By Making Me Stink to the Inhabitants of the Land: Intrusive Smells as a Metaphor for Unwanted Migrants
The verb ba’ash (lit. "to stink") is used repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible to describe unwanted groups or individuals (Gen 34:30; Exod 5:21; 1 Sam 13:4; 1 Sam 27:12; 2 Sam 10:6; 1 Chr 19:6). However, there is an overwhelming tendency in English translations and commentaries to translate bet-...
| Subtitles: | What The Body Knows |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
2022
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| In: |
Journal for interdisciplinary biblical studies (JIBS)
Year: 2022, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 99-118 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Migration
/ Smell
/ Meaning
/ Bible. Genesis 34
/ Covetousness prohibition
/ Bible. Samuel 2. 13,1-4
/ Bible. Samuel 1. 27,12
/ Bible. Samuel 2. 10,6
/ Bible. Chronicle 2. 19,1-21,1
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The verb ba’ash (lit. "to stink") is used repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible to describe unwanted groups or individuals (Gen 34:30; Exod 5:21; 1 Sam 13:4; 1 Sam 27:12; 2 Sam 10:6; 1 Chr 19:6). However, there is an overwhelming tendency in English translations and commentaries to translate bet-aleph-shin in a figurative sense as "obnoxious" (NIV, NKJV), "odious" (NASB, ASV) or even "despised" (ISV). This paper answers the call to modern exegetes to read "not only with our eyes but with the other senses alert." and proposes that by re-centring on and reading through smell, new exegetical possibilities are opened to us. Drawing on recent work on the verb ba’ash and anthropological research on the discourse surrounding smell or perceived social odours of migrants and immigrants, this article will demonstrate that stench and bad odour are employed as a form of metaphorical discourse in these texts to construct a narrative in which immigrants are viewed like bad smells: foreign, pervasive and unwanted. |
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| ISSN: | 2633-0695 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for interdisciplinary biblical studies (JIBS)
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17613/ts17-4k29 |