Temporal and Spatial Colonization

This article attempts to revisit the notion of “rest” from the perspective of colonial discourse analysis. By examining two passages in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 95 and Gen 2), I aim to show how the idea of “rest” is intertwined with the colonial imagination. I endeavor to demonstrate that the notion of “rest” in those passages does not straightforwardly entail liberation but instead involves the colonization of space and time. To sustain the argument I divide the article into three parts. First, I consider what the concept of spatial colonization entails in the notion of “rest” in the Exodus-Conquest traditions. Furthermore, I analyze temporal colonization in the notion of the Sabbath “rest” motif in the Creation narrative. Finally, as both Ps 95 and Gen 2 were cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews’ discussion of “rest” (chs. 3–4), I conclude this article by offering a preliminary reading of Heb 3–4 as an implication of the discussion of spatial and temporal colonization of “rest” in those Hebrew Bible passages

Biblical studies · Colonialism · Colonization · Hebrew Bible · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Christian Theology and Mission · Development, Ethics, and Society