Searching for the middle ground from the end of the earth
This article examines how ancient authors of different provenances outlined the centre and the end of the world and how this influenced the way they evaluated bodies from the periphery. Geographic reference, gender and skin colour have especially intersected in sources of medical provenance. The Eth...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
NTWSA
2014
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| In: |
Neotestamentica
Year: 2014, Volume: 48, Issue: 1, Pages: 115-161 |
| Further subjects: | B
Gaza
B Judith Butler B Ancient Geography B Jerusalem B Physiognomy B Expansion of the Roman Empire under Hadrian B Ancient Ethiopia B Theory of naming B "Ungrammaticality" B Embodiment of space B Michel Riffaterre B Ethnographic and ethnological theories |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article examines how ancient authors of different provenances outlined the centre and the end of the world and how this influenced the way they evaluated bodies from the periphery. Geographic reference, gender and skin colour have especially intersected in sources of medical provenance. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 embodies his geographic origin. In considering his case we find that the issue of gender is inseparable from other prominent aspects of his identity: his social standing as well as his race and geographic origin - a man from "the end of the earth." But in this article the construct of the black eunuch is not so much focused on his otherness, with a universal mission in mind; rather, it is connected with a special geographical and historical perspective that was wellknown in the first century C.E. Hence, what is at the centre of this story is not the missiological search for the end of the earth, but the religious search for the middle ground, which is found in an interpretation of the Ebed Jahwe citation from Isaiah 53:7-8. Instead of interpreting this text christologically, this article argues that the Suffering Servant represents Jerusalem, which is seen by the nations, that is the Ethiopian eunuch. Therefore the embodiment of the geographical origin is assigned theological importance: it represents the religious search for the centre of the world, which is Jerusalem. |
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| ISSN: | 2518-4628 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Neotestamentica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.10520/EJC160020 |