Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kevin <klriley100 AT tpg.com.au>]

If you read widely in ancient literature - even in English translations - I think you will find that ancient authors had no worries about 'racial profiling', or even using stereotypes that even then were probably known to be inaccurate.  Objectivity and avoidance of offence are modern concerns, and are practically absent from most of history.  Even religious literature is filled with such things.  Developments in our own history have made us squeamish about such things, but we should not project that squeamishness back onto ancient - or medieval or even early modern - writers.  There are still places in the world where telling blatant untruths about 'the other' is considered good rhetorical technique.

I believe the context - literary and cultural - of Ezekiel 16 makes the euphemistic and 'racial profiling' reading the most likely.  Israel is, after all, being likened rather graphically to a prostitute.  Sexual references and innuendo are hardly foreign to such a context.

Kevin Riley

On 11/01/2013 12:37 PM, Norman Cohn wrote:

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 Hi, Andronic!

 

Thanks for the reply.

That’s a very interesting reading! I admit I get a bit uncomfortable with Ezekiel 16:26. If I read “big of flesh” as an euphemism for the male intimate parts, just like the NIV and other translations do, I can hardly avoid the feeling that there’s some racial profiling going on.

However, your interesting reading has the advantage of accounting for the euphemism while also avoiding the possible racial profiling the passage would suggest if taken to be referring to the Egyptians themselves instead of their gods.

So thanks for showing me a new way of reading this passage!

Best regards.

Norman Cohn

SP - Brazil

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