The Senses of Scripture: Sensory Perception in the Hebrew BibleThe Senses of Scripture reveals the essence of biblical epistemology - the ways in which ancient Israelites thought about and used their sensorium. The theoretical introduction demonstrates that scholars need to liberate themselves from the Western bias that holds a pentasensory paradigm and prioritises the sense of sight. The discussion of the biblical material demonstrates that biblical scholars should follow a similar path. Through examination of associative and contextual patters the author reaches a septasensory model, including sight, hearing, speech, kinaesthesia, touch, taste, and smell. It is further demonstrated that the senses, according to the HB, are a divinely created physical experience, which symbolised human ability to act in a sovereign manner in the world. Despite the lack of a biblical Hebrew term 'sense', it seems that at times the merism sight and hearing serves that matter. Finally, the book discusses the longstanding dispute regarding the primacy of sight vs. hearing, and claims that although there is no strict sensory hierarchy evident in the text, sight holds a central space in biblical epistemology. |
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
17 | |
Theoretical Considerations | 31 |
Methodological Considerations | 55 |
Chapter 2
NUMBER OUR SENSES | 65 |
Sight and Hearing | 69 |
Kinaesthesia | 75 |
Towards a Definition
| 183 |
Chapter 4 THEOLOGY OF THE SENSES | 189 |
Harming the Senses | 196 |
Sensory Disabilities | 206 |
Summary | 220 |
Theology and the Sensory Category | 221 |
Chapter 5
THE CENTRALITY OF SIGHT IN BIBLICAL EPISTEMOLOGY | 223 |
Sight and Evidence | 225 |
Speech | 84 |
Taste | 93 |
Olfactory | 103 |
Touch | 106 |
Towards a Septasensory Model | 109 |
DEFINITION | 113 |
Sense and Soma | 114 |
Sense and Sovereignty | 130 |
Sight and Sovereignty | 248 |
Supreme Sight | 263 |
Conclusion | 274 |
THE SENSES OF SCRIPTURE | 277 |
280 | |
293 | |
309 | |
Other editions - View all
The Senses of Scripture: Sensory Perception in the Hebrew Bible Yael Avrahami No preview available - 2012 |
The Senses of Scripture: Sensory Perception in the Hebrew Bible Yael Avrahami No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
ability action Akkadian ancient Anthropology appears associative link associative pattern Balaam behaviour Biblical Hebrew biblical passages biblical perception biblical thought blind Carasik chapter concrete context contextual patterns contrast correlation created cultural cultural relativism David de¿ne de¿nition demonstrates describe Deut Deuteronomy dif¿culties discussion eating epistemology example Exod expressed eyes Ezek God’s hand harm Hebrew Bible Hiphil human idioms imagery inÀuence Israel Israelites judgment kinaesthesia kinaesthetic knowledge lame language linguistic Lord Malul merism metaphor MKCS Moses mouth nose NRSV old age Old Testament parallel Phenomenology phrase prophet Prov punishment reÀected root sacri¿ce scholars semantic eld sense of sight sensorium sensory category sensory disability sensory experience sensory organs sex organs sight and hearing similar smell speci¿c speech symbolic synaesthetic synecdoche taste TDOT term tongue touch translation understanding verb verse vocabulary walking Yahweh Zedekiah