Attention to the Body: Embodiment and Corporeality Through the Lens of Gesture

In this article, New Testament scholarship on embodiment and corporeality is discussed, systematized and evaluated. The example of the Judas kiss and its reception in Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ demonstrates that the lens of embodiment is important in the analysis of New Testament texts. This lens focuses on bodies, and their relational construction through texts. It shows that an approach to gesture, based on Judith Butler’s theory of gesture, which has not been the center of attention so far, is a useful addition to the lens of embodiment because it helps to see texts and their material afterlives in continuation with each other.