The Canaanites

2020 ◽  
pp. 22-50
Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Neighboring Group ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Book Of Genesis

The Canaanites become one of the most intriguing examples of the neighboring group as “other” in the Bible, and because the narrator of the book of Genesis repeatedly calls the land Israel’s ancestors occupy “Canaan,” we begin with them. It is not too much of a stretch to say that the Canaanites are Israel’s first neighbor, their most primordial neighbor, setting a pattern of tensions and interaction that prove instructive for thinking about other neighboring groups. The archaeological record of the Canaanites in the period before “Israel” arrives on the scene is difficult on many fronts, and the problem doesn’t end when Israel arrives either, since the Canaanites seem to coexist alongside Israel in an ambiguous manner. The Hebrew Bible considers the Canaanites and groups associated with them—Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, and Girgashites—constituting what tradition calls the “seven nations of Canaan,” as distinct people who are to be variously resisted or destroyed.

scholarly journals Slavery, the Hebrew Bible and the Development of Racial Theories in the Nineteenth Century

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 742
Author(s):  
Kevin Burrell
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The 19Th Century

Racial ideas which developed in the modern west were forged with reference to a Christian worldview and informed by the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. Up until Darwin’s scientific reframing of the origins debate, European and American race scientists were fundamentally Christian in their orientation. This paper outlines how interpretations of the Hebrew Bible within this Christian Weltanschauung facilitated the development and articulation of racial theories which burgeoned in western intellectual discourse up to and during the 19th century. The book of Genesis was a particular seedbed for identity politics as the origin stories of the Hebrew Bible were plundered in service of articulating a racial hierarchy which justified both the place of Europeans at the pinnacle of divine creation and the denigration, bestialization, and enslavement of Africans as the worst of human filiation. That the racial ethos of the period dictated both the questions exegetes posed and the conclusions they derived from the text demonstrates that biblical interpretation within this climate was never an innocuous pursuit, but rather reflected the values and beliefs current in the social context of the exegete.

Clio and Canons: in Search of a Cultural Poetics of the Hebrew Bible

1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Cultural Poetics ◽  
Leading Edges

AbstractThe enterprise of writing "histories" of "ancient Israel" in which biblical historiography is reproduced by old credulists or critiqued by new nihilists represents one of the leading edges of contemporary biblical studies in relation to the Hebrew Bible. This quest for a cultural poetics or cultural materialist accounts of the Bible is virtually equivalent to a New Historicism in the discipline. In this article analyses of three topics from current debates in biblical studies (historiography of "ancient Israel", the empty land topos, canons and context) are used to provide insights into how new historicist approaches to contextualizing literature may contribute to these current debates about the Bible.

scholarly journals “The Might of My Own Hand Has Gotten Me This Wealth”: Reflections on Wealth and Poverty in the Hebrew Bible and Today

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Joel S. Kaminsky
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Concern ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social

The growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest members of society is a pressing social concern regularly invoked in discussions surrounding taxation, the minimum wage, and the social safety net. Advocates of particular positions at times reference various biblical passages. This essay examines several relevant themes and passages within the Hebrew Bible in order to explore ways the Bible might be brought into productive conversation with these contemporary issues.

scholarly journals Creation accounts in Gen. 1 & 2: a feminist interpretation

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Ubong Ekpenyong Eyo
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Feminist Interpretation ◽  
Culturally Based ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Holy Writ ◽  
King James Version

It is the view of most people who claim the authoritative nature of the Bible that, women assigned secondary status in relation to men is ordained and supported in the Bible. Many have quoted different texts of the holy writ to support their culturally-biased position on issue of gender equality. Most often views in respect to gender issues are culturally-based and interpreted rather than divinely-based and interpreted. There is therefore the need to look back at Jesus’ words, “But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.” (Matt 19:4; Mark 10:6 King James Version). The two accounts in the Book of Genesis by the Priestly and Yahwistic strands give a complimentary account of the creation of humankind (both male and female) in the image and likeness of God and their creation from a single stock אדם who was not a male gender. At a cursory reading of the creation accounts, one will tend to see האדם as the male gender, but looking at the Hebrew text more closely it will be noticed that the Hebrew words אישה and אישwere only introduced after the two genders have been separated. Note carefully that it was not איש that was asked to tend the garden, who named the animals, was given instruction of what to eat or what not to eat, who fell into a deep sleep or whose ribs was used in the creation of אישה but it was האדם . It was after the creation or ‘separation’ of אישה (woman – the female האדם) that the other part was called איש (man – the male האדם) (see vv 23 & 24 King James Version). It will therefore not be right to speak of the creation of אישה out of איש, because as at the time of the creation of the former, the later was not in existence as איש To view these creation accounts with the sense of gender superiority (either male over female or vice versa) is to read the texts using lenses which have been obscured and tainted by patriarchal, matriarchal or cultural biases.

Splashing Ink on Museum Walls: How Comic Art Is Conquering Galleries, Museums, and Public Spaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 297-307
Author(s):  
Rob Salkowitz
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Comic Art ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Museum Exhibition

In this 2018 essay, Forbes cultural journalist Rob Salkowitz explains how exhibitions contribute to the valuation of an artist’s work while recognizing exhibitions of comic art as landmarks on comics’ long march to cultural legitimacy. Salkowitz begins his essay by sharing his memories of the 2016 Seattle Art Museum exhibition Graphic Masters, which was centered around The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis. This chapter discusses the evolution of exhibitions since 1990, how exhibitions have enhanced the valuation of original comics drawings, challenges for commercial galleries and dealers, and curatorial strategies.

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