Semeia 87: The Social World of the Hebrew Bible: Twenty-five years of the Social Sciences in the Academy

275 Pages·1999·0.96 MB·English

by  Ronald A. Simkins

Semeiais an experimental journal devoted to the exploration of new and emergent areas
and methods of biblical criticism. Proposals for volumes employing the methods,
models, and findings of linguistics, folklore studies, contemporary literary criticism,
structuralism, social anthropology, and other such disciplines and approaches are invited.
Although experimental in both form and content, Semeiaproposes to publish work that
reflects a well-defined methodology that is appropriate to the material being interpreted.
Semeiais complemented by Semeia Studies,also published by the Society of Biblical
Literature. As a monograph series, Semeia Studiesencourages publication of more elabo-
rate explorations of new and emergent approaches to the study of the Bible.
founding editor(1974–1980): Robert W. Funk
general editor: David Jobling, St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon
editor forSemeia Studies: Danna Nolan Fewell, Theological School, Drew
University
associate editors: Athalya Brenner, University of Amsterdam; Sheila Briggs, University
of Southern California; Musa Dube, University of Botswana; Danna Nolan Fewell (Semeia
Studies Editor), Theological School, Drew University; David M. Gunn, Texas Christian
University; Richard A. Horsley, University of Massachusetts; Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Grad-
uate Theological Union; Stephen D. Moore, Theological School, Drew University; Tina
Pippin, Agnes Scott College; Adele Reinhartz, McMaster University; Fernando Segovia,
VanderbiltUniversity; Yvonne M. Sherwood, Glasgow University; Abraham Smith, An-
dover Newton Theological School; R. S. Sugirtharajah, University of Birmingham, UK;
Gerald O. West, University of Natal; Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School.
assistant to the general editor: Audrey Swan, University of Saskatchewan
Issues of Semeia are unified around a central theme and edited by members of
the editorial board or guest editors. Future themes and editors are given at the back of
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David Jobling, St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon, SK S7N OW3, Canada.
Inquiries or manuscripts for Semeia Studies should be sent to the series editor:
Danna Nolan Fewell, Theological School, Drew University, Madison, NJ 07940.
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SEMEIA 87
T S W H B :
HE OCIAL ORLD OF THE EBREW IBLE
T -F Y S
WENTY IVE EARS OF THE OCIAL
S A
CIENCES IN THE CADEMY
Guest Editors: Ronald A. Simkins and
Stephen L. Cook
Board Editor: Athalya Brenner
© 1999
by the Society of Biblical Literature
Published Quarterly by
THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
825 Houston Mill Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
Printed in the United States of America
on acid free paper
the social world of the hebrew bible semeia 87
CONTENTS
Contributors to this Issue......................................................................................v
Introduction: Case Studies from the Second Wave of Research
in the Social World of the Hebrew Bible
Stephen L. Cook and Ronald A. Simkins.......................................... 1
CASESTUDIES
1.Ancient Perceptions of Space/Perceptions of Ancient Space
James W. Flanagan..............................................................................15
2.In the Shadow of Cain
Paula M. McNutt................................................................................ 45
3.The Gift in Ancient Israel
Gary Stansell........................................................................................65
4.The Unwanted Gift: Implications of Obligatory Gift Giving
in Ancient Israel
Victor H. Matthews............................................................................ 91
5.Whose Sour Grapes? The Addressees of Isaiah 5:1–7 in the
Light of Political Economy
Marvin L. Chaney..............................................................................105
6.Patronage and the Political Economy of Monarchic Israel
Ronald A. Simkins............................................................................ 123
7.The Lineage Roots of Hosea’s Yahwism
Stephen L. Cook................................................................................ 145
8.To Shame or Not to Shame: Sexuality in the Mediterranean Diaspora
Susan A. Brayford............................................................................ 163
9.Gender, Class, and the Social-Scientific Study of Genesis 2–3
Gale A. Yee........................................................................................ 177
10.Ideology, Pierre Bourdieu’s Doxa,and the Hebrew Bible
Jacques Berlinerblau..........................................................................193
11.Confronting Redundancy As Middle Manager and Wife:
The Feisty Woman of Genesis 39
Heather A. McKay............................................................................ 215
RESPONSES
12.Reconstructing Ancient Israel’s Social World
Frank S. Frick.................................................................................... 233
13.Twenty-Five Years and Counting
Norman K. Gottwald........................................................................255
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
Jacques Berlinerblau Victor H. Matthews
(Hofstra University) Department of Religious Studies
311 Greenwich St. #9E Southwest Missouri State University
New York, NY 10013 Springfield, MO 65804
[email protected] [email protected]
Susan A. Brayford Heather A. McKay
Centenary College of Louisiana Religious Studies Department
426 Coventry Ct. Edge Hill College of Higher Education
Shreveport, LA 71115 Ormskirk L39 4QP
[email protected] United Kingdom
[email protected]
Marvin L. Chaney
San Francisco Theological Seminary Paula M. McNutt
2 Kensington Rd. Department of Religious Studies
San Anselmo, CA 94960 Canisius College
[email protected] 2001 Main St.
Buffalo, NY 14208
Stephen L. Cook [email protected]
Virginia Theological Seminary
3737 Seminary Rd. Ronald A. Simkins
Alexandria, VA 22304 Theology Department
[email protected] Creighton University
Omaha, NE 68178
James W. Flanagan [email protected]
Department of Religion
Mather House Gary Stansell
Case Western Reserve University St. Olaf College
Cleveland, OH 44106 Northfield, MN 55057
[email protected] [email protected]
Frank S. Frick Gale A. Yee
Department of Religious Studies Episcopal Divinity School
Albion College 99 Brattle St.
Albion, MI 49224 Cambridge, MA 02138
[email protected] [email protected]
Norman K. Gottwald
(Pacific School of Religion)
765 Hilldale Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94708
[email protected]

