The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’

Animal Studies refers to a set of questions which take seriously the reality of animal lives, past and present, and the ways in which human societies have conceived of those lives, related to them, and utilized them in the production of human cultures. Scholars of the Hebrew Bible are increasingly e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sherman, Phillip (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2020
In: Currents in biblical research
Year: 2020, Volume: 19, Issue: 1, Pages: 36-63
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Species / Horse / Ass / Protection of animals ethics / Behavioral research / Iconography / Metaphor / Anthropocentrism
IxTheo Classification:HA Bible
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Animal Studies refers to a set of questions which take seriously the reality of animal lives, past and present, and the ways in which human societies have conceived of those lives, related to them, and utilized them in the production of human cultures. Scholars of the Hebrew Bible are increasingly engaging animals in their interpretive work. Such engagement is often implicit or partial, but increasingly drawing directly on the more critical aspects of Animal Studies. This article proceeds as a tour through the menagerie of the biblical canon by exploring key texts in order to describe and analyze what Animal Studies has brought to the field of Biblical Studies. Biblical texts are grouped into the following categories: animals in the narrative accounts of the Torah, legal and ritual texts concerning animals, animal metaphors in the prophets, and wisdom literature and animal life. The emergence and application of zooarchaeological research and a number of studies focusing on specific animal species will be discussed. Sustained attention will be given to two recent works which have brought Animal Studies into the fractured fold of biblical scholarship more directly. Finally, I will suggest some future directions for the study of the Hebrew Bible in light of Animal Studies.
ISSN:1745-5200
Contains:Enthalten in: Currents in biblical research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/1476993X20923271