Title: The Old Testament and the Expression of Hebraism

Abstract: Hebraism is the lasting and established ideology and values of the Jewish people，which can find vivid expression and metaphorical embodiment in the Old Testament, that is, the human-God contract, monotheism, chosen people, prophet, moralism under the constraints of the Judaic laws and Messianic redemption. The basic concepts of Judaism in the Old Testament mark the advent of Hebraism. Modern British thinker Matthew Arnold has profound insight into Hebraism and reveals some important components of it, namely, moralism and activism. However, Arnold misinterprets Hebraism by applying the Christian tradition regardless of theological differences and the confrontation between Christianity and Judaism. Moreover, Arnold deliberately excludes reason from Hebraism, which can be attributed to the deep-rooted moral extremism in Britain and his pragmatic tendency to deliver moral commandments.

Keywords: The Old Testament, Hebraism, moralism, activism, reason

Author: Lixin Tang, Associate Professor, Foreign Languages School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.