The Concept Of Exile In Ancient Israel And Its Historical Contexts

ISBN: 9783110221770 出版年：2010 页码：400 Levin, Christoph Ben Zvi, Ehud De Gruyter

In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts "the Exile" is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and economic disasters associated with them in terms that punished Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But is not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply intertwined with its discursive counterpart, the certain "Return". As the Exile comes to be understood as a necessary purification or preparation for a renewal of proper relationship with Israel, the seemingly unpleasant Exilic conditions begin, discursively, to shape an image of as loving Israel and teaching it.