Religion, Ethnicity and Xenophobia in the Bible - A Theoretical, Exegetical and Theological Survey

This volume looks at some of the Bible's most hostile and violent anti-foreigner texts and raises critical questions about how students of the Bible & ancient Near East should grapple with "ethnicity" & "foreignness" conceptually, hermeneutically & theologically.

List of contents

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Chapter One Biblical scholarship and "the Other"; Chapter Two Birds of a feather: explaining ethnic foreignness; Chapter Three "Brood of destruction": Mesopotamian caricatures of foreigners; Chapter Four "He fixed the boundaries of the earth": some biblical idioms of ethnicity; Chapter Five "A non-people, a foolish nation": caricatures of foreigners in Deuteronomistic texts; Chapter Six "I was repulsed by them": caricatures of foreigners in holiness texts; Chapter Seven "Foolish by nature": the reverberations of ethnic polemics in the Bible; Chapter Eight "In order that I might horrify them": a theological appraisal; Bibliography; Index

About the author

Brian Rainey is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.

Summary

This volume looks at some of the Bible’s most hostile and violent anti-foreigner texts and raises critical questions about how students of the Bible & ancient Near East should grapple with "ethnicity" & "foreignness" conceptually, hermeneutically & theologically.

Additional text

"This is a thoroughly researched, multidisciplinary monograph which utilises a wide range of scholarship in order to trace portrayals of the ‘foreigners’ in biblical texts, and a variety of other relevant primary evidence. Rainey writes thoughtfully and brings strong theoretical foundations into dialogue with incisive analysis of texts. The monograph illustrates and highlights the various nuances of the enduring, and never more topical, nature of xenophobia, ethnicity, and religion."

- Katherine Southwood, University of Oxford, UK

Product details

• Authors: Brian Rainey
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2018
• EAN: 9780815365891
• ISBN: 978-0-8153-6589-1
• No. of pages: 310
• Series: Routledge Studies in the Biblical World; Routledge Studies in the Biblical World
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; HISTORY / Ancient / General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Communication Studies, Christianity, Jewish Studies, Archaeology, Judaism, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts, Ancient religions & mythologies, Biblical Studies & Exegesis, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Ancient religions and Mythologies, Old Testaments