Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context.ANCIENT ISRAEL: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT. Edited by Philip F. Esler. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. xvii + 420. Cloth, $35.00. With the exception of the first two essays, this volume comprises edited versions of papers presented at the St. Andrews Conference on Old Testament Interpretation and the Social Sciences held at St. Mary's College, University of St Andrews "St Andrew's University" redirects here. For the private university in Argentina, see Universidad de San Andrés. For the private university in Japan, see Momoyama Gakuin University. , Scotland, June 30 to July 4, 2004. The volume is organized in four parts according the focus of the essays. "Part One: Foundations" includes the following essays: Philip F. Esler, Social-Scientific Models in Biblical Interpretation, pp. 3-14; Philip F. Esler & Anselm C. Hagedorn, Social-Scientific Analysis of the Old Testament: A Brief History and Overview, pp. 15-32. "Part Two: Themes" consists of Robert B. Coote, Tribalism--Social Organization in the Biblical Israels, pp. 35-49; Carolyn S. Leeb, Polygyny--Insights from Rural Haiti, pp. 50-65; Adriana Destro & Mauro Pesce, Sacrifice--The Ritual for the Leper leper /lep·er/ (lep´er) a person with leprosy; a term now in disfavor. lep·er n. One who has leprosy. in Leviticus 14, pp. 66-77; Zeba A. Crook, Reciprocity--Covenantal Exchange as a Test Case, pp. 78-91; Gary Stansell, Wealth--How Abraham Became Rich, pp. 92-110; Lester L. Grabbe, Prophecy--Joseph Smith and the Gestalt Gestalt (gəshtält`) [Ger.,=form], school of psychology that interprets phenomena as organized wholes rather than as aggregates of distinct parts, maintaining that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. of the Israelite Prophet, pp. 111-27; Dietmar Neufeld, Barrenness--Trance as a Protest Strategy, pp. 128-41. "Part Three: Texts" includes papers by Marvin L. Chaney, Micah--Models Matter: Political Economy and Micah 6:9-15, pp. 145-60; John H. Elliott, Deuteronomy--Shameful Encroachment An illegal intrusion in a highway or navigable river, with or without obstruction. An encroachment upon a street or highway is a fixture, such as a wall or fence, which illegally intrudes into or invades the highway or encloses a portion of it, diminishing its width or area, but on Shameful Parts: Deuteronomy 25:11-12 and Biblical Euphemism eu·phe·mism n. The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: "Euphemisms such as 'slumber room' . . . , pp. 161-76; Richard E. DeMaris and Carolyn S. Leeb, Judges--(Dis)honor and Ritual Enactment: The Jephthah Story: Judges 10:16-12:1, pp. 177-90; Philip F. Esler, 2 Samuel David and the Ammonite ammonite (ăm`ənīt), one of a type of extinct marine cephalopod mollusk, related to the nautilus and resembling it in having an elaborately coiled and chambered shell. War: A Narrative and Social-Scientific Interpretation of 2 Samuel 10-12, pp. 191-207; John J. Pilch, Ezekiel--An Altered State of Consciousness An altered state of consciousness is any condition which is significantly different from a normative waking beta wave state. The expression was coined by Charles Tart and describes induced changes in one's mental state, almost always temporary. Experience: The Call of Ezekiel: 1-3, pp. 208-22; Anselm C. Hagedorn, Nahum--Ethnicity and Stereotypes: Anthropological Insights into Nahum's Literary History, pp. 223-39; Mario I. Aguilar, Maccabees--Symbolic Wars and Age Sets: The Anthropology of War in 1 Maccabees, pp. 240-53; Jutta Jokiranta, Qumran--The Prototypical Teacher in the Qumran Pesharim: A Social-Identity Approach, pp. 254-63. "Part Four: Hermeneutics hermeneutics, the theory and practice of interpretation. During the Reformation hermeneutics came into being as a special discipline concerned with biblical criticism. " contains papers by Douglas E. Oakman, Biblical Hermeneutics--Marcion's Truth and a Developmental Perspective, pp. 267-82; Bruce J. Malina, Interfaith Dialogue--Challenging the Received View, pp. 283-95; Andrew D. H. Mayes, Psychology--Moses and Monotheism monotheism (mŏn`əthēĭzəm) [Gr.,=belief in one God], in religion, a belief in one personal god. In practice, monotheistic religion tends to stress the existence of one personal god that unifies the universe. : The Future of Freud's Illusion, pp. 296-308. The volume concludes with a unified bibliography for all the essays plus Indexes of Ancient Texts and Names. The volume is a helpful, concrete orientation to the use of social-scientific methods in First Testament studies, going well beyond theoretical discussions of various methods. After the two foundational essays, which defend the use of social-scientific models and survey the history of social-scientific analysis of the First Testament, the rest of the contributions provide explicit illustrations of the relevance of different social-scientific "themes" (Part Two), the exegetical ex·e·get·ic also ex·e·get·i·cal adj. Of or relating to exegesis; critically explanatory. ex insights that can be derived from applying social-scientific methodologies to specific texts (Part Three), and the hermeneutical value of such methods (Part Four). Space limitations prevent detailed comments on every essay; so I will mention just two that are indicative of the kinds of insights this volume contains. Zeba Crook's essay on reciprocity reciprocity In international trade, the granting of mutual concessions on