The ‘Turn to Empire’ in Biblical Studies
“Empire”, has become a mana word in biblical studies during the past decade or so, much as “narrative” earlier became a mana word in the field. Scholars had, of course, always been aware that many biblical texts were technically narratives, but the device of reading them single-mindedly as plotted narratives, replete with major and minor characters in complex interaction, was a relatively late development. Similarly, scholars had always been aware that all of the biblical texts were written under empire - Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, to name only the more obvious empires - but the device of reading them single-mindedly as such has been a recent innovation. And for reasons that are still rather unclear, it has occurred principally within the field of New Testament studies.
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Stephen D Moore
Professor of New Testament at Drew University, New Jersey. He received his PhD in New Testament Studies at TCD in 1986.