A twentieth-anniversary reprint of the landmark book that launched the current explosion of social-scientific studies in the biblical field. It sets forth a cultural-material methodology for reconstructing the origins of ancient Israel and offers the hypothesis that Israel emerged as an indigenous social revolutionary peasant movement. In a new preface, written for this edition, Gottwald takes account of the 'sea change' in biblical studies since 1979 as he reviews the impact of his work on church and academy, assesses its merits and limitations, indicates his present thinking on the subject, and points toward future directions in the social-critical study of ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible.

A twentieth-anniversary reprint of the landmark book that launched the current explosion of social-scientific studies in the biblical field. It sets forth a cultural-material methodology for reconstructing the origins of ancient Israel and offers the hypothesis that Israel emerged as an indigenous social revolutionary peasant movement. In a new preface, written for this edition, Gottwald takes account of the 'sea change' in biblical studies since 1979 as he reviews the impact of his work on church and academy, assesses its merits and limitations, indicates his present thinking on the subject, and points toward future directions in the social-critical study of ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible.

Norman Gottwald's monumental The Tribes of Yahweh caused an immediate sensation when first published in 1979, and its influence has continued to be felt, both in the area of biblical politics and in the application of sociological methods to the Hebrew Bible. This book reflects on the impact and the implications of the work after twenty years. The distinguished contributors are David Jobling, Frank Frick, Charles Carter, Carol Meyers, Jacques Berlinerblau, Itumeleng Mosala, Gerald West, Roland Boer and, in a response to contributors as well as an interview with the editor, Norman Gottwald himself.

Provides a ground-breaking new interpretation with which to consider and contextualize the name Yahweh before its relationship with Israel.