Injustice Made Legal: Deuteronomic Law and the Plight of Widows, Strangers, and Orphans in Ancient Israel (Bible in Its World) - Hardcover

Bennett, Harold V.

9780802839091: Injustice Made Legal: Deuteronomic Law and the Plight of Widows, Strangers, and Orphans in Ancient Israel (Bible in Its World)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802839096 ISBN 13: 9780802839091

Publisher: William B. Eerdmans, 2002

A series of Deuteronomic laws giving rights and protection to minorities and the oppressed in ancient Israel were drawn up some time between the 10th and 7th centuries BC. In this study, Harold Bennett argues that these biblical laws in fact intensified the social injustices and plight of a particular category of individuals - widows, strangers and orphans. Bennett studies the circumstances of the drafting of the laws, the identification of this particular category of people, and assesses the role of the laws and whether they were part of a wider political-economic program of self-interest and exploitation. Based on a close study of Deuteronomic law and critical law theory, the laws are exposed as a means of manipulating a socially vulnerable but politically useful group of people for the political and economic gain of an elite.

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About the Author:

Assistant professor of religion at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.

Review:

Journal of Jewish Studies
"From the beginning of the book it becomes clear that the use and discussion of critical legal theory is one of the strongest parts of the book, and is highly recommended for anybody working on the social background of biblical law." Randall C. Bailey
"Bennett's use of critical theory to interpret laws in the Deuteronomic code has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of these texts. His 'reading from the underside' enables us to go beyond long-held 'covenantal readings' that normativize privilege, and it takes social-scientific criticism to the next logical level. A must-read for those interested in Pentateuchal studies." Robert B. Coote
"Injustice Made Legal is a well-ordered attempt to identify the self-interest of those who promulgated the biblical laws sanctioning relief for widows, the fatherless, and aliens. Placing these laws in the context of an unvarnished social history of monarchic Israel and a sweeping analysis of the social context of law, this book offers a salutary reminder of what officialdom and its rules can look like from the vantage point of the most vulnerable of their supposed beneficiaries." J. David Pleins"Is the Bible really on the side of the poor? Drawing on advances in culture criticism, Harold Bennett's work rescues the widow, stranger, and orphan from the realm of cliche to reveal their plight as victims of 'concealed sociopolitical interests': they were exploited by the very people who claimed to be helping them. Asking what the overprivileged stood to gain from the drafting of Deuteronomy's laws concerning the poor, Bennett uncovers a web of deceit that ensnared the poor while benefiting an elite religious movement. His book challenges our worn-out assumptions about the Bible's advocacy for the widow, stranger, and orphan, exposing a world in which the poor were nothing more than exploited pawns in a high-stakes political game. Bennett convincingly argues that the biblical laws that appear to aid the poor actually intensified the very injustices that such laws were supposed to fix. This is a timely book whose contemporary relevance is painfully obvious in a world plagued by rampant poverty amid obscene accumulations of wealth."

Review of Biblical Literature
“The author’s work makes a distinctive contribution to the study of widows, strangers, and orphans in biblical culture. His approaching the texts through a specifically legal theoretical framework throws new light on these much-studied texts.”

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