Race, Texts, and Contexts: Whiteness and Anti-Judaism

Abstract

The incorporation of whiteness studies in New Testament research and interpretation involves more than demographic composition, or prejudice and social justice, or even coming to terms with terminology and its appropriateness for the ancient context. This is a theoretical study of the importance of race in whiteness discourse characterised by exnomination, universality, and normativity, in relation to identity politics and othering, and understood through the lens of intersectionality within the broader field of New Testament studies. In the closing reflections, possible connections between whiteness and anti-Jewish interpretations are considered.

Keywords:

• whiteness
• race
• racism
• anti-Judaism
• Bible
• New Testament