Yue Chi Yau (KCL) - 2024-25 Students
yue.yau@kcl.ac.uk

Cultural Memories and Ethnic Identity in Ezekiel 20: A Social-Scientific Approach

This project aims to understand the concerns and beliefs of the Jewish community deported to Babylonia in the early sixth century BCE that formed the narrative about their past in Ezekiel 20. Previous literatures often presuppose the importance of consolidating ethnic distinctiveness in exile. What has not been fully considered is the multifaceted interplay of the perceived threat in the context, the worldview of these exiles, and the form of identity and narrative that they needed. Drawing on studies documenting other lived experiences of forced displacement and relevant social-scientific theories, we will try to capture the dynamics and flexibility of ethnic identity in the forced migration context. Particular attention will be drawn to the formulation of cultural memory and its impact on ethnic identity. The historical narrative in Ezekiel 20 will be analysed as a written form of cultural memory, which can define, reform or supplement the self-understanding of the community and inspire collective actions. Its complex and multi-layered relationships with other traditions will be examined employing the approach of inner-biblical allusion and interpretation. Through these lenses, we might develop a critical framework for analysing the peculiar identity which the authors of Ezekiel 20 intended to establish.

Principal Supervisor: Professor Paul Joyce