The Nose Knows: Bodily Knowing in Isaiah 11.3

While some recent studies have enlarged our knowledge of the olfactory world of ancient Israel, exploration of the relative value of olfaction as a means of knowing has been largely neglected. Isaiah 11.3 is a passage modern exegetes have reconstructed or expurgated because its literal sense has the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ritchie, Ian D. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2000
In: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2000, Volume: 25, Issue: 87, Pages: 59-73
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:While some recent studies have enlarged our knowledge of the olfactory world of ancient Israel, exploration of the relative value of olfaction as a means of knowing has been largely neglected. Isaiah 11.3 is a passage modern exegetes have reconstructed or expurgated because its literal sense has the Messiah discerning good from evil by smell: an impossibility to the Enlightenment model of reality. But recent anthropology informs us of extraordinary olfactory discernment in African religion and the Islamic world. A brief history of exegesis confirms that Jewish commentators accepted an olfactory Messiah, but interpretation since the mid-nineteenth century, and even more prominently in the twentieth, has sought to reconstruct a hypothetical ‘original’ text, evidencing a modern ocularcentric bias.
ISSN:1476-6728
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/030908920002508704