A Redefinition of "Israel"

Irene Riegner iriegner at concentric.net
Tue Feb 23 21:30:54 EST 1999


> In a message dated 2/21/99 12:00:34 AM, Lloyd Barre wrote:
>
>> A unified "Israel" never existed.  This notion is a profound
>> misconception.
>> This new understanding requires a revised approach both to "Israelite"
>> history, to "Israelite" tradition and to "Israelite" religion in that we are
>> not dealing with one people but with two.
>>
>

To underscore that "Israelite" as a people encompassing Israel and
Judah is a social construct, I've started to use Judah and Judahite,
and Israel and Israelite to refer to the two political entities and
their people, even though it is a bit awkward.  I would like to draw
attention to the fact that real people with real and variant beliefs
and with real, everyday, problems who are not a monolithic, social
construct called "Israel" inhabited this area.

BTW I find it curious that Israel/Jacob from the north gave his name
to the social construct that encompasses the population of both
countries---especially since it is Judah that survives the longest.

irene riegner


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-hebrew/attachments/19990223/ea13be16/attachment.html 


More information about the b-hebrew mailing list