INTRODUCTION: CASESTUDIESFROMTHESECONDWAVE
OFRESEARCHINTHESOCIALWORLDOFTHEHEBREWBIBLE
Stephen L. Cook Ronald A. Simkins
Virginia Theological Seminary Creighton University
The Social Sciences in Biblical Interpretation
The present volume appears in conjunction with the twenty-fifth
anniversary of sessions in the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) exploring
the use of the social sciences in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. In
1975, Norman Gottwald and Frank Frick cochaired the first program unit in
the SBL devoted to the use of the social sciences in biblical studies. The
“Consultation on the Social World of Ancient Israel” had two objectives. It
sought (1) to identify emerging (and reemerging) types of sociological study
of the Hebrew Bible in relation to other forms of biblical study. In addition,
it aimed (2) to explore the potentialities and implications of sociological
method for the understanding of biblical Israel. Since this initial consulta-
tion, the aim of incorporating social-scientific methods and theories into
biblical studies has played a prominent role in successive and multiple SBL
program units. Gottwald and Frick’s consultation was followed by the
formation of a group on the “Social World of Ancient Israel,” which they
also chaired. James Flanagan then joined Frick in cochairing a seminar on
the “Sociology of the Monarchy in Ancient Israel.” Flanagan went on to
chair with others the “Constructs of Ancient History and Religion” and
“Constructs of the Social and Cultural World of Antiquity” groups. By 1990,
the SBL had recognized the established place of social-scientific criticism in
the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible with the formation of the “Social
Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures” section, under the
initial leadership of Frick, but now chaired by Stephen Cook.1
The use of the social sciences in biblical interpretation traces back, of
course, to the pioneering work of W. Robertson Smith. Early practitioners
included Louis Wallis and the “Chicago School,” Johannes Pedersen,
1On the New Testament side, a consultation on “Social Scientific Criticism of the New Tes-
tament” began in 1983. The “Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section” was
founded in 1985 under the leadership of Bruce Malina. The section has been renewed three
times and is currently chaired by Douglas Oakman and Dennis Duling.
-1-
2 semeia
Roland de Vaux, and Antonin Causse. These scholars, however, either did
not develop a viable social-scientific agenda for biblical scholarship or did
not give sufficient attention to social-scientific method and theory. More-
over, the contemporary scholarly atmosphere, which was conditioned by
traditional European biblical scholarship, neo-orthodoxy, and the Biblical
Theology movement, was mostly unconducive to social-scientific research
programs. This “first wave” of social-scientific research thus failed to stimu-
late a wider program of social inquiry in biblical scholarship.
Frank Frick, in his response in this volume, traces the beginning of a
“second wave” of social-scientific research to George Mendenhall’s 1962 essay,
“The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine.” In this essay, Mendenhall consciously
constructed a new ideal model for explaining the historical process of the
Israelites’ establishment in Palestine within an economic, sociological, and
political framework. This essay challenged long-held assumptions and gave
expression to a growing dissatisfaction with the limits of historical biblical
criticism. Due to these combined qualities, the essay stimulated new modes
of social-scientific inquiry in the biblical field, which were championed a
decade later in the “Consultation” chaired by Gottwald and Frick.
Various developments since 1975 have facilitated the acceptance and
growth of social-scientific approaches in the scholarly study of the Hebrew
Bible. James Flanagan in this volume associates the renewed interest in the
social sciences with the founding of new academic publications. Scholars
Press was established in 1974, and the experimental journal Semeiaalso first
appeared in that year. The Journal for the Study of the Old Testamentbegan pub-
lishing in 1976, and Almond Press followed three years later in 1979. These
and other publication outlets became significant forums for disseminating the
scholarship of the new SBL program units utilizing the social sciences.
Attention to the social world of the biblical texts at our SBL social-
science sessions and in the publication outlets just described has clarified
innumerable obscurities and enigmas. Social-scientific models and cross-
cultural comparisons have continued to round out the sparse social and
historical data of the biblical texts, bridging gaps in our knowledge left open
by historical-critical and literary-critical methods. Due in significant measure
to SBL units utilizing the social sciences, biblical scholars are asking a far
broader range of questions about Israelite society than was the case two
decades ago. In significant ways, these developments move beyondmodernist,
historical criticism. Many scholars are increasingly aware of the social
construction of biblical texts—that they more closely reflect the social prac-
tices, structures, and concepts of the ancient Israelites than objective
historical events and chronologies. Social forces, not merely discrete historical
events and actions, shaped the biblical texts.
Recently, at the 1999 meeting of the SBL in Boston, the “Social Sciences
and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures” section celebrated the