Popis: |
This chapter reviews recent scholarship on the roots אהב and שׂנא, commonly translated by “love” and “hate.” The terms are used in Deuteronomy in both an interpersonal context and the description of the covenant between the Israelites and their deity. Scholarship has mainly focused on the uses of love and hate in covenants and treaties, in the Hebrew Bible and the Near East more broadly; in this literary context, the two terms express the covenantal partners’ duties. More recently, scholars have questioned whether the terms, especially אהב, maintain a primary affective meaning. Drawing upon the cultural and historical study of emotions, this chapter underscores the contrast between contemporary Western concepts of love and hate—which tend to be understood as private and internal feelings—and the biblical uses of אהב and שׂנא—which rather describe visible practices, performed in a social and often public context. |