Don’t Cry over Spilled Blood

Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean: Recent and Current Research

“…Theories like Girard’s are compelling on their surface because they promise to explain a huge swath of data with a single stroke, but they do so only by doing violence to the evidence itself. In Girard’s case, his focus of killing and violence as the essence of sacrifice simply does not fit the ancient evidence (for a critique of Girard, see Klawans 2006; McClymond 2011a, 2011b; J.Z. Smith 1987).…”

“…As McClymond (2011a) has argued, the data for sacrifice are far more complex and varied than the grand theories allow. Grand theories are also far less objective than they seem.…”

“…McClymond (2011a) has analyzed ritual failures in a way that focuses attention on this strategic coopting of power by different religious experts. Whereas Naiden focuses on the Greek tradition, particularly Greek tragedy where the majority of failed sacrifices are recorded, McClymond focuses on the Mishnah, another text that frequently discusses ritual errors and their outcomes (see also Cohn 2013).…”

“…The discussions of failed ritual in these texts serve as a medium for the authors to display their textual and exegetical expertise. The text ‘establishes a new intellectual system, one that replaces priestly authority and ritual practice with rabbinic authority and ritual argument’ (2011a: 244). Although the cultural and literary context of the Mishnah is quite different from the texts Naiden addresses, McClymond’s arguments have significance for understanding all debates over proper and improper sacrifice.…”

“…Other scholars have raised the concern that the term sacrifice itself is problematically vague and theological. They call for more critical reflexivity in our scholarly use of this term (Frankfurter 2011; McClymond 2008, 2011a; McGowan 2014b; Modéus 2005; Rives 2011).…”