Ekstase und Selbstlazeration im Kontext von Mantik

Rüdiger Schmitt

pp. 189-201

in: Matthias Jung, Michaela Bauks, Andreas Ackermann (eds), Dem Körper eingeschrieben, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

The Hebrew Bible witnesses that rites of self-mutilation and mutilations of others in the context of trance-prophecy occured among the Nabis, in particular among prophetical groups like in 1 Kgs 18:28ff.; 1 Kgs 20:35-37 and Sach 13:2-6. The present arcticle argues that these rites, nevertheless opposed as well in the priestly and deuteronomistic as in the prophetical traditions, are not a mere 'survival" of Canaanite religious practice abandoned by "ethical monotheism" (as seen in the mainstream of Hebrew Bible scholarship) but are rooted in the west-semitic heritage and are well persisting in the Hellenistic period. Rites of self-mutilation and mutilations of others are to be understood as an essential part of ecstatic prophetical practice to seek divine revelation, ore – more generally – to communicate with the divine realm, to generate communitas among the members of prophetical groups, and to show devotion.