A Mediatized Bible: Discourses on the Hebrew Bible in Swedish Newspaper Debates

Abstract In this article, I explore interpretations and depictions of the Hebrew Bible in Swedish daily press between 1987 and 2017. As a point of departure, I examine three debates concerning three different aspects of the Hebrew Bible (in the debates understood as the “Old Testament”): its depictions of women, God, and homosexuality. The analysis shows that the Hebrew Bible tends to be portrayed as a problem, as the origin of patriarchy, as violent, and legalistic. I argue that several of the dominant discourses on the Hebrew Bible have connections to, and reproduce, anti-Jewish notions as expressed in the Christian history of ideas. Media actors reinforce what I call an antithetical ideology , that is, the idea that the “Old Testament” is the antithesis to the New, in the debates often reduced to the character of Jesus. The latter is always portrayed in a positive way, although there is a hegemonic struggle over the meaning of “Jesus.” At the end of the period, there is a shift in the object of comparison from the previous constructed binary contrast between “the Old” versus “the New” Testament to a comparison between “the Bible” and “the Quran.” Since media has become an important source of knowledge about religion, it is vital for biblical scholars to critically examine media representations of the bible. I argue that the type of bible that the debates co-structure could be termed a mediatized bible . By exploring media representations of the Hebrew Bible, the article also illustrates broader issues regarding the continuing presence of religion in so-called secular societies, persistent currents of anti-Judaism in (post)Christian biblical reception, and the benefit of using critical discourse analysis in reception critical studies.