M.A. / The fact that God (Yahweh) is often depicted in the Old Testament as violent is a problem. Especially for us who come to the text as modern readers. Even though our society is full of violent acts, there is a general remorse towards violence. A small book like Nahum is filled with violence and introduces Yahweh at an early stage as a “vengeful God”. It then goes further and describes the fall of Nineveh and the Assyrians in a graphic manner. This vengeful and violent God was central to the problem of this dissertation. The problem was: How should the violence in the current form of Nahum be interpreted and how should it be understood in a modern context. This study will make use of dual methodology due to the fact that the text of Nahum was rooted in a concrete social and historical situation. Firstly the social and historical circumstances is studied and used to interpret the text. To understand the problem in a modern context the second part of the dual methodology will come into play. This will look at the ideology that is ingrained in the rhetoric of the text. The question will be asked whether Yahweh is as violent as He is described or whether His description in Nahum could be a construct of society and ideology. Proposals for new readings of Nahum and new metaphors and constructs for God is then suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:6746 |
| Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Creators | Serfontein, Johan |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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