To Eat or Not to Eat. Politics, Religion, and Eating in 1 Kings 13
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/BPTh.2019.005Keywords
eating, word of the LORD, man of God, king, prophet, politics, religion, cultural anthropology, hermeneutics of historyAbstract
According to the cultural anthropology eating together, especially during feasts is not only of social significance, strengthening community bonds but also bears some political and religious consequences. The motif of eating which gives a thematic orientation to the whole narrative in 1 Kings 13 has been skilfully interwoven into the narrative structure of the confrontation between the king and the prophet, representing respectively politics and religion. The story consists of two episodes. The first one (13:1–10) describes the relationship between politics and religion in an encounter of the man of God from Judah with the king. The second one (13:11–34) gives a full account of a conflict within religion regarding a relation to politics. Both the man of God and the old prophet fail to live up to the message of God. However, their failures do not undermine the word of God proclaimed by them because its strength and persistence is based on the faithfulness of God which accompanies the sinful people.
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