Joshua A. Berman

“To understand, however, how the received form of the Bible frames and presents them, we do well to refer to the way…

— Joshua A. Berman

“One leitmotif in the biblical law codes is an attempt to restructure society in such a way that the exploitative role of…

— Joshua A. Berman

“The Sargon account is written in the first person, as is highly typical for royal narrative inscriptions, whereas the Moses account is…

— Joshua A. Berman

“When economic imbalances became extreme, the lack of equilibrium and viability could threaten social and political order.”

— Joshua A. Berman

“As shown in chapter 2, the Pentateuch largely rejects the monarchic principle as it was construed elsewhere, often with a religiously sanctioned…

— Joshua A. Berman

“Generally, three approaches to the law codes of the ancient Near East are adduced. Some scholars see them as idyllic collections of…

— Joshua A. Berman

“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…

— Joshua A. Berman

“What we will see time and again is the way preexisting concepts and institutions in ancient Near Eastern culture are reworked according…

— Joshua A. Berman

“Deuteronomy’s notion of tithes—that for two out of three years surplus is shared broadly with the disadvantaged, and in the third year…

— Joshua A. Berman

“Motifs recur in independent fashion because they are universal. And when such events actually happen, people like to tell of them. Equally…

— Joshua A. Berman

“Ennoblement and empowerment, however, are not achieved in the theological or political realms alone. In this chapter, I examine how the law…

— Joshua A. Berman