Reading Ezra-Nehemiah through the Sediq Mother Tongue: A Postcolonial Critique of the Empty Land Ideology

This thesis critically examines the ‘empty land’ ideology, exploring how it functions in the narrative-biblical literature and modern colonial discourse as a tool to legitimise land dispossession and the erasure of historical memory. The core argument is that this discourse is not merely a product of modern empire; its theological archetypes are deeply embedded in the Hebrew Bible’s exile-return narratives. From 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles to Ezra-Nehemiah, these texts progressively construct an image of Judah as a desolate, impure land awaiting purification and reoccupation by a divinely sanctioned group. This theological and ideological framework is functionally analogous to the colonial doctrine of terra nullius, as both erase the history and sovereignty of existing populations to grant legitimacy to the power and land claims of newcomers.

Employing postcolonial critique and the Tribal Biblical Interpretive Method (TBIM), this thesis brings this biblical analysis into deep dialogue with the historical experiences and land ethics of the Sediq people of Taiwan. Drawing on the oral histories and mother-tongue wisdom of elders, the research finds that when the text is re-read through Sediq concepts such as rngiyun (the ones who remained), ayus (ancestral law and boundaries), and msdrux (relational justice), the return narrative in Ezra-Nehemiah, founded on bloodline purity and imperial authorisation is subverted. The elders’ wisdom repositions the Bible’s marginalised remnant as ethical guardians of land and memory, challenging the text’s exclusionary purity frameworks with a relational land ethic.

Overall, this thesis reveals the historical complicity between biblical texts and colonial discourse and demonstrates a decolonial hermeneutical practice through the Indigenous Sediq knowledge system. This hermeneutic strategy challenges established theological authorities and transforms the Bible into a resource for resisting historical trauma, reshaping community identity, and ultimately affirming the sacredness of the land.