The Power of Emotions and the Status of Female Characters in Various Literary Genres of the Old Testament

In Old Testament scholarship since the 1990s, there has been a growing interest in questions of emotion, but most biblical texts have not yet been illuminated from this perspective. The proposed project will seek to fill at least part of these gaps, within the framework of the ARRS Programme Group on Judaeo-Christian Sources P6-0262. Due to the subordinate role of female Old Testament figures in the history of interpretation, priority will be given to them in the selection of texts for a more detailed analysis. In the Old Testament, women are mostly portrayed as real historical figures, but in the history of interpretation they have often been interpreted metaphorically. Some female characters are also presented as allegorical figures, e.g. Shulamite as the image of ideal love in the Song of Songs or Oholah and Oholibah as harlots in Ezk 23:1-45. This is the reason why the whole history of biblical interpretation in Judaism and Christianity is marked by a polarisation between the proponents of the ""literal"" and the ""allegorical"" meaning of the texts. In line with its title, the project combines two objectives, which are fully intertwined: 1) an investigation of the nature and role of emotions in the various literary types and genres of the Old Testament, such as narratives, historical books, prophetic speeches, wisdom literature and prayers in the form of psalms; 2) an investigation of female characters, who have not yet received a comprehensive in-depth treatment, in terms of their social status and their intimacy, as manifested in their emotions. The study of the emotions and status of female characters will be based on the unique features of Old Testament thinking about man and his nature, taking into account the Hebrews' attitude to the body and the spiritual world and the characteristics of their lives (anthropological aspects). Since there is no word for ""emotion"" in Hebrew, we will look for coherence, at the level of semantics and hermeneutics, according to the principle of holistic interpretation, between the extensive vocabulary for all the basic emotions in modern forms of communication and the ""semantic field"" of the use of words and symbols, metaphors and personifications for emotions in ancient Israel. The semantic fields of emotion will be explored with equal attention to the situation in the original and to the choices of equivalents in foreign and Slovenian translations of the Bible, which are crucial for the development of national languages, literature and culture as a whole. Alongside Hebrew vocabulary and unique literary forms that reveal the linguistic basis for the anthropology of the Bible, we will explore how the Greek language was used by Greek philosophy to supplant Semitic biblical views and to infuse them with foreign influence. The proposed research can only be successfully carried out by a larger group of scholars of the Bible and related fields. The project involves 14 researchers from three research institutions, including two PhD students. The results of the project will be published in Slovenian, English and some other languages in the form of scientific monographs and articles in scientific journals at home and abroad. We will organise an international symposium and an exhibition on the history of Slovenian Bible translations with the contents of our project; a conference proceedings with the results of the project team members; a documentary feature film and a website.The project, which will mark the first systematic and integrated exploration of the emotions and status of female characters in Judaeo-Christian sources and traditions as they develop from antiquity to the present, will make a significant contribution to biblical, literary and interdisciplinary research in the fields of emotion studies, women's social history and genre studies.