Contents 1. Social Criticism and Social Vision in the Deuteronomic Formula of the Judges 2. A Poem of Summons (Isa 55:1-3), a Narrative of Resistance (Dan 1:1-21) 3. Psalms 9-10: A Counter to Conventional Social Reality 4. Prophetic Imagination toward Social Flourishing 5. A Royal Miracle and Its Nachleben 6. The Living Afterlife of a Dead Prophet: Words That Keep Speaking 7. The Tearing of the Curtain: Matthew 27:51 8. Five Strong Rereadings of the Book of Isaiah

Contents 1. Social Criticism and Social Vision in the Deuteronomic Formula of the Judges 2. A Poem of Summons (Isa 55:1-3), a Narrative of Resistance (Dan 1:1-21) 3. Psalms 9-10: A Counter to Conventional Social Reality 4. Prophetic Imagination toward Social Flourishing 5. A Royal Miracle and Its Nachleben 6. The Living Afterlife of a Dead Prophet: Words That Keep Speaking 7. The Tearing of the Curtain: Matthew 27:51 8. Five Strong Rereadings of the Book of Isaiah

J. David Pleins presents a sociological study of the Hebrew Bible, seeking to uncover its social vision by examining biblical statements about social ethics. He does this within the framework provided by Israel's social institutions, the social locations of its actors, and the historical struggles for power and survival that are reflected in the transmission of the texts.

The book begins by providing a brief history and overview of social scientific analysis of the Old Testament, to bring the reader up to speed with the current scholarship. The remaining chapters are divided into three parts. The first part of the book, chapters 3-9, apply social-scientific models to general issues in Old Testament research, issues such as tribalism, polygamy, rituals and in particular sacrifice, the practice of exchange and the acquisition of wealth in the biblical world. Three models of patron and client, limited wealth, and honour and shame are used. The second part, chapters 10-16, apply social-scientific models to particular texts, including Micah 1-3 and Micah 6: 9-15 on economic states, the use of euphemisms for male genetalia in Deuteronomy 25: 11-12 using cross-cultural sociolinguistc research, the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter is examined in an honour and shame framework, examining Judges 10 to 11, and in 2 Samuels 10-13, the social dynamic of challenge and response is examined in relation to David's sacking of Rabbah. Chapter 14 looks at Ezekiel and the call to be a prophet, and uses the social-scientific disciplines of cultural anthropology and cognitive neuroscience to analyse the call, to better understand and appreciate this event. Symbols of war are examined in the final chapter in this part, in Maccabees 1, applying anthropological theories of war. The third part of the book, chapters 18-20, focuses on hermeneutical issues, looking first at psychological interpretations, then identity theory and political interpretations and finally at the role of social sciences as a whole in biblical interpretation. Philip F. Esler is Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK. Among his recent publications are Galatians (1998), Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul's Letter (2003) and, with Jane Boyd, Visuality and Biblical Text: Interpreting Velazquez' Christ with Martha and Mary as a Test Case (2004). He is also editor of The Early Christian World, two volumes (2000).

The historical and literary questions about ancient Israel that traditionally have preoccupied biblical scholars have often overlooked the social realities of life experienced by the vast majority of the population of ancient Israel. Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines -- such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and literary criticism -- to illumine the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of the people behind the Hebrew Bible and interprets these scholarly insights for a wide variety of readers. Individually and collectively, these books will expand our vision of the culture and society of ancient Israel, thereby generating new appreciation for its impact up to the present.Patrick Miller investigates the role religion played in an expanding circle of influences in ancient Israel: the family, village, tribe, and nation-state. He situates Israel's religion in context where a variety of social forces affected beliefs, and where popular cults openly competed with the "official" religion. Miller makes extensive use of both epigraphic and artefactual evidence as he deftly probes the complexities of Iron Age culture and society and their enduring significance for people today.

Collected here in one volume are the best examples of social-scientific Old Testament criticism from the last 20 years of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, an essential introduction to the field. Divided into six sections, this volume presents essays on the central methodological and theoretical issues as well as a series of applications to the study of early Israelite social forms, the formal and informal regulation of life, the distribution of power and justice, and the performance of social roles and the process of group formation. The volume brings home how indispensable a social-science approach is for the reconstruction of the Israelite social world-not to say our own worlds and productions as well, enbodying the finest traditions of classical social theory and the interface with exciting new developments.

Why bother with the interpretive categories of biblical faith when in fact our energy and interest are focused on more immediate matters? The answer is simple and obvious. We linger because, in the midst of our immediate preoccupation with our felt jeopardy and our hope for relief, our imagination does indeed range beyond the immediate to larger, deeper wonderments. Our free-ranging imagination is not finally or fully contained in the immediacy of our stress, anxiety, and jeopardy. Beyond these demanding immediacies, we have a deep sense that our life is not fully contained in the cause-and-effect reasoning of the Enlightenment that seeks to explain and control. There is more than that and other than that to our life in God's world!