Paradoxes of Mobility by the Sea: Water as a Site of Threat and Rescue in the Exodus Story
The Exodus story is one of many migration stories in the Hebrew Bible, composed of various experiences of expulsion, deliverance, hospitality, and alienation. The current study relates the topic of migration to water and, more specifically, how rivers, streams, wells, springs, and seas are simultane...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2023
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| In: |
Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament
Year: 2023, Volume: 37, Issue: 1, Pages: 69-83 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Migration
/ Water
/ Affiliation with
/ Exodus
/ Lampedusa
|
| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism HH Archaeology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Exodus story is one of many migration stories in the Hebrew Bible, composed of various experiences of expulsion, deliverance, hospitality, and alienation. The current study relates the topic of migration to water and, more specifically, how rivers, streams, wells, springs, and seas are simultaneously life-enhancing, life-challenging, and life-threatening for people on the move. Reading Exodus with water as its lens shows how the story has an inherent ambiguity that gives rise to a plurality of interpretations related to composite experiences of threats and rescue, thirst and nourishment, death and survival. Decisive for the various interpretations of the story is a question of perspective. An option for the oppressed, drowning, rescued, thirsty or nourished is a matter of definition from, for instance, Egyptian, Midianite, Canaanite, and Israelite points of view, male or female, or from the perspective of the Nile, the fish or the sheep. In this contribution, I will show how the Exodus story can shed light on the current topic of migration and how recent migration studies might bring new perspectives to the ancient story. Both instances concern questions of belonging and alienation, in which bridges and barriers are involved. |
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| ISSN: | 1502-7244 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09018328.2023.2222040 |