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...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
Published: |
2000
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In: |
Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2000, Volume: 25, Issue: 87, Pages: 59-73 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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. |
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ISSN: | 1476-6728 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/030908920002508704 |