Scholars typically describe the book of Judges as encompassing a cyclical transgress–suffer–prosper–transgress–again trope. Although Israelite peace and autonomy are maintained at various moments throughout the text, hardship inevitably ensues, leading exegetes to focus on the Israelites’ repeated demise as opposed to their continual triumphs. As David Gunn notes, ‘reward and punishment is often viewed as the book’s dominant theme’. Or, in the words of Danna Nolan Fewell, the stories within Judges are frequently read as a collective ‘downward spiral for Israel and its leaders’. I question, however, whether such thematic analysis might prove insufficient when engaging a hermeneutic of trauma and survival—or queer survivance, as we will see. Interestingly, of the 400-year period covered in the book of Judges, only 111 of them are spent in subjugation. Nearly three-fourths of the time period covered by the book, in other words, recounts times of judgeship and autonomy. Might this story be less about cultural transgression and more about the creative ways in which the Israelites managed to endure? In this article, I will provide an intertextual comparison of the Judges cycle with the memoir of Holocaust survivor, Gad Beck. In doing so, I will suggest that Judges offers us a literary representation of an ancient culture’s fight to persist. Rather than guide readers through the entirety of the Judges narrative, however, I will focus on Judges 3 and 4, as the stories of and events surrounding Ehud and Jael offer a more concentrated instance of the aforementioned cyclical trope. From a stance of hetero-suspicion and with a theoretical view to intertextuality and queer survivance, I will argue that, like Beck, Ehud and Jael subvert oppressive power structures through gender-bending performances and the embodiment of ambivalent, and even comedic, identity markers. Taking such similarities into consideration, I will then suggest that Ehud’s and Jael’s queer-comic consciousness becomes another thematic trope within the book of Judges as a whole. Yet instead of focusing on the repetition of the Israelites’ self-fulfilling demise, this trope spotlights the creative ways in which the Judges narrative becomes one of survival and reflects an ancient culture’s will to resist, persist, and indeed, live.

中文翻译：

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让法官呼吸：法官和盖德贝克的《地下生活：纳粹柏林同性恋犹太人回忆录》中的酷儿生存

学者们通常将士师记描述为包含周期性的越轨——受苦——繁荣——越轨——又是比喻。尽管在整篇文章中，以色列人在不同时刻都保持着和平和自治，但不可避免地会出现困难，导致解经家关注以色列人的反复死亡，而不是他们不断的胜利。正如大卫·冈恩所指出的，“奖惩通常被视为本书的主要主题”。或者，用丹娜·诺兰·费厄尔 (Danna Nolan Fewell) 的话来说，士师记中的故事经常被解读为“以色列及其领导人的螺旋式下降”。然而，我质疑这样的主题分析在涉及创伤和生存的解释学时是否会证明是不够的——或者我们将看到的酷儿生存。有趣的是，在士师记所涵盖的 400 年期间，其中只有111个用于征服。换句话说，本书所涵盖的时间段的近四分之三讲述了判断和自主的时间。这个故事可能不是关于文化越界，而是更多关于以色列人设法忍受的创造性方式？在本文中，我将提供法官周期与大屠杀幸存者 Gad Beck 回忆录的互文比较。这样做时，我会建议法官为我们提供一种古代文化为坚持而奋斗的文学表现。然而，我不会引导读者阅读士师记的全部叙述，而是将重点放在士师记 3 和 4 上，因为以胡德和雅尔周围的故事和事件提供了上述循环比喻的更集中的实例。从异性怀疑的立场和互文性和酷儿生存的理论观点，我将论证，像贝克、埃胡德和杰尔一样，通过性别弯曲的表演和矛盾的、甚至喜剧的身份标记的体现，颠覆了压迫性的权力结构. 考虑到这些相似之处，我将建议 Ehud 和 Jael 的酷儿漫画意识成为整个士师记中的另一个主题比喻。然而，这个比喻并没有关注以色列人自我实现的死亡的重复，而是突出了士师记叙事成为一种生存的创造性方式，并反映了古代文化抵抗、坚持甚至生存的意愿。Ehud 和 Jael 通过性别弯曲的表演和矛盾的、甚至是喜剧的身份标记的体现，颠覆了压迫性的权力结构。考虑到这些相似之处，我将建议 Ehud 和 Jael 的酷儿漫画意识成为整个士师记中的另一个主题比喻。然而，这个比喻并没有关注以色列人自我实现的死亡的重复，而是突出了士师记叙事成为一种生存的创造性方式，并反映了古代文化抵抗、坚持甚至生存的意愿。Ehud 和 Jael 通过性别弯曲的表演和矛盾的、甚至是喜剧的身份标记的体现，颠覆了压迫性的权力结构。考虑到这些相似之处，我将建议 Ehud 和 Jael 的酷儿漫画意识成为整个士师记中的另一个主题比喻。然而，这个比喻并没有关注以色列人自我实现的死亡的重复，而是突出了士师记叙事成为一种生存的创造性方式，并反映了古代文化抵抗、坚持甚至生存的意愿。