Tragedy, Ownership, and Hospitality in Gerar: Lessons from Social Psychology
Can the story of Isaac be read with tragedy in mind or is the second patriarch the comedic relief of Genesis? Scholars mostly see Isaac as the book’s fool and thus laughable. Even more clearly so in Gen 26:7-11 which recounts how, during the hunger migration of Isaac and Rebekah to Philistine Gerar,...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2024
|
| In: |
Biblical theology bulletin
Year: 2024, Volume: 54, Issue: 2, Pages: 84-88 |
| Further subjects: | B
Isaac
B Psychology B Immigration B Television comedies B Genesis B wife-sister B Abimelech B social-psychology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Can the story of Isaac be read with tragedy in mind or is the second patriarch the comedic relief of Genesis? Scholars mostly see Isaac as the book’s fool and thus laughable. Even more clearly so in Gen 26:7-11 which recounts how, during the hunger migration of Isaac and Rebekah to Philistine Gerar, Isaac presented Rebekah as his sister. Comparing Genesis 26 with similar stories about Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12, 20), Isaac and Rebekah are in lesser danger than Isaac’s parents. This work takes three steps to argue that the story supports the national identity of displaced Israelites. First, I argue that the wife-sister scene isn’t necessarily less frightening than the other wife-sister scenes in Genesis 12 and Genesis 20. Second, I don’t consider the whole Isaac cycle. The reason is that unlike others who try to understand the character of Isaac, as it comes out from Genesis 17-35, I care for the wife-sister motif as a device to engage with fears around immigration. Third, and most untraditionally, I use modern social psychology research on modern societies to speculate about the effect of the story on its original readership. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1945-7596 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical theology bulletin
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/01461079241252672 |