Jewish nationalism adopted the Christian West’s secularized image of the ancient Hebrews

Evidence

The Zionist return to the biblical story was thus mediated by the Western Christian model, which evolved over the course of the secularization process. Put differently, the return to the Hebrew Bible is essentially a return, albeit modified, to the Western, Christian (secularized) Bible, to the Old Testament. The ancient Hebrews were rendered a paradigm for Western-Christian imagination of the nation, and, in the end, the Jews are adjusting themselves to the Christian perception of themselves. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 335

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to scholarship on nationalism as constructed/imposed identity (Anderson, Gellner), and to the reader’s core question about whether sacralized identity claims trace to authentic origins or external manufacture — here the external Christian Western model is formative. — connects to: The political restoration of Jews originated as a Christian millenarian idea — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 149; Secular Western political thought drew on the Hebrew Bible — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 328; Even Jewish theology adopted the systematic form of surrounding Christian culture — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 328 (+6 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does this claim hold for the full range of Zionist ideologues, or only the Western-Westernized strand Rohana samples? How would non-Western/mizrahi readings of the Bible fit?

Broader Connections

• Even Jewish theology adopted the systematic form of surrounding Christian culture #corroborates (0.85) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 328
• A religious-nationalist movement can secularize while retaining religious roots #expands (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 211
• Zionist secularization reinterprets biblical myth through colonial frames #expands (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 326
• Zionist secularism was a European cultural identity by definition #corroborates (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 663
• American evangelical orientalism recasts Jews as latter-day Hebrews in a sacred epic #exemplifies (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 148
• Christian identity is built on rising above its own oriental Jewish origins #qualifies (0.70)
• Jews were long classified as an oriental people by the West #complicates (0.70) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 68