Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 2020, Vol. 74(2) 159–170 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0020964319896309 journals.sagepub.com/home/int Constructing Imperial and National Identities: Monstrous and Human Bodies in Book of Watchers, Daniel, and 2 Maccabees Anathea Portier-Young Duke Divinity School, Durham North Carolina, USA Abstract Monster theory illuminates the construction of imperial and national identities in the portrayals of monstrous and human bodies in three early Jewish texts; Book of Watchers, Daniel, and 2 Maccabees. Book of Watchers expresses anxiety about Judean/Jewish identity in the shadow of empire through its portrayal of a vulnerable humanity terrorized by voracious giants and their demonic spirits. Daniel dehumanizes empire and its agents, imaging empire as a colossal statue, an animalistic were-king, and a series of monstrous beasts, while one like a human being poses an alternative to imperial rule. Second Maccabees, by contrast, demythologizes, decapitates, dismembers, and disintegrates the imperial body in order to portray the integral Judean political body (and soul) as mature, pure, capable, and ordered. Keywords 1 Enoch; 2 Maccabees; Antiochus IV; Beasts; Body; Corpses; Daniel, book of; Decapitation; Dismemberment; Giants; Judea; Judas Maccabee; Martyrs; Monster Theory; Monsters; Nebuchadnezzar; Nicanor; Seleucids; Watchers, book of. Cannibal giants and a metal statue, a were-king and ten-horned beast, a headless general and living corpse: portrayals of monstrous and human bodies in three ancient Jewish texts, Book of Watchers, Daniel, and 2 Maccabees, reveal shifting relationships among Judeans and the empires that ruled them. Each text speaks from a distinctive historical moment. Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36), likely written in the mid-third century BCE, emerges from the tumultuous era that followed the death of Alexander the Great. 1 Hebrew and Aramaic Daniel likely received its final form around 167 BCE, in response to Seleucid reconquest of Judea. Second Maccabees, likely written between 1 George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1—36, 81—108, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 7, 170. Corresponding author: Anathea Portier-Young, Duke Divinity School, Box 90968, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. Email: apyoung@div.duke.edu Article