The Old and the New Israel: The Cultural Origins of the Special Relationship

E. Shalev
{"title":"The Old and the New Israel: The Cultural Origins of the Special Relationship","authors":"E. Shalev","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2021-0006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Understandings of the new American nation as a “Second Israel,” and a prevalent political discourse devoted to the narratives of the Old Testament, were a distinct trait of the early United States. Indeed, the images and narratives of the Old Testament were as common in the formative decades of the United States, in the words of the great historian Perry Miller, as “the air that the people breathed.” This attachment to the Old Testament, and the fact that American nationalism and twentieth century Zionism crystalized around the biblical history of the Israelites, bears considerably on the relationship of the two nations. The “special” bond between the modern countries, which is commonly understood in terms of pragmatism, interests, and shared ideologies, thus rests on a deep cultural connection. The American public’s consistent backing of the State of Israel (one that far surpasses the constituency of evangelical Christian Zionists), which politically translates into a robust, lasting and bi-partisan support that defies the arithmetic of appeals to Jewish voters (or donors) seems puzzling at times. It becomes more intelligible in light of the centuries-long tradition of American public speech describing the nation as a new incarnation of biblical Israel. This usable biblical past, which continues to influence American culture in meaningful ways, adds an important dimension for our understanding of the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2021-0006","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Understandings of the new American nation as a “Second Israel,” and a prevalent political discourse devoted to the narratives of the Old Testament, were a distinct trait of the early United States. Indeed, the images and narratives of the Old Testament were as common in the formative decades of the United States, in the words of the great historian Perry Miller, as “the air that the people breathed.” This attachment to the Old Testament, and the fact that American nationalism and twentieth century Zionism crystalized around the biblical history of the Israelites, bears considerably on the relationship of the two nations. The “special” bond between the modern countries, which is commonly understood in terms of pragmatism, interests, and shared ideologies, thus rests on a deep cultural connection. The American public’s consistent backing of the State of Israel (one that far surpasses the constituency of evangelical Christian Zionists), which politically translates into a robust, lasting and bi-partisan support that defies the arithmetic of appeals to Jewish voters (or donors) seems puzzling at times. It becomes more intelligible in light of the centuries-long tradition of American public speech describing the nation as a new incarnation of biblical Israel. This usable biblical past, which continues to influence American culture in meaningful ways, adds an important dimension for our understanding of the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
新旧以色列:特殊关系的文化渊源
将新美国国家理解为“第二个以色列”,以及致力于旧约叙事的流行政治话语,是早期美国的鲜明特征。的确,《旧约》中的形象和叙述在美国形成时期的几十年里很常见,用伟大的历史学家佩里·米勒(Perry Miller)的话来说,就像“人们呼吸的空气”一样。这种对旧约的依恋,以及美国民族主义和20世纪犹太复国主义围绕着以色列人的圣经历史而具体化的事实,对两个国家的关系有着相当大的影响。现代国家之间的“特殊”纽带,通常被理解为实用主义、利益和共同的意识形态,因此建立在深厚的文化联系之上。美国公众对以色列国的一贯支持(远远超过了福音派基督教犹太复国主义者的支持者),这在政治上转化为一种强有力的、持久的、两党支持,无视对犹太选民(或捐助者)的呼吁,有时似乎令人费解。考虑到几个世纪以来美国公开演讲将国家描述为圣经中以色列的新化身的传统,这就更容易理解了。这段有用的圣经历史,继续以有意义的方式影响着美国文化,为我们理解美国和以色列之间的“特殊关系”增加了一个重要的维度。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
期刊最新文献
Mainstreaming and Defamiliarizing the Rapture: The Leftovers Reads Left Behind Jacob’s Nightly Encounter at Peniel and the Status of the Son: Reading Genesis 32 with Athanasius Snakes on a Page: Visual Receptions of the Eden Serpent through the History of Western Art and Their Survivals in Modern Children’s Bibles Cotton Mather’s Biblical Enlightenment: Critical Interrogations of the Canon and Revisions of the Common Translation in the Biblia Americana (1693–1728) The Feathered Man: The Reception of Daniel 4 in a 17th-Century English Tapestry of Nebuchadnezzar Transformed into a Beast
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1