Peasants, Prophets, and Political Economy: The Hebrew Bible and Social Analysis

by Marvin L. Chaney

Overview

Contents 1 Ancient Palestinian Peasant Movements and the Formation of Premonarchic Israel 2 Joshua 3 Coveting Your Neighbor's House in Social Context 4 Systemic Study of the Israelite Monarchy 5 Debt Easement in Israelite History and Tradition 6 The Political Economy of Peasant Poverty 7 Bitter Bounty: The Dynamics of Political Economy Critiqued by the Eighth-Century Prophets 8 Whose Sour Grapes? The Addressees of Isaiah 5:1-7 9 Accusing Whom of What? Hosea's Rhetoric of Promiscuity 10 Producing Peasant Poverty: Debt Instruments in Amos 2:6b-8, 13-16 11 Micah--Models Matter: Political Economy and Micah 6:9-15 12 Review of Roland Boer, The Sacred Economy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532604423
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	10/12/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	316
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Marvin L. Chaney is Nathaniel Gray Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary (emeritus). In addition to his articles and essays, he published Biblical Israel through an Agrarian Lens (in Korean), and coedited Distant Voices Drawing Near, and Reading a Tendentious Bible.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Abbreviations ix

1 Ancient Palestinian Peasant Movements and the Formation of Premonarchic Israel 1

2 Joshua and the Deuteronomistic History 51

3 Coveting Your Neighbor's House in Social Context 67

4 Systemic Study of the Israelite Monarchy 83

5 Debt Easement in Israelite History and Tradition 106

6 The Political Economy of Peasant Poverty 121

7 Bitter Bounty: The Dynamics of Political Economy Critiqued by the Eighth-Century Prophets 147

8 Whose Sour Grapes? The Addressees of Isaiah 5:1-7 160

9 Accusing Whom of What? Hosea's Rhetoric of Promiscuity 175

10 Producing Peasant Poverty: Debt Instruments in Amos 2:6b-8,13-16 191

11 Micah-Models Matter: Political Economy and Micah 6:9-15 205

12 Korea and Israel: Historical Analogy and Old Testament Interpretation 220

13 Some Choreographic Notes on the Dance of Theory with Data: A Response to Roland Boer, The Sacred Economy 243

Acknowledgments 251

Bibliography 253

Scripture Index 277

Author Index 290

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In ways almost unnoticed by the larger interpretive community, Marvin Chaney has worked relentlessly and tirelessly and with great erudition and theological sensibility to contribute to a major revolution in Old Testament study. Against the uncritical practice of modernist reading marked by individualism and romantic spirituality, Chaney has insisted on the materiality of the Bible and its defining concern for political economy. The essays in this volume bear witness to his thought and growing conviction about this radical interpretive reorientation. The collection is of immense importance not only for historical reason, but because it constitutes a wake-up call in our own highly contested political economy to read the Bible knowingly and critically. Our debt to Chaney is very great for bringing these great essays back into our contemporary conversation. They continue to challenge our reading habits in important ways.”

—Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

Editorial Reviews

In ways almost unnoticed by the larger interpretive community, Marvin Chaney has worked relentlessly and tirelessly and with great erudition and theological sensibility to contribute to a major revolution in Old Testament study. Against the uncritical practice of modernist reading marked by individualism and romantic spirituality, Chaney has insisted on the materiality of the Bible and its defining concern for political economy. The essays in this volume bear witness to his thought and growing conviction about this radical interpretive reorientation. The collection is of immense importance not only for historical reason, but because it constitutes a wake-up call in our own highly contested political economy to read the Bible knowingly and critically. Our debt to Chaney is very great for bringing these great essays back into our contemporary conversation. They continue to challenge our reading habits in important ways.”

—Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

From the Publisher