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This is the first full-scale assessment of the theological, social
and ideational implications of our new understandings of ancient
Israel's social and religious development. Scholars now stress the
gradual emergence of Israel out of the culture of ancient Palestine
and the surrounding ancient Near East rather than contrast Israel
with the ancient world. Our new paradigms stress the ongoing and
unfinished nature of the monotheistic 'revolution', which is indeed
still in process today. Gnuse takes a further bold step in setting
the emergence of monotheism in a wider intellectual context: he
argues brilliantly that the interpretation of Israel's development
as both an evolutionary and revolutionary process corresponds to
categories of contemporary evolutionary thought in the biological
and palaeontological sciences (Punctuated Equilibrium).
This collection of essays seeks to demonstrate that many biblical
authors deliberately used Classical and Hellenistic Greek texts for
inspiration when crafting many of the narratives in the Primary
History. Through detailed analysis of the text, Gnuse contends that
there are numerous examples of clear influence from late classical
and Hellenistic literature. Deconstructing the biblical and Greek
works in parallel, he argues that there are too many similarities
in basic theme, meaning, and detail, for them to be accounted for
by coincidence or shared ancient tropes. Using this evidence, he
suggests that although much of the text may originate from the
Persian period, large parts of its final form likely date from the
Hellenistic era. With the help of an original introduction and
final chapter, Gnuse pulls his essays together into a coherent
collection for the first time. The resultant volume offers a
valuable resource for anyone working on the dating of the Hebrew
Bible, as well as those working on Hellenism in the ancient Levant
more broadly.
The Bible proclaims a message of liberation. Though the Bible arose
in an age when slavery and patriarchalism permeated society, the
biblical authors sought to elevate the rights of slaves, the poor,
and women. Their attempts to elevate the oppressed set in motion a
trajectory of evolution, which we should still be advancing today.
Critics of the Bible declare that it accepts slavery and the
subordination of women, but they fail to understand the biblical
texts in their historical context. For their age the biblical
authors were advanced in their understanding of human rights, and
the democratic values we hold today actually resulted from their
early attempts to affirm the dignity and rights of slaves and
women. It is equally important that we critique those spokespersons
of the church who quote the Bible literally but have lost sight of
its historical context so that they might still subordinate women
today. Such spokespersons also declare that the Bible condemns
homosexuality. But a closer reading of the text discerns that those
few passages that address same-sex relations actually condemn rape,
ritual prostitution, and master-slave relations. To use the Bible
to condemn people is to misuse the Bible.
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