Overview

Judah faced radical and rapid societal change as it was absorbed by the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BCE. But while Judean prophets displayed outrage for the injustices these changes caused, their texts are often devoid of socio-economic context. Identities of perpetrators, victims, and even the nature of their actions are often absent. This book sheds light on those contexts by employing a recurring pattern found around the world and across time as subsistence communities are absorbed into complex economic systems. In addition to outlining this pattern's presence in Judah's archaeological record, Coomber turns the lens in the other direction to gain new insights from a recent example of this pattern's unfolding: Tunisia's absorption into international capitalism. The result is an interpretive tool that asks new questions of ancient prophetic texts, while also revealing threads through which the prophets find voice in addressing a radically different circumstance with similar consequences pertaining to land use, the weaponization of debt, and exploitation of labor.

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9781666700756

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Reviews

Scholars have long appealed to the social sciences to reconstruct the socioeconomic, religious, and political targets of prophetic critique. Coomber makes creative use of cultural-evolutionary theory, with Tunisia as a test case, to potentially illuminate the crises in eighth-century Judah that triggered the ire of the prophets. However one might evaluate his proposal, this is a substantive contribution to prophetic research. --M. Daniel Carroll R., Wheaton College This timely reprint will extend the reach of Coomber's important volume. His insightful comparisons between modern agrarian communities devastated by corporate globalization and eighth-century Judean subsistence farming disrupted by the Assyrian imperial economy underscores that, in the past as in the present, harm is perpetuated not only by greedy individuals but also by inequitable economic systems. --Julia M. O'Brien, Lancaster Theological Seminary Coomber's book marks a turning point in the study of the prophetic complaints against economic injustice. He is the first to read the biblical texts in the light of a modern society (Tunisia) affected by the policies of globalization. On the one hand, Coomber demonstrates the value of using a modern context to understand the prophetic texts. On the other hand, his reading provides insights into the relevance of prophetic texts in addressing modern injustice. --Rainer Kessler, University of Marburg With a thorough and nuanced application of cultural evolutionary theory, Coomber has produced an excellent economic analysis of eighth-century Judah in its context of Neo-Assyrian imperialism, while also arguing that twentieth-century Tunisia's shift from a mixed subsistence economy to a market driven economy exhibited similar patterns of the peasant exploitation by elites that Isaiah and Micah condemned. --Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School Matthew Coomber presents a stunning work, which is both thoroughly researched, and theoretically informed. He successfully connects the message of the biblical prophets to modern economic crises. Coomber shows us that these prophets still have something to say to us all. --Roger S. Nam, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Scholars have long appealed to the social sciences to reconstruct the socioeconomic, religious, and political targets of prophetic critique. Coomber makes creative use of cultural-evolutionary theory, with Tunisia as a test case, to potentially illuminate the crises in eighth-century Judah that triggered the ire of the prophets. However one might evaluate his proposal, this is a substantive contribution to prophetic research. --M. Daniel Carroll R., Wheaton College This timely reprint will extend the reach of Coomber's important volume. His insightful comparisons between modern agrarian communities devastated by corporate globalization and eighth-century Judean subsistence farming disrupted by the Assyrian imperial economy underscores that, in the past as in the present, harm is perpetuated not only by greedy individuals but also by inequitable economic systems. --Julia M. O'Brien, Lancaster Theological Seminary Coomber's book marks a turning point in the study of the prophetic complaints against economic injustice. He is the first to read the biblical texts in the light of a modern society (Tunisia) affected by the policies of globalization. On the one hand, Coomber demonstrates the value of using a modern context to understand the prophetic texts. On the other hand, his reading provides insights into the relevance of prophetic texts in addressing modern injustice. --Rainer Kessler, University of Marburg With a thorough and nuanced application of cultural evolutionary theory, Coomber has produced an excellent economic analysis of eighth-century Judah in its context of Neo-Assyrian imperialism, while also arguing that twentieth-century Tunisia's shift from a mixed subsistence economy to a market driven economy exhibited similar patterns of the peasant exploitation by elites that Isaiah and Micah condemned. --Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School Matthew Coomber presents a stunning work, which is both thoroughly researched, and theoretically informed. He successfully connects the message of the biblical prophets to modern economic crises. Coomber shows us that these prophets still have something to say to us all. --Roger S. Nam, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

""With a thorough and nuanced application of cultural evolutionary theory, Coomber has produced an excellent economic analysis of eighth-century Judah in its context of Neo-Assyrian imperialism, while also arguing that twentieth-century Tunisia's shift from a mixed subsistence economy to a market driven economy exhibited similar patterns of the peasant exploitation by elites that Isaiah and Micah condemned."" --Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School ""Coomber's book marks a turning point in the study of the prophetic complaints against economic injustice. He is the first to read the biblical texts in the light of a modern society (Tunisia) affected by the policies of globalization. On the one hand, Coomber demonstrates the value of using a modern context to understand the prophetic texts. On the other hand, his reading provides insights into the relevance of prophetic texts in addressing modern injustice."" --Rainer Kessler, University of Marburg ""Matthew Coomber presents a stunning work, which is both thoroughly researched, and theoretically informed. He successfully connects the message of the biblical prophets to modern economic crises. Coomber shows us that these prophets still have something to say to us all."" --Roger S. Nam, Candler School of Theology, Emory University ""This timely reprint will extend the reach of Coomber's important volume. His insightful comparisons between modern agrarian communities devastated by corporate globalization and eighth-century Judean subsistence farming disrupted by the Assyrian imperial economy underscores that, in the past as in the present, harm is perpetuated not only by greedy individuals but also by inequitable economic systems."" --Julia M. O'Brien, Lancaster Theological Seminary ""Scholars have long appealed to the social sciences to reconstruct the socioeconomic, religious, and political targets of prophetic critique. Coomber makes creative use of cultural-evolutionary theory, with Tunisia as a test case, to potentially illuminate the crises in eighth-century Judah that triggered the ire of the prophets. However one might evaluate his proposal, this is a substantive contribution to prophetic research."" --M. Daniel Carroll R., Wheaton College

Author Information

Matthew J. M. Coomber is professor of biblical studies and theology at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and an Episcopal priest. His research focuses on how biblical texts that challenge systemic poverty might provide tools for confronting modern injustice. His publications include Bible and Justice (2011) and The Common Good: A Biblical Ethos against Poverty (forthcoming). He is also co-editor of Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha (2014) and editor of the six-volume Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Series Guide to the Bible and Economics (Cascade).

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