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Abstract
The small, two-verse interpolation of Ezekiel 47:22-23 is widely considered one of the most inclusive texts in the Hebrew Bible. Its instruction regarding the גרים allowed for full inclusion into the community that Ezekiel believed to be the true Israel. However, interpretations that view these verses as hyper-inclusive often view the גרים as foreigners. Such a view is largely based on understanding the term גר along linguistic rather than anthropological lines. This paper will explore the use of the term גר in both Ezekiel and the Holiness School to better understand the group envisioned by the author of Ezekiel 47:22-23. In so doing, I will demonstrate that these verses should not be understood simply along a binary of inclusive versus exclusive, but rather as part of a larger project of identity reformulation that occurred as part of a trauma process around the Babylonian exile.
Abstract
This article adopts a law and literature approach toward Genesis 21:14-21, focused on the legal themes within the narrative and how these themes shape the story. Genesis 21:14-21 records the expulsion of Hagar and her son from Abraham’s home. I identify multiple legal idioms and terms within this unit and argue that the narrative uses legal terminology in order to depict the child’s expulsion specifically as a transfer of custody from his father to his mother. In her marginalization from Abraham’s home, Hagar also gains legal rights, and this article examines these shifts in power from a law and literature perspective in order to interrogate Hagar’s parental rights within the biblical text and to demonstrate how they function within the ancestral narrative as a means of formalizing the rupture in Abraham’s household.
Abstract
By expanding the source base to include the so-called curse tablets, this study attempts to illuminate some aspects from a difficult Pauline paragraph. In Gal 3:10–14, Paul makes a very close connection between law and curse using Old Testament quotations. Some explanations on the employment of curses in legal contexts are used here to clarify on the background of popular magical practice certain features of the Pauline understanding of the law as well as the role of Christ as a counter-curse. An important prerequisite for this methodological approach is the common cultural repertory shared by the author and his readers.