Dear Samuel, et al
Reading the biblical narrative as if it were an historical narrative is to confuse the way we construct stories or histories today with those constructed thousands of years ago. The iliad is not about the Trojan war; it is about the myth of the Trojan war. The same is true of all biblical narratives, in my view. That is, they do not refer to actual events or words, but to stories about something conceived as an event.
It is to confuse genres to imagine the biblical account is an historical account.
I wouldn't care about this confusion except for the usage made of this reading: it is used by orthodox jews to lay claim to Palestinian lands; it is used by evangelical Christians to justify the expulsion of arabs; it is used conversely by Palestinians to claim ownership of lands.
Think about it this way: the very notion of original inhabitants of any land, anywhere on earth, is irrelevant to the question of justice. It is used to counteract simple notions of people's rights.
It is the bane of our times.
Lastly, as a teacher of film and literature, it is to ignore what a genre actually is, it is to misread.
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/
From: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday 4 January 2018 at 12:48
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No, Jonathan Wouldn't Have Been Better!
I said to them that if one is asking who owns the land, the answer depends on how far back in history one wants to go. It is clear in the Bible itself that the land was occupied by some people who were forced out of it for no other reason than that the God of Israel decided they were worth less. Such people were the Cannanites, the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Girgishites, etc. In our world today, it would be unacceptable to tell someone to leave where he or she is living or pursue a strategy of genocide against a people, simply because they are not chosen by a particular God
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