{"title":"“The Promises of Scripture Were All for the Black People”: Sojourner Truth on the Blood of Abel and the Lamb","authors":"Jeremy Schipper","doi":"10.1093/jaarel/lfae066","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In a speech delivered on July 4, 1854, Sojourner Truth declared “the blood of one man, Abel, did not call from the ground in vain [Genesis 4:10]. The promises of Scripture were all for the black people.” Some recent biographers of Truth interpret this as a reference to the curse of Cain (Genesis 4:11–13), which, they contend, Truth calls down upon white people. Other scholars have shown how some nineteenth-century Black interpreters used the Cain and Abel story to explain white violence and hatred. Building on both lines of research, I argue that Truth typologically links Abel’s blood to the blood of the lamb in Revelation 7:14. In doing so, Truth is not only invoking the curse of Cain and providing an explanation for white hatred but also offering a scriptural promise for Black people.","PeriodicalId":51659,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfae066","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
In a speech delivered on July 4, 1854, Sojourner Truth declared “the blood of one man, Abel, did not call from the ground in vain [Genesis 4:10]. The promises of Scripture were all for the black people.” Some recent biographers of Truth interpret this as a reference to the curse of Cain (Genesis 4:11–13), which, they contend, Truth calls down upon white people. Other scholars have shown how some nineteenth-century Black interpreters used the Cain and Abel story to explain white violence and hatred. Building on both lines of research, I argue that Truth typologically links Abel’s blood to the blood of the lamb in Revelation 7:14. In doing so, Truth is not only invoking the curse of Cain and providing an explanation for white hatred but also offering a scriptural promise for Black people.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of the American Academy of Religion is generally considered to be the leading academic journal in the field of religious studies. Now in volume 77 and with a circulation of over 11,000, this international quarterly journal publishes leading scholarly articles that cover the full range of world religious traditions together with provocative studies of the methodologies by which these traditions are explored. Each issue also contains a large and valuable book review section.
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