Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Semitic Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
65,2 (2020) 297–324
Keywords:
Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Herem (The Hebrew word)
;
Deuteronomistic history (Biblical criticism)
;
Human sacrifice Biblical teaching
Abstract:
Despite the efforts of some scholars, biblical denunciations of one form of human sacrifice cannot be taken as condemnations of all types. Thus, while the writers of the Deuteronomistic History clearly regarded the slaying of children at the Jerusalem Tophet adversely, they accepted the legitimacy of sacrificing religiously errant individuals like murderers and others who went against their form of Yahwism. Such an endorsement is particularly represented by the biblical Hebrew ideas of sacrificial dedication (ḥērem) and burning up/consuming contamination (biʽēr). In the wake of Judah's fall and Jerusalem's destruction, the Deuteronomists promoted human sacrifice as a means to maintain or establish the purity of the Israelite community and the land of Canaan while delineating the limits of their version of a Yahwistic group.
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