Bøger i Library of Ancient Israel serien

Niels Peter Lemche focuses on the way Israelites understood themselves at different points in history--before, within, and after the monarchy. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Israel's rich history.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology...

This new volume in the Library of Ancient Israel series argues that, while the laws in the Hebrew Bible tend to reflect the interests of those in power, the majority of the ancient Israelites developed unwritten customary laws to regulate behavior and resolve legal conflicts in their own communities. The book includes numerous examples from village, city, and cult.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate 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 insights for a wide variety of readers.

Joseph Blenkinsopp investigates three forms of biblical Israel's intellectual and religious leadership: the sage, the priest, and the prophet. The people who occupied these roles were directly responsible for what has appeared in the Old Testament texts. Blenkinsopp looks at the development and character of these roles and how they functioned in their particular time and place. Based on sociological insights regarding role theory and audience expectations, the book demonstrates how Israel's prophets, priests, and sages represented their own traditions while responding to the political and professional pressures of their unique situations. These persons were responsible for the intellectual leadership of Israel and of formative Judaism, including matters of religion as well as the wider culture. This investigation will lead to a keener understanding of the literature of the Old Testament and the society in which it evolved. It will also shed light on how certain religious traditions originated and how they have developed.

In this volume, Norman Gottwald reconstructs the politics of ancient Israel within the larger political environment of the ancient Near East. He questions the prevailing view that the Hebrew Bible, supported by archeological evidence when necessary, should be the primary source to diagram the evolution of Israel's political history. Along with...

Patrich D. Miller investigates the role religion played in the family, village, tribe, and nation-state of ancient Israel. 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. He makes extensive use of both epigraphic and artifactual...

This book is an essential resource for understanding the question of the Bible's relationship to orality. Susan Niditch offers a strong argument for the continuity of the literature of the Israelites. She helps the modern reader look at the Bible as living words, breathing life into us daily, instead of seeing the text as a foregone...

Scribes and Schools is an examination of the processes which led to the canonization of the Hebrew Bible. Philip Davies sheds light on the social reasons for the development of the canon and in so doing presents a clear picture of how the Bible came into being.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as...

In this first volume of the Library of Ancient Israel series, Joseph Blenkinsopp investigates three forms of biblical Israel's intellectual and religious leadership: the sage, the priest, and the prophet. The people who occupied these roles were directly responsible for what appears in the Old Testament text. Blenkinsopp looks at the development of these roles and how they functioned in their particular time and place. This investigation will lead to a keener understanding of the literature of the Old Testament and the society in which it evolved.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate 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 insights for a wide variety of readers.