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Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel

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The paper back edition of Wilson's book makes a classic available to current students of the Old Testament prophets. Wilson brought increased attention to the school of social-science criticism with the publication of this volume. He applied the findings of modern anthropology, along with suggestions for a methodology, to the study of the Old Testament prophets. After a brief review of key contributions prior to his own work, Wilson suggests some guidelines for applying the results of current anthropological research to the study of the prophets. He examines some material on intermediation from modern (20th century) studies and then looks back at the ancient Near Eastern data in light of his conclusions. The remainder of the book studies the OT prophets in light of Wilson's conclusions from the anthropological data. The prophet's position as central or peripheral to their society is examined as well as the audience and prophet's function. Wilson sees a strong dichotomy between northern traditions (the Ephraimite tradition) and the southern Judah tradition as the basis of his work.

His work provides a penetrating review of the prophets of the Northern Kingdom and, although Wilson sees much in light of his own methodology, he raises some helpful questions, especially about how prophets reacted to their audience. His results, which often rest on less firm evidence, are then confirmed in light of his anthropological model. While Wilson's study is now dated (1980) it is still a valuable book for the study of prophecy and an important link in the development of the application of social-science criticism to the prophets.

A scholarly and very insightful look at the socail context of prophecy in the Ancient Near East. The book develops categories and common aspects of the prophets in the Hebrew Scripture. However, the information is not very approachable nor is it a good beginning resource. The text is complex and makes heavy use of Hebrew and other terminology not in the venacular of most amateur students of the Bible vocabulary.