Migration and Western Biblical Interpretation: Empire, Method, and the Politics of Displacement

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.