Portrayals of Economic Exchange in the Book of Kings (Biblical Interpretation)

With the growing proliferation of literature concerning the social world of the Hebrew Bible, scholars continue to face the challenge of a proper understanding of ancient Israel’s economies. Portrayals of Economic Exchange in the Book of Kings is the first monographic study to use an anthropological approach to examine the nature of the economic life behind the biblical text. Through Karl Polanyi’s paradigm of exchange as a methodological control, this book synthesizes Semitic philology with related fields of Levantine archaeology and modern ethnography. With this interdisciplinary frame, Nam articulates a social analysis of economic exchange, and stimulates new understandings of the biblical world. Drawing on the Polanyian categories of reciprocity, redistribution and market trade, this book examines the exchange narratives within 1 and 2 Kings in an effort to clarify the nature of the economic structures behind the biblical text. By Roger S. Nam. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.