Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Biblical Interpretation; a Journal of Contemporary Approaches
Angaben zur Quelle:
30,2 (2022) 150-170
Keywords:
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Prejudice in the Bible
;
Animals in the Bible
Abstract:
In Job 30:1–8, Job dehumanises his detractors: he depicts his low-class opponents as vile creatures in the wilderness. Dehumanisation has been a common strategy to devalue outgroups from Job’s time to our own. It functions by assuming a human-animal hierarchy (in which animals lack value), and mapping it onto a social hierarchy, delegitimising the animalised individuals at the bottom. By using this strategy, Job reveals his prejudice around other species and low classes. The logic of the divine speeches, however, overturns both these prejudices. The speeches respond to Job’s classism, not by denying that low-class humans are animals, but rather by celebrating animals (38:39–39:30). For Job, the non-human was a source of derision; for God it is a source of delight.
DOI:
10.1163/15685152-00284P21
URL:
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