Customer Reviews

Sage, Priest, Prophet: Religious and Intellectual Leadership in Ancient Israel (Library of Ancient Israel)

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This scholar's elucidation of these three roles in Hebrew tadition is a thorough analysis of biblical texts in regards to the three roles. Each title has a full section devoted to his understanding of what their functions were and he points out where there are problemmatic passages or unclear facets of their respective duties or responsibilities. Their cultural roles and how they developed over time is also covered very well.

In this book, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Professor Emeritus in the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame, attempts to examine the intellectual leadership in Israel as exercised by three groups of people - sages, priests and prophets. Each group is given its own section, and the available information is looked at from various sources.

Now, where do I start with this book? I must say that I found it to be completely useless. The book was written for an academic audience, and it shows an obscurantism, an impenetrability to the non-academic reader, that I found breathtaking. The author repeatedly makes statements such as "we assume..." (p.119) and "most scholars would agree..." (p.166). Who are "we" and who are these scholars? It gives the books a feeling of being presented ex cathedra.

No, I picked up this book, hoping to understand the roles of, and the interaction between the various intellectual leaders of Ancient Israel, and I finished the book knowing no more about the subject than when I started. If you are a casual, non-academic reader, interested in Ancient Israel, then I would highly recommend that you do NOT waste your time on this turgid resource.