tariffs, quotas, or other commercial restrictions. Reciprocity implies that these concessions are neither intended nor expected to be generalized to other countries with which the contracting parties demonstrates that social scientific models can be adapted to account for additional data. He shows how the patron-client model used to understand Greco-Roman situations, including the Second Testament literature, does not fully account for the ancient Israelite context, but that broadening the model to encompass other forms of "asymmetrical exchange" allows one to account for the Covenant motif underlying some First Testament texts. Another striking example is how Marvin Chaney combines traditional text-critical methodology with knowledge of the eighth century BCE BCE abbr. 1. Bachelor of Chemical Engineering 2. Bachelor of Civil Engineering BCE Abbreviation for before the Common Era. Israelite political economy to establish a critical text of Micah 6:9-15 that reflects its historical context, yielding a number of new insights. As with most anthologies there is some lack of uniformity among the essays. This is to be expected with separate focuses in each chapter, but it is unfortunate, for example, that immediately after Crook's argument against uncritically applying patron-client relationships to the First Testament the very next (edited) essay does exactly that without any indication of Crook's cautions. Nonetheless, this volume is still a valuable resource for students and scholars seeking concrete illustrations of how valuable social-scientific analysis of the First Testament can be. John L. McLaughlin University of St. Michael's College The University of St. Michael's College (USMC), often referred to as St. Michael's or St. Mike's, is a federated college in the University of Toronto. It is one of two Roman Catholic colleges within the university (the other being Regis College) and the only one at Toronto, ON MSS 1J4, Canada 
Clef Riverson (Member): 10/15/2007 5:06 AM
<br><br>In reading and learning about the Hebrew people in biblical times, connections and similarities can be drawn to other surrounding cultures in the area. The Hebrew people were not an immensely populated people, and so it seems natural that they should have drawn on cultural themes and images and stories from the great nations around them.<br><br> In looking at the Old Testament story of the Great Flood, common language and elements of the story are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a text that precedes any original biblical text by many years. Even this version of the flood found in the story of Gilgamesh is not the original- elements of this story are connected to a different hero of the same culture, using a different character. Gilgamesh was an Akkadian hero who lived approximately the second millennium BCE. The story of the flood in this culture teaches that one particular God seemed bent on destroying all of mankind, and Utnapishtim (the main character) was only saved by the kindness of the God of wisdom, who warned Utnapishtim about the looming destructing. Onto a boat, Utnapishtim takes two kinds of each animal, to repopulate to earth after the flood. This is similar to the Genesis story of the flood only to a certain point. Yes, both have themes of Godly anger, bent on destroying mankind, but in the Hebrew story, God chooses Noah to carry on the goodness that mankind is supposed to become. Both main characters send out a dove at first to find dry land, both are promised that drastic measures such as this will never be taken again by the deities. <br><br>Differences ring through in the role of Gods in the stories. In the Akkadian story, humans only survive because of the goodness and wisdom of one of the Gods. In the Hebrew story, Noah is chosen because he alone among all other humans is good and upright. This difference teaches a different lesson in the end of the stories. The Akkadian story tells more of the story of God’s quick temper and mankind’s reliance on deities to help them. The Hebrew story tells a story of God’s kindness and preservation of his people, even when the majority were wicked. The Hebrew story also places the cause of the flood on mankind, not in the hands of a wicked God.<br><br>The Hebrew believed that God spoke, and creation was born. Some Egyptian cults also held similar beliefs. The God Ptah spoke, and created other gods into being. The order in which things, elements of our world, were created is also very similar between these two cultures. Earth from sky, water from land, plants, animals. Than in the Egyptian tradition, more Gods were created where as man and woman came about next in the Hebrew story. <br><br>Many cultures in this area had the idea that out of water came something of great power. Both had life coming out of a great watery abyss. I think this was that was for a few reasons. One- life is sustained by water. Without water, these desert people would die. People lived primarily in places with the most water, and water was a gift from the Gods(or God). Whether it came from the ground or a river or a mountaintop, water gave life. Second- the Mediterranean wasn’t exactly something that a group of people would launch themselves into. These were cultures that at first did not travel by water, and so to have this vast expanse of wholly undrinkable water might be rather daunting to a society. <br>
thank you for helping me theological education |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion