Covenant, Sacrifice, and Familial Relationships
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Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Abstract
In the Hebrew Bible, various instantiations of “covenant” are accompanied or established by various forms of sacrifice. Significantly, these sacrifices are tied directly or figuratively to the importance of generational succession in the reproduction of the bloodline. This indicates a symbolic nexus between covenant, sacrifice, and reproduction. Given this nexus, it is perhaps unsurprising that covenant is analogized to human relational bonds of marriage, the first and oldest instance of which is found in the book of Hosea. In this paper, I trace certain thematic continuities between the association of covenant with sacrifice, the reproductive-familial significance of these sacrifices, and the ethical implications for the association later made between covenant and marriage. I argue that a covenant paradigm should not be applied to marriage for several reasons, notably the potentiality of violence inherent in the covenant-sacrifice-reproduction nexus and the radical asymmetry between God and humans which makes covenant definitive and all-encompassing. My analysis of how the covenant-sacrifice-reproduction nexus functions further nuances the enduring difficulty that Hosea acutely encapsulates for feminist readings of that text as well as covenant paradigms for marriage more broadly.
Zusammenfassung
In der hebräischen Bibel werden die unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen des „Bundes“ von vielfältigen Opferformen eingeführt oder begleitet. Bemerkenswert ist, dass diese Opfer unmittelbar oder im übertragenden Sinne mit der Bedeutung der Generationsfolge für die Fortpflanzung der Blutlinie verbunden sind. Dies deutet auf einen symbolischen Zusammenhang zwischen Bund, Opfer und Fortpflanzung hin. Angesichts dieses Zusammenhangs ist es kaum überraschend, dass der Bund mit menschlichen Beziehungen in der Ehe verglichen wird, deren erstes und ältestes Beispiel im Buch Hosea zu finden ist. In diesem Artikel zeichne ich einige thematische Kontinuitäten zwischen der Assoziation des Bundes mit Opfern, der reproduktiven und familiären Bedeutung dieser Opfer und den ethischen Implikationen für die spätere Assoziation zwischen Bund und Ehe nach. Ich argumentiere, dass ein Bund-Paradigma aus einer Reihe von Gründen nicht auf die Ehe angewendet werden sollte, und zwar insbesondere aufgrund der Gewaltpotenziale, die der Zusammenhang zwischen Bund, Opfer und Fortpflanzung in sich trägt, sowie aufgrund der radikalen Asymmetrie zwischen Gott und Mensch, die den Bund endgültig und allumfassend werden lässt. Meine Analyse des Zusammenhangs zwischen Bund, Opfer und Fortpflanzung verdeutlicht die anhaltenden Schwierigkeiten, die Hosea für feministische Lesarten des Texts sowie für Bundesparadigmen der Ehe im weiteren Sinne prägnant darstellt.
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