on Water’s Ph.D. dissertation from Johns Hopkins University. Fortress Press should be commended for publishing these works and thus encouraging young scholars in their studies and writing. Waters is currently an assistant 062 professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University in Chicago.

The topic of her book, threshing floors in ancient Israel, sounds perhaps trivial and trite to the common reader. However, we need to be reminded that Israel was primarily a pastoral and agrarian society throughout its history. Often the books of the Bible deal with royalty and elite figures, such as the Books of Samuel that center on Saul, Samuel and David. Much of the everyday, common workings of society are given little attention. This is where fields, such as archaeology, can help fill in the gaps—by providing insights into everyday life. Threshing floors were installations commonly used in ancient Israelite agriculture and therefore need to be studied and understood.

The author’s basic theme is to demonstrate that while threshing floors are agricultural spaces where crops are threshed and winnowed, they are also sites for important cultic activities, such as rituals and processions. In the Hebrew Bible, threshing floors were considered sacred spaces connected to Yahweh. He appeared at threshing floors, which were under his control, and he provided the grain threshed and winnowed there.