Sage, Priest, Prophet: Religious and Intellectual Leadership in Ancient Israel
Overview
In this first volume of the Library of Ancient Israel series, Joseph Blenkinsopp investigates three forms of biblical Israel’s intellectual and religious leadership: the sage, the priest, and the prophet. The people who occupied these roles were directly responsible for what appears in the Old Testament text. Blenkinsopp looks at the development of these roles and how they functioned in their particular time and place. This investigation will lead to a keener understanding of the literature of the Old Testament and the society in which it evolved.
Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines—such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism—to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of the people behind the Hebrew Bible and interprets these insights for a wide variety of readers.
- Examines leadership in terms of its social dimensions and processes within ancient Israel
- Expands the vision of the culture and society of ancient Israel
- Explores how Jewish leaders were able to relate effectively with each other and with the public
- Introduction
- The Sage
- The Priest
- The Prophet
- Conclusion
Blenkinsopp’s analysis, particularly of sage and prophet, throws considerable light on social conditions that may have evoked (1) the literature by means of which modern interpreters view each phenomenon and (2) the preservation of such intellectual dissidence for posterity.
—James L. Crenshaw, Robert L. Flowers Professor of Old Testament, Duke Divinity School
This innovative analysis of what Joseph Blenkinsopp calls ‘intellectual leadership’ in Israel succeeds in correlating pertinent insights from social theory with the best of contemporary biblical scholar. Both the scholar and general reader will discover new insights into the familiar figures of sage, priest, and prophet, as they play out their roles against the backdrop of lsrael’s social history.
—Richard D. Nelson, Kraft Professor of Biblical Studies, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary
Blenkinsopp has provided a unique resource. Instead of analyzing abstract traditions, Blenkinsopp talks ahout formative people. Those who exercised major intellectual influence in ancient Israel.
—David L. Peterson, Professor of Old Testament, Iliff School of Theology
- Title: Sage, Priest, Prophet: Religious and Intellectual Leadership in Ancient Israe
- Author: Joseph Blenkinsopp
- Editor: Douglas A. Knight
- Series: Library of Ancient Israel
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Publication Date: 1995
- Pages: 204
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Judaica
Joseph Blenkinsopp is John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana.