ABSTRACT
One of the most powerful archetypes of unique national identity remains that of the Biblical narrative of the chosen people of Israel. It was central to the selfconsciousness of nationhood among peoples who were beginning to assert their uniqueness and independence as sovereign nations in revolutionary Europe. Combined with the dynamics of Romanticism on the one hand, or with the impetus to new and reformed social and political order on the other, the theme of chosenness became powerfully associated both with past glory and future mission to the world. Just as the development of the idea of the divine Word as incarnate within the language of finite humanity strengthened both the positive quest for national identity and the more chauvinistic forms of nationalism, so the idea of the chosen people was both positively and negatively expressed.
