Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible
    Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible
    Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible

    By Norman K. Gottwald

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This brief volume brings together three of Norman Gottwald's classic essays that address issues of social class and ideology as they pertain to the interpretation of the biblical documents. The small format makes them useful for classroom and small-group use, providing definitions, theoretical concerns, and applications to specific texts. The author has been a leader in the social-scientific analysis of the Bible for almost fifty years.

    Contents
    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
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCascade Books
    Release dateJan 22, 2018
    ISBN9781498290593
    Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible
    Author

    Norman K. Gottwald

    Norman K. Gottwald, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at New York Theological Seminary, is the author of numerous groundbreaking works, including The Tribes of Yahweh, The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-literary Introduction, and Politics in Ancient Israel.

    Read more from Norman K. Gottwald

    Related to Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Defining Evangelical

      Dec 7, 2015

      Defining Evangelical
      5 min read

    • Article

      Defender Of The Faith

      Nov 26, 2020

      Defender Of The Faith
      7 min read

    • Article

      True Believer

      Mar 26, 2019

      True Believer
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Last Victorian Sage

      Jan 2, 2020

      The Last Victorian Sage
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readings: Seeing The Future

      Oct 6, 2023

      By Michael A. Flower University of California Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-0520252295 A comprehensive study of the position of the seer in ancient Greek society, from itinerant diviners to seers’ role in the ancient Greek military. Flower's discussion cover

      2 min read

    • Article

      Convert Nation

      Aug 12, 2017

      Convert Nation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: The ‘Outpouring’

      Mar 28, 2023

      Wilmore, KY – The secular and cynical find it difficult to believe not only that “God governs in the affairs of men,” as Benjamin Franklin said, but that He would visit a small town where there are few traffic lights and a decent restaurant is severa

      2 min read

    • Article

      James H. Cone, Founder Of Black Liberation Theology, Dies At 79

      Apr 28, 2018

      The Arkansas native is remembered for his fierce challenges to traditional Christian norms of his era.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mary Baker Eddy Founded A Religion With Equality At Its Core

      Aug 7, 2020

      Her work to establish the Christian Science religion upset notions of an all-male clergy, and embraced God as feminine as well as masculine.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Spiritual Or Atheist? More Nonbelievers Are Saying ‘Both.’

      Mar 11, 2019

      In a letter up for auction, Albert Einstein talked about admiring “in humility the beautiful harmony of the structure of the world.” More nonbelievers say they are seeking a sense of awe and reverence in their own lives.

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Sanctuary Of Social And Spiritual Justice: Commentary On Ebenezer Church

      Dec 11, 2020

      Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King preached, has come under threat during the Georgia Senate runoff.

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Trump Era, What Does It Mean to Be an 'Evangelical'?

      Dec 28, 2017

      For many Christian conservatives, the term 'evangelical' is now more of a political identifier than a doctrinal one – which has led some high-profile religious leaders to question or even abandon the term.

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ideology, Class, and the Hebrew Bible - Norman K. Gottwald

      9781498290586.kindle.jpg

      Ideology, Class, & the Hebrew Bible

      Norman K. Gottwald

      IDEOLOGY, CLASS, AND THE HEBREW BIBLE

      Copyright © 2018 Norman K. Gottwald. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Cascade Books

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9058-6

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-9060-9

      ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9059-3

      Cataloging-in-Publication data:

      Names: Gottwald, Norman K. (Norman Karol), 1926–.

      Title: Ideology, class, and the Hebrew Bible / Norman K. Gottwald.

      Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-9058-6 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-9060-9 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-9059-3 (ebook).

      Subjects: LCSH: Ideology—Religious aspects | Social classes | Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.

      Classification: BS511.3 G68 2018 (print) | BS511.3 (ebook).

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Abbreviations

      Acknowledgments

      Preface

      Chapter 1: Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies

      Chapter 2: Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40–55

      Chapter 3: Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy

      Abbreviations

      ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. Edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992

      BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin

      CLBSJS Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Series

      CMP Communitarian Mode of Production

      FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature

      JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

      JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

      JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements

      LAI Library of Ancient Israel

      Matrix Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context

      OTL Old Testament Library

      SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series

      SWBA Social World of Biblical Antiquity

      TMP Tributary Mode of Production

      Acknowledgments

      Chapter 1: Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies (Presidential Address), was first published in JBL 112.1 (1993) 3–22.

      Chapter 2: Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40–55: An Eagletonian Reading, was first published in Semeia 59 (1992) 43–57.

