Sommer, Benjamin D., The Bodies Of God And The World Of Ancient Israel

2013 ◽  
pp. 664-669
Author(s):  
J. Todd Hibbard
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World

Reading the Bible from Below in the Era of Globalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Rainer Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Asynchronous Development ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Globalized World

It is evident that the world of the Bible is pre-modern and thus distinct from the globalized civilization. This chronological gap challenges readers, whether they are feminist or not. Mainly three attitudes can be observed among scholarly and ordinary readers. For some readers, the Bible is a document of the losers of a historical process of modernization that already began in ancient Israel. For other readers, the Bible is outdated and of no use to confront the challenges of globalization. A third readerly position challenges both of these views. This essay offers four arguments to orient biblical readers in the contemporary globalized world. First, the essay posits that globalization is an asynchronous development. Thus, even today, most people living in the impoverished regions of the world face conditions similar to those dominant in the Bible. Second, the essay asserts that women are the first victims in biblical times and still nowadays. Third, the essay maintains that biblical texts display social relations that still unveil contemporary relations. Fourth, the essay suggests that intercultural Bible readings give hope, as they nurture biblical readings from “below” to strengthen people to overcome the fatal consequences of today’s globalization.

scholarly journals Humans created God in their image? An anthropomorphic projectionism in the Old Testament

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndikho Mtshiselwa ◽  
Lerato Mokoena
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Testament Studies

The Old Testament projects not only a Deity that created the world and human beings but also one that is violent and male. The debate on the depiction of the God of Israel that is violent and male is far from being exhausted in Old Testament studies. Thus, the main question posed in this article is: If re-read as ‘Humans created God in their image’, would Genesis 1:27 account for the portrayal of a Deity that is male and violent? Feuerbach’s idea of anthropomorphic projectionism and Guthrie’s view of religion as anthropomorphism come to mind here. This article therefore examines, firstly, human conceptualisation of a divine being within the framework of the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism. Because many a theologian and philosopher would deny that God is a being at all, we further investigate whether the God of Israel was a theological and social construction during the history of ancient Israel. In the end, we conclude, based on the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism, that the idea that the God of Israel was a theological and social construct accounts for the depiction of a Deity that is male and violent in the Old Testament.

Qoheleth and the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Henze
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
First Century ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe roots of early Jewish apocalypticism are diverse. Within the realm of ancient Israel, one of the main contributory streams is the wisdom tradition. The present essay examines the impact of Israel's sapiential tradition, and specifically of that of the book of Qoheleth, on the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, a Jewish apocalypse of the late first century C.E. My thesis is that, while both authors agree in their assessment of the present human condition, they draw dramatically different conclusions. Qoheleth persistently points to the limits and fallibility of this world and advises his readers to enjoy life before they die, whereas the author of 2 Baruch looks to the world to come and, in the meantime, calls on his readers to live their lives in compliance with the Mosaic Torah.

scholarly journals The House of the LORD ... the house of man

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J C Pauw
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
The Temple

The idea of cult centralisation in ancient Israel is investigated as a form of disenchantment. The Temple in Jerusalem can now be styled The House of the LORD and the countryside ought to be bereft of holy places and holy objects. However, the LORD did not stay in his “House”. Was this the start of a global process of disenchantment reaching its culmination in modernity? The question is posed whether the world could still be the enchanted house of man now that the LORD is absent. The article suggests that science associated with the Torah of nature can still discover an enchanted world.

The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (review)

2012 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-81
Author(s):  
S. Tamar Kamionkowski
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World

Reading and Constructing Utopias

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-476
Author(s):  
Ehud Ben Zvi
Keyword(s):  
Persian Period ◽  
Intellectual Discourse ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Road Maps ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Relevant Community ◽  
Do So

This article is meant as an invitation to further the use of the concept of utopia as a heuristic tool among historians of ancient Israel for the purpose of reconstructing the world of ideas of the late Persian period Yehud. To do so, and given that the term “utopia” may be and has been used in different ways, it advances, first, general considerations about an heuristic, pragmatic understanding of “utopia” and “utopian images” that may be particularly helpful for these purposes. Then it advances a number of observations about utopia and utopian images that were evoked when the literati of the late Yehud read and reread their authoritative corpus of texts. These observations deal, among others, with matters of exploration and certainty in the relevant community, of hope, of restoration and restorative utopias; they deal with issues of temporality as past, present and future utopias were construed and with the existence of multiple memories of utopias and multiple utopias. They address the issue that utopianizing tendencies led to memorable vignettes but not to memorable road maps, they do not fail to mention matters of utopia and power, and they conclude with issues for further discussion. On the whole, this article illustrates how “utopia”-informed approaches may shed light on the intellectual discourse of this community, while at the same time noting crucial differences between utopias and utopianizing tendencies both now and then that must be taken into consideration.

scholarly journals Presentation of the Dossier

Caminhando ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Matthias Grenzer - Translation of João Batista Ribeiro Santos
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The One ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
History Of Literature

The Pentateuch is a cultural heritage of Humanity. The world narrated in it belongs to the second millennium B.C., and the narratives, poems, and sets of laws contained therein were composed during the first six centuries of the first millennium B.C. On the one hand, by bringing together epic, lyrical, and legal poetry, the one hundred and eighty-seven chapters constitute, in the form of five books, a masterpiece in the history of literature. On the other hand, it is literature that proposes to cultivate memory, either in relation to the narrated world, or in view of the period of its composer, sometimes narrating, sometimes legislating, sometimes singing. Moreover, as literature aimed at history, the texts of the Pentateuch promote enormous theological reflection. The main goal seems to be to think God. Thus the first five books of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible, with their narrated models of faith and behavior, turned into poems and defined by legal formulations, became the foundational reference for the religion of ancient Israel, of which Judaism was born and, from the latter, Christianity. Also Jesus of Nazareth, in the four New Testament Gospels, is presented in relation to Abraham and Moses, and stands out as a unique teacher with regard to the laws contained in the Pentateuch.

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