Land, Credit and Crisis - Agrarian Finance in the Hebrew Bible (Paperback)

In light of the growing knowledge derived from economic studies of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and of Ottoman Syria, social-scientific exegesis of the Hebrew scriptures are in need of a serious overhaul. This study offers a new perspective on biblical texts relative to farming (Naboths vineyard, Ruth, the Shunamite, Job, Nehemiah 5 and others) that challenges some exegetical shibboleths: private property, latifundia, absentee landlord, foreclosure, landless farmers, parasitic cities, usury, and the presentation of farmers as helpless victims. Biblical Palestine was characterized by an over-abundance of arable land, a chronic lack of manpower and of agricultural credit. Prophetic fulminations against merchants and the rich should not be taken at face value. They need to be understood in the framework of patronage. The icon of the biblical prophet as a champion of social justice is discarded and replaced by a fresh assessment of the three pillars of the biblical financial system: the seventh-year shemittah, the jubilee and the ban on interest. Usually considered utopian, these institutions display the kind of economic realism that is required to move biblical exegesis beyond pious slogans.