Migration and Western Biblical Interpretation

Empire, Method, and the Politics of Displacement

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Before migration studies became a formal discipline, its core terminology was shaped within Western scientific and nationalist frameworks. This book interrogates how those frameworks continue to structure biblical interpretation. Challenging methodological nationalism and the “container model” of society, Gregory L. Cuéllar argues that empire—not the nation-state—provides the more adequate lens for understanding human mobility in the Hebrew Bible. Through sustained engagement with Ruth, prophetic literature, and the history of migration theory, the book reframes displacement as constitutive rather than anomalous. By exposing the political and epistemic assumptions embedded in migration discourse, this study calls for a more ethically accountable and post-imperial biblical scholarship.
Copyright Year:
2026
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ISBN:
978-90-04-76643-3
Publication:
25 Jun 2026
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ISBN:
978-90-04-76642-6
Publication:
16 Jul 2026
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Gregory L. Cuéllar is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ruth A. Campbell Professor of Biblical Studies at Austin Seminary. His work examines migration, empire, and interpretive method. He is the author of Resacralizing the Other at the U.S.–Mexico Border and Empire, the British Museum, and the Making of the Biblical Scholar.
Contents
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The Scientific Making of Migration
 1 Migration: from Natural History to Biblical Interpretation
 2 Migration and the Scientific Geography of Race
 3 Biblical Ethnology and the Geography of Migration
 4 Race, Migration, and the Violence of Biblical Ethnology
 5 Conclusion

2 Nationalism and the Interpretation of Human Mobility
 1 Methodological Nationalism and the Study of Migration
 2 The Gēr and the Nationalist Capture of Biblical Interpretation
 3 Ruth, Ethnicity, Migration, and Methodological Nationalism
 4 The Ethnonationalist Interpretative Schema of Western-Citizen Readers of Ruth
 5 Conclusion

3 Forced Migration as Imperial Praxis in Prophetic Literature
 1 Empire as a Technology of Forced Migration
 2 Ravaging Food Supply and Human Bodies
 3 Migrational Exile as Colonizing the Body
 4 The Human Mechanics of Empire-Driven Exile
 5 Conclusion

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
This book would be of interest to scholars and graduate students in Biblical Studies, Migration Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Religious Studies, and Political Theology; academic libraries; researchers working on empire, displacement, and interpretive method.
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