Ethnicity in, with, or under the Pentateuch
In the last decade a number of scholarly works investigating the phenomenon of ethnicity in the Hebrew Bible have appeared. This essay will address critically the question of whether a focus on ethnicity contributes to a deeper understanding of the Hebrew Bible both in its original setting and in it...
| Published in: | The journal of religion & society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Creighton University
2001
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| In: |
The journal of religion & society
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| Further subjects: | B
Interpretation of
B Ethnicity B Sociology B Bible. Old Testament; Cultural relations B Bible. Pentateuch; Criticism B Biblical |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In the last decade a number of scholarly works investigating the phenomenon of ethnicity in the Hebrew Bible have appeared. This essay will address critically the question of whether a focus on ethnicity contributes to a deeper understanding of the Hebrew Bible both in its original setting and in its use and transmission to the present. The Pentateuch arguably is deeply concerned with establishing the true identity of Israel vis-à-vis other nations, peoples, or ethnic groups. The first task will be to address how ethnicity is to be defined, and its usefulness as a conceptual framework for investigating the Pentateuch. Since the greatest concern in the Pentateuch is expressed about Israel’s identity in relation to Egypt, the second task will be to address how recent works on ethnicity in the Pentateuch deal with the question of Egypt. This essay will argue that only a reading strategy that goes "against the grain" and attempts to reconstruct that which the text seeks to silence will be able to access the dynamics of ethnic identity formation that lie submerged under the surface of the Pentateuch and the Hebrew Bible. |
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| ISSN: | 1522-5658 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 10504/64481 |