Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East

Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East

Author: Moshe Weinfeld

Publisher: Hebrew University Magnes Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13:

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In this fascinating and informative work, Weinfeld investigates the ideal of justice in relation to social reforms promoted by Israelite monarchy, the implications of the ideal in individual life, and the theological implications of all aspects of the concept.


Old Testament Theology

Old Testament Theology

Author: John Goldingay

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-10-26

Total Pages: 913

ISBN-13: 0830825630

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In this third volume of his critically acclaimed Old Testament Theology John Goldingay explores the Old Testament vision of Israel's life before God. The first volume focused on the story of God's dealings with Israel, or Israel's gospel. The second volume investigated the beliefs of Israel, or Israel's faith. Now the spotlight falls on the Old Testament's perspective on the life that Israel should live in its present and future, including its worship, prayer and spirituality, as well as its practices, attitudes and ethics before God. Goldingay sees three spheres of life giving order to Israel's vision: its life in relation to God, its life in community and the life of the individual as a self. Within these frameworks he unfurls a tapesetry that is as broad and colorful as all of life, and yet detailed in its intricate attention to the text. With this final volume John Goldingay has given us the third pillar of an Old Testament theology that is monumental in scope and yet invites us to enter through multiple doors to explore its riches. Students will profit from a semester in its courts, and ministers of the Word will find their preaching and teaching deeply enriched by wandering its halls and meditating in its chambers.


The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible

The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible

Author: J. David Pleins

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 610

ISBN-13: 9780664221751

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J. David Pleins presents a sociological study of the Hebrew Bible, seeking to uncover its social vision by examining biblical statements about social ethics. He does this within the framework provided by Israel's social institutions, the social locations of its actors, and the historical struggles for power and survival that are reflected in the transmission of the texts.


Injustice Made Legal

Injustice Made Legal

Author: Harold V. Bennett

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0802825745

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"The scriptural laws dealing with widows, strangers, and orphans are conventionally viewed as rules meant to aid the plight of vulnerable persons in ancient Israelite society. In Injustice Made Legal Harold V. Bennett challenges this perspective, arguing instead that key sanctions found in Deuteronomy were actually drafted by a powerful elite to enhance their own material condition and keep the peasantry down." Building his case on a careful analysis of life in the ancient world and on his understanding of critical law theory, Bennett views Deuteronomic law through the eyes of the needy in Israelite society. His unique approach uncovers the previously neglected link between politico-economic interests and the formulation of law. The result is a new understanding of law in the Hebrew Bible and the ways it worked to support and maintain the dehumanization of widows, strangers, and orphans in the biblical community.


The Prophetic Voice of Amos on Contemporary Social Justice

The Prophetic Voice of Amos on Contemporary Social Justice

Author: Patrick Kofi Amissah

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-09-14

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9004681590

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This volume comprehensively examines all texts dealing with social justice in the Prophecy of Amos. It also provides evidence of contemporary systemic social injustice. The volume then reflects on how biblical social justice is relevant to the contemporary quest for social justice. This volume demonstrates that irrespective of the hermeneutical challenges, the principles gleaned from the pages of the Hebrew Bible can dialogue effectively with modern issues and deduce living principles that could enable us to deal with issues that confront us today. It is thus a framework by which biblical social justice illuminates the contemporary quest for social justice.


A Theology of Justice in Exodus

A Theology of Justice in Exodus

Author: Nathan Bills

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2021-03-03

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1646020693

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This book traces the theme of justice throughout the narrative of Exodus in order to explicate how yhwh’s reclamation of Israel for service-worship reveals a distinct theological ethic of justice grounded in yhwh’s character and Israel’s calling within yhwh’s creational agenda. Adopting a synchronic, text-immanent interpretive strategy that focuses on canonical and inner-biblical connections, Nathan Bills identifies two overlapping motifs that illuminate the theme of justice in Exodus. First, Bills considers the importance of Israel’s creation traditions for grounding Exodus’s theology of justice. Reading Exodus against the backdrop of creation theology and as a continuation of the plot of Genesis, Bills shows that the ethical disposition of justice imprinted on Israel in Exodus is an application of yhwh’s creational agenda of justice. Second, Bills identifies an educational agenda woven throughout the text. The narrative gives heightened attention to the way yhwh catechizes Israel in what it means to be the particular beneficiary and creational emissary of yhwh’s justice. These interpretative lenses of creation theology and pedagogy help to explain why Israel’s salvation and shaping embody a programmatic applicability of yhwh’s justice for the wider world. This volume will be of substantial interest to divinity students and religious professionals interested in the themes of exodus, exile, and return.


What Kind of God?

What Kind of God?

Author: Terence E. Fretheim

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-04-10

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1575067226

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Terence E. Fretheim has long been a leading voice in Old Testament theology. In this volume, thirty of his classic studies have been gathered together for the first time under the rubrics “God and the World”, “God and Suffering”, “God, Wrath, and Divine Violence”, “God and the Pentateuch”, “God and the Prophets”, and “God and the Church’s Book”. Here readers can find a compelling answer to the question that has motivated Fretheim’s work for more than forty years—namely, what kind of God is the God of Scripture? The studies are introduced by a critical overview of Fretheim’s career and theology by the editors and a retrospective by Fretheim himself.


The Politics of Ancient Israel

The Politics of Ancient Israel

Author: Norman Karol Gottwald

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780664219772

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This work offers a reconstruction of the politics of ancient Israel within the wider political environment of the ancient Near East. Gottwald begins by questioning the view of some biblical scholars that the primary factor influencing Israel's political evolution was its religion.


Social Justice in the Hebrew Bible

Social Justice in the Hebrew Bible

Author: Bruce V. Malchow

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 9780814655238

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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".


Contending for Justice

Contending for Justice

Author: Walter Houston

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0567033546

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A fully revised and updated analysis of the texts on social justice in the Old Testament; highlighting their importance in shaping a Christian theological approach to injustice.