Description
- Abstract:
- This dissertation explores how Israelites regarded foreign lands, relates this to the debate about biblical categorizations of pollution and purification, and points to larger questions about Israelite religion and views about their place in the social, political, and historical situation of the ancient Near East. Beginning by critiquing the treatment of purity “systems” in recent scholarship about the Hebrew Bible, this study highlights the idea that purity rhetoric was dynamic and could be applied in myriad ways for a variety of purposes. Examining concepts related to purity in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Egypt, it is argued that there does not seem to be evidence of a categorization of purity along “moral/ritual” lines among Israel’s neighbors. Additionally, such a schematization does not seem to persist in biblical literature, as there is significant overlap between purity traditions. The study analyzes the convergence of land and purity issues by examining biblical texts that refer to “moral” land impurity on the one hand, and the variety of ways in which foreign lands are addressed, on the other. It is argued that “moral” land impurity was applied only to the land of Israel. Contrary to common assertion, texts that speak of foreign lands as “impure” do not seem to employ this terminology as a means of vilifying the “immoral” practices of foreigners; rather, these texts employ purity rhetoric in a variety of subtle ways, drawing on different purity systems while addressing an Israelite audience, often without reference to foreigners at all. Moreover, the rhetoric of impurity was only one of several possible strategies that biblical authors could employ to indicate the desperate situation of exile and advocate for specific intra-group changes or practices. Issues relating to power dynamics, cultic centralization, and Israelite ideology in the face of foreign imperial power are addressed as motivations for biblical treatments of foreign lands. This work is informed by contributions of postcolonial theory to understanding power-dynamics reflected in literature. It hopes to inform theory by demonstrating how biblical discourse on foreigners and foreign lands gives perspective on Israelite reactions to imperialism, insulation, exile, and cultural assimilation.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2014)
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Citation
Allgood, Andrea Ellen,
"Foreign Lands – Multiple Perspectives: Foreign Land Impurity in the Hebrew Bible, its Context, and its Ideological Underpinnings"
(2014).
Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0T72FTT
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Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Religious Studies department....