Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount - Rikard Roitto

Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount - Rikard Roitto

11. Macarisms and Identity Formation: Insights from the Comparison of 4Q525 and the Sermon on the Mount

Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount - Rikard Roitto

Elisa Uusimaki [+-]
Aarhus University
Elisa Uusimäki works on the literary and cultural history of Judaism in antiquity, serving as an associate professor at Aarhus University. She also holds the title of docent at the University of Helsinki. Uusimäki has published on topics such as wisdom, ethics and exemplarity, early biblical interpretation, travel in antiquity, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Hellenistic Judaism.

Description

Elisa Uusimäki builds on the social identity approach as she compares the macarisms of the Sermon (5:1-12) with those in 4QBeatitude (4Q525). Both sets of macarisms declare and urge prototypical attitudes for their recipient communities. Social identities are cognitive categories with borders and prototypical ideals, shared among community members, that facilitate differentiation from outgroups. The macarisms of the 4QBeatitude are characterized by contrastive language, those of the Sermon less so, but both formulate an identity prototype with character traits that sets the audience communities apart from other groups. An interesting feature shared by the two texts is the formulation of their identity in royal terms: as participants in their respective communities they inherit royal status.

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Citation

Uusimaki, Elisa. 11. Macarisms and Identity Formation: Insights from the Comparison of 4Q525 and the Sermon on the Mount. Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 286-306 Oct 2021. ISBN 9781781794227. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=32054. Date accessed: 19 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.32054. Oct 2021

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