[Pain in the world of the Old Testament : Linguistic images, cultural concepts, literary conceptions].

BACKGROUND

For a long time, biblical views of pain were used to relieve and legitimize suffering. Nowadays, however, pain is seen as an evil to be fought. Despite this difference, it is worth researching the variety of images of pain in the Old Testament in order to include them in current debates.

OBJECTIVES

1) To reveal pain as a complex experience of physical, spiritual and social aspects in the Old Testament texts and 2) to search for correspondences and differences between biblical and contemporary approaches to pain.

METHODS

A phenomenology of pain in the times of ancient Israel is based on analysis of the Old Testament texts in the original Hebrew language. Even if native speakers are no longer available for comparison, the written language expresses an authentic attitude towards pain.

RESULTS

In the Bible there are neither clear terms nor theoretical treatises on pain but linguistically coded patterns of processing complex painful experiences. Because, according to the biblical body image, feelings do not exist in human beings, pain is often experienced as an alien destructive force. Images of pain developed with a view to the individual are used as metaphors for collective situations of suffering that last over a long period of time.

CONCLUSION

Social and political upheavals played a crucial role in the development of Old Testament images of pain. That is why the ultimate cause of pain is only partially attributed to the divine, but more to human violence structures. The texts focus their hope on God as a deliverer from distress because he allows himself to be affected by pain.