Nathan MacDonald

There is a larger interest in the tendency to misrecognise ancient Israel as a nation state, and the hermeneutical tangle that results from the Bibles complex role in giving rise to the modern world.

Hope that helps to clarify.

What we see in the early modern period is an appropriation of a biblical heritage mediated and transformed through maps in a different political context of nascent nation states.

“The sovereign outlines the boundaries of the territory he bestows on his vassal, subject to the vassal’s pledge of loyalty and commitment to the clauses of the treaty binding him. This is the literary and cultural context of the biblical border descriptions of the Promised Land”.

So also Num 34 as rightly observed by Nili Wazana in her outstanding monograph, All the Boundaries of the Land, p. 127-128.

Delineated borders are occasionally found in the ancient Near Eastern world though nearly always an imposition of a suzerain on vassals.

The interpretive challenge is that even texts like Num 34 need to be read in their ancient political context, and our own assumptions make that quite difficult.

Very little is not the same as nothing. Indeed, in my discussion of the interpretation of Gen 10 I noted that the boundaries of Canaan (and only
Canaan) were defined in the biblical text.

There is, of course, a larger story to be told here and I gave only a part of it.

Saul, I’m not saying what you think I’m saying. So even the last sentence of the article reads “A text that says very little about geographical boundaries gradually became a paradigmatic instance of God’s ordering of the world according to nation states”.

First 'Bible map' still influences how we think about borders The first ever map in the Bible revolutionised map-making despite being printed the wrong way round, a new study reveals.

And some coverage at the Daily Mail online.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

How the first Bible to include a map helped spread the idea of countries with borders The map of the Holy Land in Christopher Froschauer’s 1525 Old Testament has the Mediterranean to the east of Palestine instead of to the west.

Here’s a piece at the Conversation

theconversation.com/how-the-firs...

First ‘Bible map’ published 500 years ago still influences how we think about borders The first Bible to feature a map of the Holy Land was published 500 years ago, in 1525. It still influences how we think about borders.

There’s a university press release here. It makes more of it being the 500th anniversary of a map appearing in a Bible.

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/firs...

Ancient Israel and the Modern Bounded State Abstract. The rediscovery of Ptolemy in the early modern period altered the representation and understanding of boundaries between territorial states. From

If you are interested in thinking about borders and the Bible, here’s a new article.

It traces a complex history between the Bible and the borders of modern nation states. So it’s relevant to the challenge of Christian nationalism.

It’s also open access so take a look.

doi.org/10.1093/jts/...

Congratulations @andrewtimkeenan.bsky.social

The Book of Genesis | Nathan MacDonald (History Sessions Podcast) The Book of Genesis is a foundational document in the history of civilisation, and a source of spiritual meaning for many millions around the world, with characters and narratives that have had a profound effect on world culture. But what do historians say about the Book of Genesis and its composition, and to what extent are its stories a variation on other mythologies found in the Ancient Near East? This week I'm delighted to be joined by one of the UK's top Hebrew Bible scholars to interrogate Genesis and separate history from myth. 📚 About Our Guest: Dr. Nathan MacDonald is Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament and Fellow and College Lecturer in Theology at St John's College, Cambridge, and a leading scholar in Hebrew Bible studies. 👍 Enjoyed this episode? Don’t forget to like & subscribe for more in-depth interviews with the world’s leading historians! © 2025 The History Sessions Podcast. All rights reserved

I recently did an interview on the book of Genesis with Jon at the History Sessions podcast. The link is here if you’re interested and worth subscribing to Jon’s show

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Wonderful! Congratulations!

Extract from Mark Brett, Debating the Nation I have heard it said in jest that the idea of an ecumenical Abraham was invented by genial Swiss scholars who see the biblical ancestor in their own image.

Reminder to self: your casual asides responding to questions at an online conference with 300 scholars on the line can come back to haunt you.

Some of the Hittite examples Wazana discusses.

So…looking forward to SBL in a week’s time and just wondering how many attendees are going to take up the special conference offer of a 10% discount on a midweek wedding while we’re in San Diego.

Eat Like The Ancient Babylonians: Researchers Cook Up Nearly 4,000-Year-Old Recipes Written on four tablets, three of which date back no later than 1730 B.C., the recipes are considered to be the oldest known. And they taste pretty good, says a scholar who re-created them.

The lack of an OT book full of recipes is a definite oversight. Luckily we have some Babylonian recipes: www.npr.org/sections/the...

Yes me too. Looks very exciting.

Exciting opportunity of a permanent post in Second Temple Judaism at Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/43152/

Look what came in the post today!