God's People in God's Land: Family, Land and Property in the Old Testament.

• Author: Gilner, David Jonathan

This revised and updated version of Wright's doctoral dissertation (Cambridge University, 1977) is an exegetical study, focusing on Pentateuchal and Prophetic texts, which investigates the realm of property ethics, defined here as,

how Israel came to terms with socio-economic facts of life in terms of its distinctive historical traditions and theological self-understanding ... with the interaction of a nation's life and faith.

In part one, Wright argues for the centrality of the family in the social, economic, and religious matrix of Israelite society. Examining the role of land in the relationship of Israel to God and in the social structure of the family, and then the role of the family in Israel's relationship with God, he uses his findings to construct a model in which the social, economic and theological realms of biblical culture were bound inextricably together, with the family serving as the focal point at which "the conjunction of the three realms issued in ethical responsibilities and imperatives".

In part two, Wright uses his model to analyze land and property ethics in biblical society, employing the traditional categories of rights and responsibilities to examine questions of land tenure and alienability, redemption of familial holdings, and the status of those, both human and animal, who labor on the land. He concludes that security of land tenure was grounded not in some concept of "inalienable property,"...