The Foreigner in Collocations in Leviticus

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Abstract

In his PHD dissertation, entitled, Roles and Relations in Biblical Law. A Study of Participant Tracking, Semantic Roles, and Social Networks in Leviticus 17–26 (VU Amsterdam 2021), Christian Canu Højgaard applied social network analysis to the participants in the so-called Holiness Code. The network analysis revealed some interesting features about the ger, which typically refers to non-Israelite residents but is also used to designate the status of the Israelites and which is generally considered as a person in the margin of the society and occurs in a collocation with the poor (19:10) but also as a rich person to which an Israelite can become a debt slave (25:47).

These findings of Canu’s important research will be the starting point for my contribution to the Festschrift. Building on these findings of Canu, I want to investigate the collocation and syntagms in which ger and other words referring to the sojourner occur in Leviticus, especially the Holiness Code, such as מִבֵּ֨ית יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל וּמִן־הַגֵּ֣ר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל (Lev 22:18; NRSV: “any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel”) כַּגֵּ֥ר כָּאֶזְרָ֖ח (Lev 24:22; NRSV: “for the sojourner and for the native”) לְךָ֖ וּלְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וְלַאֲמָתֶ֑ךָ וְלִשְׂכִֽירְךָ֙ וּלְתֹושָׁ֣בְךָ֔ הַגָּרִ֖ים עִמָּֽךְ (Lev 25:6; NRSV: “for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you”) or לְגֵ֤ר תֹּושָׁב֙ עִמָּ֔ךְ אֹ֥ו לְעֵ֖קֶר מִשְׁפַּ֥חַת גֵּֽר (Lev 25:47; NRSV: “the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan”). I will investigate whether these collocations can shed light on the complex and somewhat elusive identity (or rather “identities”) of the sojourner in Leviticus.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMeaningful Meetings with Foreigners in the World of the Bible
Subtitle of host publicationEssays in Honour of Klaas Spronk on the Occasion of His Re-tirement
EditorsPaul Sanders, Marjo Korpel
Place of PublicationLeuven
PublisherPeeters Publishers
Pages91–102
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9789042952959
ISBN (Print)9789042952942
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Publication series

NameContributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology
PublisherPeeters Publishers
Volume119

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