“What we will see time and again is the way preexisting concepts and institutions in ancient Near Eastern culture are reworked according to a new agenda that advocates the attenuation of the socioeconomic hierarchy.” — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“To understand, however, how the received form of the Bible frames and presents them, we do well to refer to the way I introduced… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“One leitmotif in the biblical law codes is an attempt to restructure society in such a way that the exploitative role of tribute paid… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“The Sargon account is written in the first person, as is highly typical for royal narrative inscriptions, whereas the Moses account is written in… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“When economic imbalances became extreme, the lack of equilibrium and viability could threaten social and political order.” — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“As shown in chapter 2, the Pentateuch largely rejects the monarchic principle as it was construed elsewhere, often with a religiously sanctioned central government,… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“Generally, three approaches to the law codes of the ancient Near East are adduced. Some scholars see them as idyllic collections of judicial problems… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“A peasant—a small landowner—resides on a small plot of privately owned lands, and engages in subsistence farming.25 As his margins of profit are slim,… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“What we will see time and again is the way preexisting concepts and institutions in ancient Near Eastern culture are reworked according to a… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“Deuteronomy’s notion of tithes—that for two out of three years surplus is shared broadly with the disadvantaged, and in the third year is given… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“Motifs recur in independent fashion because they are universal. And when such events actually happen, people like to tell of them. Equally evident, however,… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
“Ennoblement and empowerment, however, are not achieved in the theological or political realms alone. In this chapter, I examine how the law collections of… — Joshua A. Berman Copy Share Image
