Description
Book SynopsisThroughout his long and influential career, George E. Mendenhall published groundbreaking, provocative studies on the history of the biblical tradition, law, and covenant and the Hebrew conquest of Palestine. This volume collects thirty-four of his hardest-to-find essays, many of which originally appeared in journals and other publications with limited circulation.
Mendenhall’s corpus of more than one hundred books, articles, and reviews has stimulated remarkable work by scholars in the twentieth century. Even today, students of the Bible, the ancient Near East, archaeology, Judaism and Christianity, and even theology will find in these essays untapped veins of material for future study and provocative insights about a wide range of still-critical issues, suggesting that Mendenhall’s work can continue to galvanize a rich agenda for the study of biblical faith and history in the twenty-first century. The volume contains critical essays by Gary A. Herion, Herbert B. Huffmon, and Peter Machinist that summarize Mendenhall’s impact on ancient and biblical studies; links for downloading a recent film documentary on Mendenhall’s life and work; and excerpts from Mendenhall’s autobiography, which he was working on at the time of his death.This volume contextualizes and updates the lesser-known work of this well-known and celebrated biblical scholar. It will be welcomed by students and specialists of the ancient Near East, Semitic linguists, theologians, interested clergy and laity, and, in particular, those who study the creative formation of religious traditions.
Table of ContentsList of abbeviations
Preface: The Contribution of George Emery Mendenhall
Excerpts from My Life of Adventure: The Early Years by George E. Mendenhall
George Emery Mendenhall (1916–2016), by Peter Machinist
I. General Perspectives on Religion and the Human Condition
Man Is More than Political (1956)
It’s Great to Be Human! (1961)
The Conflict between Values Systems and Social Control (1975)
The First Half of Human History (1974)
II. Approaches to the History of Ancient Israel
Biblical History in Transition (1961)
Migration Theories vs. Cultural Change as an Explanation for Early Israel (1976)
Method in the Study of Early Hebrew History (1964)
The Ancient in the Modern—And Vice Versa (1976)
Toward a Method for Historical Lexicography of Semitic Languages (1990)
Biblical Interpretation and the Albright School (1987)
III. Praeparatio: The Near Eastern Context of Ancient Israel
The Amorite Heritage in the West (2004)
Myth, Ideology, and the Worship of Baal (1985)
Jerusalem in the Amarna Letters (2007)
Cultural History and the Philistine Problem (1986)
Qurayyah and the Midianites (1984)
IV. The Formative Period: The Origins and Formation of Yahwistic Israel
Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition (1954)
The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine (1962)
Social Organization in Early Israel (1976)
“Change and Decay in All Around I See”: Conquest, Covenant, and the Tenth Generation (1976)
Between Theology and Archaeology (1978)
Ancient Israel’s Hyphenated History (1983)
The Suzerainty Treaty Structure: Thirty Years Later (1990)
V. The Adaptive Period: Yahwistic Faith in an Ancient Near Eastern Setting
Ancient Oriental and Biblical Law (1954)
The Relation of the Individual to Political Society in Ancient Israel (1960)
The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26 (1958)
Samuel’s “Broken Rîb”: Deuteronomy 32 (1975)
The Monarchy (1975)
The Nature and Purpose of the Abraham Narratives (1987)
VI. The Traditional Period: Religion under the Monarchy
Jerusalem from 1000 B.C.E. to 63 B.C.E. (1989)
Prophecy and Poetry in Modern Yemen (2000)
VII. Reformation: Reappraisals of Tradition after the Monarchy
The Shady Side of Wisdom: The Date and Purpose of Genesis 3 (1974)
From Witchcraft to Justice: Death and Afterlife in the Hebrew Bible (1992)
The Palestinian Grassroots Origins of New Testament Christology (1986)
Epilogue: Is Generation X the Tenth Generation? (1999)
Appendix 1: George E. Mendenhall: A Bibliography of His Writings and Publications (1938–2007)
Appendix 2: George E. Mendenhall’s Graduate Students and Their Dissertations
Works Cited
Index of Authors
Index of Scripture
Subject Index 577
