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Israel as Foundling: Abandonment, Adoption, and the Fatherhood of God
- Hebrew Studies
- National Association of Professors of Hebrew
- Volume 46, 2005
- pp. 7-24
- 10.1353/hbr.2005.0021
- Article
- Additional Information
Paternity as a standard metaphor for God's relationship either to humankind or to Israel is striking for its absence in the Tanak before the rise of the Israelite monarchy. A set of daring oracles insisting that divine fatherhood can only be adoptive both illumines the earlier reticence and foreshadows the later importance of this metaphor.