      Chapter 3: Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy, was first published in Prophets and Paradigms: Essays in Honor of Gene M. Tucker, edited by Stephen Breck Reid, 136–49. JSOTSup 229. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1996.

      The essays in this volume are excerpted from:

      Norman K. Gottwald, Social Justice and the Hebrew Bible. Vol. 1. CLBSJS 2. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016.

      Preface

      The terms class and ideology are more than a little alien to public discourse in America. How could it be otherwise since politics, education, and media have long insisted that the U.S. does not display social class much less social conflict? And ideology is little more than a handy slur to dismiss someone’s argument as delusive or dangerous.

      Instead, even when the economy cries out for class analysis and grossly ideological nostrums guide policy, we still prefer to speak of social strata or income levels and of the working poor or the 1% almost as if they are facts of nature rather than historically constructed systems of oppression.

      Or, another ploy is to describe class in terms of standard of living or a matter of taste or consumption habits—a way of life all of us have equal opportunity to attain if we are willing to pursue it relentlessly.

      There is no doubt that economic oppression accompanied political oppression in ancient societies. For this ancient oppression, class is the proper term insofar as a small faction of people lived off the uncompensated labor of others. Capitalism is a refinement of this process by generating wealth on an accumulating basis—chiefly through inheritance and the one-sided appropriation of wealth from hired labor.

      A crude version of this exploitation was from outside in the form of conquest and tribute. Much of it was inside through taxes, rents, debt foreclosure, and judicial bribery.

      Ideology, then as now, served to explain and justify the right of a few to enjoy the goods of life far beyond the reach of the many. Sometimes this ideology took a directly religious form, contending that it was the will of the gods—or the sole God—to privilege a caste of humans to serve as agents of the divine will.

      In this context, it can be shown—as the following essays propose to do—that class and its justifying ideology were operative in ancient Israel. It can also be claimed—as these essays also propose to do—that the liberative element in Israel’s religion consisted of a steadfast impulse to eliminate or reduce oppression of all sorts that pitted people one against the other in a zero-sum game that some aspects of religion still supported and exacerbated.

      One of the significant contributions of the social-scientific study of the Hebrew Bible has been the work of scholars in the field who are working creatively with the analytical and hermeneutical categories of class and ideology.

      In collaboration with K. C. Hanson, I list here a number of works that demonstrate the range and vitality of this development in biblical studies:

      Bible

      Bible and Culture Collective. The Postmodern Bible. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

      Dykstra, Laurel. The Top 100 Books on the Bible and Social Justice. In Liberating Bible Study, edited by Laurel Dykstra and Ched Myers, 223–45. CLBSJS 1. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011.

      Dykstra, Laurel, and Ched Myers, eds. Liberating Bible Study. Scholarship, Art, and Action in Honor of the Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice. CLBSJS 1. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011.

      Gottwald, Norman K., and Richard A. Horsley, eds. The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Hermeneutics. Rev. ed. Bible and Liberation Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993.

      Jobling, David, Peggy L. Day, and Gerald T. Sheppard, eds. The Bible and the Politics of Exegesis: Essays in Honor of Norman K. Gottwald on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1991.

      Miranda, José Porfirio. Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression. Translated by John Eagleson. 1974. Reprint, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004.

      Pilch, John J., and Bruce J. Malina, eds. Handbook of Biblical Social Values. 3rd ed. Matrix 10. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016.

      Schottroff, Willy, and Wolfgang Stegemann, eds. God of the Lowly: Socio-historical Interpretation of the Bible. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984.

      West, Gerald O. The Academy of the Poor: Towards a Dialogical Reading of the Bible. Interventions 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998.

      Hebrew Bible

      Berman, Joshua. Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

      Bird, Phyllis. Missing Persons and Mistaken Identities: Women and Gender in Ancient Israel. Overtures to Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.

      Boer, Roland E. The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel. LAI. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015.

      Carter, Charles E., and Carol L. Meyers, eds. Community, Identity, and Ideology: Social Science Approaches to the Hebrew Bible. Sources for Biblical and Theological Study 6. Winona Lake, IN: Eisebrauns, 1996.

      Chaney, Marvin L. Peasants, Prophets, and Political Economy: The Hebrew Bible and Social Analysis. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017.

      Coote, Robert B., and Mary P. Coote. Power, Politics, and the Making of the Bible: An Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.

      Coote, Robert B., and Norman K. Gottwald, eds. To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1