earticle

영어

The Otherized Moabite BalaamYoon Kyung LeeAssistant Professor, Department of Christian StudiesEwha Womans UniversityThis paper begins with a question why the tradition of Balaam hasbeen transitioned from positive or, at least, neutral to negative within theBible. Numbers 22-24, reporting Balaam in a positive or neutral fashion,is dated to the period of the Omri-Ahab dynasty in which the worshipof El, Shaddayin, Shagar, and/or Ashera was permissible and prevalentand also in which Moab was colonized. Afterward, Deuteronomist (e.g. Deut. 23) and Deuteronomistic Historian (e.g. Joshua 24), after Moabwas independent of Israel, were written in both a political and theologicalcontext in which Balaam’s worship of goddess and poly-gods was not to betolerated. Finally, in Numbers 31, a Priestly document, Balaam is depictedas one of the slaughtered along with the Midianite kings. The Post-exilicYehud, of which period was under the Persian Empire, made great effortsto establish an ethnic identity and religious distinction with the centrality ofthe Temple. Over time, in accordance with external issues such as politicaland religious relationship with Moab, the Balaam narrative, tangled withethnicity and religiosity of Moab, had continued to be shifted in terms ofits interpretation. Thus, the Moabite Balaam grew to be gradually rejectedand being Otherized over time throughout the Bible.

한국어

본 논문은 성서 안에서 ‘발람’이라는 모압인 선지자에 대한 평가는 절대적이며 고정적인 것이 아니라, 여러 외부의 상황변화에 따라 변화했음을 밝히고자 하였다. 모압인 선지자 ‘발람’의 평가는 시대의 변화에 따라 모압과 모압인 선지자발람은 철저하게 부인되고, 단절되어갔음을 규명하고자 하였다.