Social Justice And The Hebrew Bible Volume Three

PART 1: EXAMINING TEXTS 1. Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament 2. Kingship in the Book of Psalms 3. Abusing the Bible: The Case of Deuteronomy 15 4. Do not Fear What They Fear: A Post-9/11 Reflection(Isaiah 8:11–15) 5. The Expropriated and the Expropriators in Nehemiah 5 6. How Do Extrabiblical Sociopolitical Data Illuminate Obscure Biblical Texts? The Case of Ecclesiastes 5:8–9 [Heb. 5:7–8] 7. On the Alleged Wisdom of Kings: An Application of Adorno’s Immanent Criticism to Ecclesiastes PART 2: ENGAGING PRACTICES 8. Framing Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary: A Student Self Inventory on Biblical Hermeneutics 9. Theological Education as a Theory-Praxis Loop: Situating the Book of Joshua in a Cultural, Social Ethical, and Theological Matrix 10. The Bible as Nurturer of Passive and Active Worldviews 11. Biblical Scholarship in Public Discourse 12. On Framing Elections: The Stories We Tell Ourselves 13. Values and Economic Structures

CONTENTS PART 1: THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL Early Israel as an Anti-Imperial Community The Origins of Israel as a Textual Models for Envisioning Early Israel Triumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and Dever Historical Description versus Historical Representation and Symbol The Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient Israel Proto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient Israel Revisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five Years PART 2: THE POLITICS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL Religion and Politics: Early Israel and Judaism The Puzzling Politics of Ancient Israel The Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual Theologies PART 3: REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS Forward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on Terror Reflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah’s Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and The Bible and the Third Way: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters Review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism Review of Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel Review of Philip R. Davies, The Origins of Biblical Israel Panel Presentation on Joshua A. Berman, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought

PART 1: EXAMINING TEXTS 1. Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament 2. Kingship in the Book of Psalms 3. Abusing the Bible: The Case of Deuteronomy 15 4. Do not Fear What They Fear: A Post-9/11 Reflection(Isaiah 8:11-15) 5. The Expropriated and the Expropriators in Nehemiah 5 6. How Do Extrabiblical Sociopolitical Data Illuminate Obscure Biblical Texts? The Case of Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 [Heb. 5:7-8] 7. On the Alleged Wisdom of Kings: An Application of Adorno's Immanent Criticism to Ecclesiastes PART 2: ENGAGING PRACTICES 8. Framing Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary: A Student Self Inventory on Biblical Hermeneutics 9. Theological Education as a Theory-Praxis Loop: Situating the Book of Joshua in a Cultural, Social Ethical, and Theological Matrix 10. The Bible as Nurturer of Passive and Active Worldviews 11. Biblical Scholarship in Public Discourse 12. On Framing Elections: The Stories We Tell Ourselves 13. Values and Economic Structures

Malchow demonstrates that Israel did not originate the concept of social justice. Rather, it drew its resources for overcoming injustice from Near Eastern thought on the subject. By combining its own ideas of social justice with those of its neighbors, Israel's people fought injustice with what was "new" and what was "old".

CONTENTS PART 1: THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL Early Israel as an Anti-Imperial Community The Origins of Israel as a Textual Models for Envisioning Early Israel Triumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and Dever Historical Description versus Historical Representation and Symbol The Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient Israel Proto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient Israel Revisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five Years PART 2: THE POLITICS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL Religion and Politics: Early Israel and Judaism The Puzzling Politics of Ancient Israel The Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual Theologies PART 3: REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS Forward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on Terror Reflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah's Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and The Bible and the Third Way: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters Review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism Review of Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel Review of Philip R. Davies, The Origins of Biblical Israel Panel Presentation on Joshua A. Berman, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought

CONTENTS PART 1: METHODS, MODELS, AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES What Does Sociology Have to Do with The Bible? The Bible and Economic Ethics Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian Reading Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy Periodization, Interactive Power Networks, and Teleogical Constraints in Hebrew Bible Studies Icelandic and Israelite Beginnings: A Comparative Probe Structure and Origin of the Early Israelite and Iroquois "Confederacies" PART 2: TRIBUTES TO COLLEAGUES James Muilenburg: Superlative Teacher David Jobling: Fearless Frontiersman Marvin L. Chaney, Master Social Critic Jack Elliott: Breacher of Boundaries

The Book of Jonah is a unique text in the Jewish canon. Among the shortest books in the Bible, it is also one of the most mysterious and morally ambiguous. Who is this prophet running from God, hiding at the bottom of the ocean? Why does he struggle with God's mission to save and forgive Israel's enemies? In this volume, Rabbi Dr. Yanklowitz shows that the Book of Jonah delivers a message of human responsibility in a shared world. Illuminating such contemporary ethical issues as animal welfare, incarceration, climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and Jewish-Muslim relations, this social justice commentary urges us to join in repairing a broken world--a call that we, unlike Jonah, must hasten to answer.

Can the Old Testament help us in keeping the excesses of capitalism in check? How can a book that goes on about "justice and righteousness," but says "there will always be poor people in the land" and accepts slavery have anything to say to us about social justice? Did kings of Israel draft their subjects--and which subjects--for forced labor? What does it mean when the Psalms say God is coming to judge the world? Is charity justice?--or is justice more than charity? Does Genesis give us the right to use the earth and its creatures as we like? These are some of the questions that Walter Houston asks, and tries to answer, in this book of essays from his work over the last twenty-five years.