To Dwell with God: The Biblical Account of the Ger, Land, and Promise

Abstract

“To Dwell with God: The Biblical Account of the Ger, Land, and Promise" examines the depiction of the relationships between God, the Israelites, and land in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. I argue that in a literary (i.e., synchronic) reading, God’s promise to give the land of Canaan/Israel to Abraham and his descendants is a promise to house and provide for God’s people on God’s land, rather than a promise of property ownership in the modern sense. This argument unfolds through study of biblical vocabulary and narrative and is informed by historical criticism and cultural anthropology. The first chapter surveys recent scholarship on the term ger and argues that synchronic interpretation should understand the ger as a “landless” individual, someone who does not have access to familial land and must rely on a benefactor for shelter and sustenance. The second chapter explicates the role of the ger in Israelite identity, arguing that the biblical narrative depicts the Israelites as gerim of God in a real, “existential” sense. Though they come to enjoy the security of familial estates and tribal land, the biblical text depicts the Israelites as gerim before God, dependent on God’s care and dwelling on God’s land. The third chapter draws on political theory and cultural anthropology to show how the Israelites can be both recipients of a divine land promise and landless gerim. The land promise does not initiate a transfer of a market commodity, but instead invites the Israelites to dwell on God’s land. At its conclusion, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament anticipates all people becoming gerim of God, all returning to live as members of God’s household—God’s gerim—at God’s home on Zion.