The Reformation of Hebrew Scripture: Chosen People, Chosen Nations, and Exceptionalism
The Reformation taught a way of reading the Hebrew Bible that made the Old Testament the valued possession of Protestants, encouraging them to see the histories and prophecies about biblical Israel as about the present and future not the past, and being fulfilled in Protestants. Calvin used Old Te...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
[2018]
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In: |
Reformation
Year: 2018, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: 100-119 |
IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBF British Isles KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church |
Further subjects: | B
Calvin
B America B England B British-Israelism B Israel B Milton |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | The Reformation taught a way of reading the Hebrew Bible that made the Old Testament the valued possession of Protestants, encouraging them to see the histories and prophecies about biblical Israel as about the present and future not the past, and being fulfilled in Protestants. Calvin used Old Testament verses to prove predestination and election, which were concepts also useful to emergent nationalisms. The idea of Chosen people and nations, supposedly the hallmark of Jewish Israel, did not disappear with Christianity but was revived and transformed with the Reformation. We see it not just in Milton and the seventeenth century but in the later development of British and Anglo-Israelism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The obsession with being Israelwith chosenness and exceptionalismpersists to the present, and is one of the most important, if troubling, legacies of a way of reading the Hebrew Bible that emerged with the Reformation. |
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ISSN: | 1752-0738 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Reformation
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13574175.2018.1467596 |