Hermenêuticas do Uno. Templo/s, Deus/es/as e Religião\ões na Judá do Período do Ferro

Abstract

The article develops the concept of “Hermeneutics of the One” as a critical tool to reveal the hermeneutical conditionings that shape interpretations of Judahite religion during the Iron Age—corresponding to the period portrayed in the Hebrew Bible and located in the ancient southern Levant (modern Israel, Jordan, and Palestine) during the first millennium BCE. The general aim is to demonstrate how a hermeneutic focused on unity structures modern interpretive practices, sustained by comparativist and evolutionary rationalities, which frame the interpretation of ancient Israel’s religion. Specifically, it examines (i) the intellectual origins of these categories in Religious Studies and biblical exegesis; (ii) their effects on the classification of textual, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence; and (iii) the analytical alternatives emerging from data plurality. Methodologically, it combines historiographical and epistemological critique with an integrated reading of material and biblical records. Findings show that the unity paradigm obscures Judahite cultic diversity, calling for a plural and non-linear hermeneutics.