The Sons of Esau and Lot: Reevaluating National States in Deuteronomy 2
In an attempt to trace the tradition of nationalism back to ancient Israel, public intellectual Yarom Hazony reads Deuteronomy 2 as a representation of ancient values of land-bounded autonomy and cultural homogeny. However, he overlooks two key aspects of the passage: 1) the familial and theological...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Horizons in biblical theology
Year: 2024, Volume: 46, Issue: 1, Pages: 44-64 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Nationalism
/ Bible. Deuteronomium 2
/ Edom (Landscape)
/ Moab
/ Ammonites
/ Family
/ Mythology
/ Essentialism
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
mythological family
B Nationalism B strategic essentialism B Ammon B Moab B Edom B Deuteronomy 2 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In an attempt to trace the tradition of nationalism back to ancient Israel, public intellectual Yarom Hazony reads Deuteronomy 2 as a representation of ancient values of land-bounded autonomy and cultural homogeny. However, he overlooks two key aspects of the passage: 1) the familial and theological reasoning behind the divine protection of the other peoples, and 2) the messy aetiologies of how those peoples came to inhabit their lands. God calls the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites “brothers” and “sons of Esau” or “Lot,” suggesting that the prohibition against invasion is not based on respect for sovereignty but instead mythological family and relative social connection. Thus, using postcolonial theories of group identity from Gayatri Spivak, this article argues that Deut 2 does not represent an ancient (pre)conception of the nation-state but rather a (re)negotiation of group relations and social identities in connection to co-habitation of the Levant. |
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| ISSN: | 1871-2207 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Horizons in biblical theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/18712207-12341484 |