Language:
German
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Evangelische Theologie
Angaben zur Quelle:
81,5 (2021) 338-349
Keywords:
Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Epidemics Biblical teaching
;
Catastrophical, The
;
Middle Eastern literature, Ancient Relation to the Bible
;
Jerusalem (Israel) In the Bible
Abstract:
Within the Hebrew Bible, terms for »pestilence« or »plague« mainly appear in connection to covenant, curses, and warfare. The essay locates the phenomenon within its ancient Near Eastern context and focuses on how the Hebrew texts describe and interpret this catastrophe. The peculiar triadic phrase »sword, hunger, pestilence«, frequent in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, recalls the horrors of siege warfare, and especially the defeat of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. For the survivors of this catastrophe who seek to explain how this traumatic event could happen, the phrase serves as a literary topos for Yhwh’s reaction to Israel’s wrong-doings and as a shorthand for their cultural trauma.
DOI:
10.14315/evth-2021-810505
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
