Decolonising Biblical Trauma Studies: The Metaphorical Name Shear-jashub in Isaiah 7:3ff Read Through a Postcolonial South African Perspective
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Keywords

Trauma
Isaiah
Biblical trauma
Children
postcolonial studies
Decolonising

How to Cite

Esterhuizen, L. (2019). Decolonising Biblical Trauma Studies: The Metaphorical Name Shear-jashub in Isaiah 7:3ff Read Through a Postcolonial South African Perspective. Old Testament Essays, 31(3), 522–533. Retrieved from https://ote-journal.otwsa-otssa.org.za/index.php/journal/article/view/235

Abstract

Anyone reading the Bible will attest that Biblical scriptures preserve a collection of struggles, trauma, and hardship in their ancient communities - the same trauma markers that many South Africans can attest to. On the same continuum, anyone who is reading the book of Isaiah, are confronted with not only a difficult book but also a difficult prophet. Isaiah did not in Isaiah 7:3ff only address his prophetic utterances at the King as an individual, but also at the people of Judah as a collective group and he did so through the metaphorical name-giving of his son “Shear-jashub.” The fear of imperialism and oppression was a reality, as it would later be in apartheid South Africa. The reading of Isaiah 7:3ff from a postcolonial perspective aims to provide a decolonised biblical trauma lens that would create an understanding of a decolonised reader in a postcolonial South Africa.

 

https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2018/v31n3a7

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References

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