Body, motion and posture in the Bible

What does the biblical text mean when it describes postures or bodily movements that at first glance seem difficult to understand and translate according to the criteria of our contemporary cultures? For example, what is meant by “rising”, “prostrating", “imposing one’s hands”, “returning” or “turning around”, “being immersed”? The notion of the “body” varies greatly between cultures and contexts, as recent studies have shown. To address these questions, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Sapienza University of Rome have jointly organised a conference on how posture and bodily movements are represented in the Bible (www.motion-posture.com). The initiative is supported by the European Commission in the framework of the research project “POSTURE: Posture and bodily movements in the Bible and Biblical religions” (contact person: Paola Mollo).

The first two days of the conference were held in the auditorium of the Biblical Institute, while the third day was held in the auditorium of the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy of La Sapienza University. Presentations were given by scholars from various international academic institutions, including the Universities of Copenhagen, Birmingham and Geneva, as well as “L’Orientale” University of Naples, the University for Foreigners of Siena, the Alma Mater of Bologna and the host institutions. Despite its technical nature, the conference attracted a remarkable number of participants, not least thanks to the fact that it was live-streamed and to the lively and enriching debate between the panel speakers and the audience. All the content is now available online on the Youtube channel @pibiblico.

The human body as a social alphabet

In the study of a culture or literature, including biblical literature, an informed appreciation of the elements that describe the body and its use is important because they are particularly relevant from an anthropological, social and religious perspective. Indeed, movements and postures can reveal power relations and hierarchies between people; they serve as “externalizers” of social status, gender, age and physical features; they indicate and preserve good relations and group identity or, on the contrary, hostility and self-protection. Furthermore, certain movements and postures are associated with respect for authority, while deliberate violations of ethical norms can be signs of provocation and rebellion.

To understand these aspects situated in the "ancient and distant" context of the Bible, the organizers of the conference "Motion and posture in the Bible: language, translation, reception and effects" decided to adopt a rigorously contextualized methodology, primarily by means of linguistic, philological and literary analysis. The study of the texts, its language and its mechanisms has made it possible to gain a deeper insight into the meaning of the biblical notions applied to movement and posture, to understand their characteristics with greater clarity and, in some cases, to shed new light on certain biblical passages or their successive interpretations.

The importance of the historical and cultural context

A number of presentations by panel speakers provided examples from the Old and New Testaments, covering a variety of literary genres (fiction, prophecy, apocalyptic literature, wisdom literature, epistolography). In addition, various contexts and languages of the Ancient Near East, where the Bible originated, were analysed in order to provide a deeper understanding of the meaning of certain bodily movements, individual attitudes and gestures as they are depicted in the biblical texts. In particular, texts and examples from the Mesopotamian (Sumerian and Akkadian), Hittite, ancient South Arabian, Elamite and Aramaic cultures were examined.

This was followed by a detailed analysis of the ways in which the ancient versions of the Hebrew Bible (the Aramaic Targumim, the Syriac Peshitta, the Septuagint, the Vulgate and the Vetus Latina, as well as the Coptic translations) interpreted some verbal expressions of movement and posture. The differences and the “cultural translation” process from the source language (Hebrew) to the target language and culture were explained in detail. Finally, taking a chronological leap beyond the time of the Bible and its translations, the ways in which Jewish and Christian exegesis of the first centuries AD transposed and interpreted texts with distinctive, sometimes problematic descriptions and expressions of movement and posture were explored.

Different aspects were discussed during the presentations: who is the entity that moves or assumes the posture ( people, troops, God, celestial bodies, animals, inanimate objects, liquids, blood); which part of the body is actively involved (hand, palm, arm, knee, foot, face, eyes, cheek, tongue, teeth); which direction is associated with the movement (horizontal, vertical, undulating, circular, etc.); and finally, its significance in psychological and social terms (emotions, feelings, mental states, perceptions, rituals and liturgies, social interaction). 

The conference left the participants with a heightened awareness of the importance of studying the biblical languages and the ancient versions in their historical context and in relation to the cultures of the Ancient Near East, in order to gain an increasingly deeper understanding of the biblical texts and their message. In fact, it can be said that this is at the heart of the educational and research activities of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in its two Faculties (Faculty of Biblical Studies - Faculty of Ancient Near Eastern Studies). Moreover, the fruitful collaboration with experts in Jewish exegesis (Faculty of Theology and Cardinal Bea’s Centre for Jewish Studies of the Collegium Maximum) and ancient Christian exegesis (Sapienza) has opened up new horizons, providing valuable material for recovering the cultural passages that have made it possible to transmit to contemporary societies certain biblical notions that have been handed down through centuries of interpretation.