Land, Credit and Crisis: Agrarian Finance in the Hebrew Bible

ISBN-13: 9781845539283 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 304 str.

Philippe Guillaume

Opis

Land, Credit and Crisis presents a new understanding of the financial culture of the Bible. Biblical Palestine was characterized by an over-abundance of arable land combined with a chronic lack of manpower and agricultural credit - circumstances which lead to much prophetic fulminating against merchants and the rich. The book reveals how the financial instruments and institutions of the time reflected a tough economic realism and argues that the image of the biblical prophet as a champion of social justice must be revised.

Spis treści

Introduction Part I: Land 1. Land Tenure 2. Communal Land 3. The Myth of the Helpless Peasant 4. New Perspectives on Land Passages Part II: Credit 5. Agricultural Credit 6. Debt and Patronage 7. Debt in the Bible Part III: No Crisis in Yehud 8. Life in Yehud 9. Financing Production and Commerce General Conclusion

O autorze

Philippe Guillaume is a trained agriculturalist, theologian and biblical archaeologist, and has taught Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in Switzerland, Lebanon and England. He is currently writing a Habilitationsschrift at the University of Berne.