Divergent Views of Migration

A Multidisciplinary Conversation about Human Mobility in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

How can insights and theories from contemporary migration research inform the study of biblical texts and extant sources about people on the move? Throughout 2024, the four authors of this article—two biblical scholars, a historian, and an anthropologist—have tackled this question from different angles. This article grows from these ongoing multidisciplinary conversations and falls into three parts. First, we sketch in broad strokes how human mobility has been approached in biblical studies until now. Second, we present a case study in which we read the book of Daniel (chapters 1-6) in dialogue with an ethnographic account and analysis of contemporary migration. Third, we reflect upon the achievements as well as the challenges of this comparative exercise. The article is inherently experimental and dialogical in its form. Hence, it ends on a reflexive note on the role of positionality in multidisciplinary research.