Verbum et Ecclesia (Feb 2013)
The rhetorical purpose of Israel's notion of the 'whole body' as the ideal body in the psalms: A comparative study of selected psalms from four different genres
Abstract
The authors of the psalms implemented body rhetoric, especially the notion of the �whole body� as the ideal body, in the various genres of psalms, with specific purposes in mind. The whole body as ideal body served as a defining paradigm within the ancient Israelite culture. In this article, the relationship between the embodied God-concept, the ideal societal body and the individual body is investigated in order to determine the purpose of the implementation of this ideology of whole-bodiedness in selected psalm genres. In Psalm 2, the political body as cultural construct plays a prominent role in directing the individual to think of the body in a specific manner. In Psalm 6, the �broken body� drives the lamentation of the psalmist towards recovery. Psalm 29 reflects the poet�s ability to sketch, in hymnic-embodied language, God�s relationship with his creation and his people and the poet�s worship for God�s fullness of existence and activity. Psalm 32, as a psalm of thanksgiving, pictures God as the whole body in terms of the saviour, protector and healer of the broken (sinful) body.
