Hospitality in the First Testament and the ‘Teleological Fallacy’

This paper recognizes the importance of hospitality in traditional Mediterranean societies as a part of the social fabric of ancient Israel/Judah. The practice as reflected in the First Testament is open to misunderstanding in some modern scholarly literature because some interpretations have been b...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hobbs, T. R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Sage 2001
In: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2001, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 3-30
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper recognizes the importance of hospitality in traditional Mediterranean societies as a part of the social fabric of ancient Israel/Judah. The practice as reflected in the First Testament is open to misunderstanding in some modern scholarly literature because some interpretations have been burdened with modern, romantic Western notions of the practice—the ‘teleological fallacy, a tendency to use ancient documents as a springboard for a modern polemic. This paper examines the use of such a notion of hospitality in some recent First Testament studies. It then seeks to establish a fuller model of hospitality, using not only studies of the modern practice, but also historical and ethnographic data from the traditional Mediterranean world. The model is then applied to two important examples of hospitality in the First Testament, 2 Kgs 3.8-34 and 1 Samuel 25.
ISSN:1476-6728
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/030908920102600101