The Body and Israelite Society: An Old Testament Perspective

The Body and Israelite Society: An Old Testament Perspective

CHAN Yew Ming

Religion plays a significant role in both past and current social institutions. A group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage or tribe, would adopt a specific object to serve as its emblem, thereby declaring its cultural identity, and to a certain extent, its religious relationship with the group's acknowledged deity. Functionally, the adopted symbol defines certain religious features and distinguishes the sacred from the profane. Such definition and distinction also serve to reveal the social structure and its power. For ancient Israel, the witnesses, as presented in the Old Testament, show these definitions and distinction via the portrayal of the body. This portrayal reveals more than just the physical bodies of human beings and animals. Instead, the body language indicates the Israelites' understanding of themselves, the relationship of their community with Yahweh, and the contemporary social reality. As the paper's analysis unfolds the details of this understanding, it can also serve as a reminder to modern readers that our biblical hermeneutics must consider the significance of this “theology of the body.”