“Gli stranieri sono insorti contro di me”(Sal 54[53], 5). Un sentimento xenofobo nella Bibbia ebraica?

Abstract

Israel’s exclusiveness and election are concepts deriving from the confrontation, often conflicting, with other people. This does not justify the presumed attitude of intolerance of Israel against foreigners. It does not appear in Ps 54(53),5, in which the mention of the zārîm,”strangers”, of the MT, must be considered as ideologized re-reading of the original zēdîm, 2 arrogants2, probably also due to palaeographic reasons. The reading zārîm is supposed in the Septuagint’s Vorlage too, where it is read άλλότριοι, “not belonging”, so confirming that textual emendation really occurred in Hebrew in the post-exilic, probably Maccabean, period as a consequence of a strong ideological conditioning. That pushed Israel to take to extremes its national sentiment up to xenophobia, and to keep its distance from Hellenistic society, in which it recognized a serious menace to its own integrity of worship.