The Politics of Ancient Israel.

• Author: Sparks, Kenton L.
• Position: Book Review

The Politics of Ancient Israel. By NORMAN K. GOTTWALD. Louisville: WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX PRESS, 2001. Pp. xvii + 366. $46.95.

In this volume Gottwald not only introduces his topic conceptually but also tackles the more formidable task of synthesizing a coherent picture of Israelite politics from the pertinent textual and archaeological evidence. This synthesis is based on Gottwald's generally cautious and fair assessment of the evidence, which seizes the middle ground between minimalist and maximalist readings of Israelite history. He supports this conciliatory stance by adducing evidence that the biblical sources provide a useful--if ideologically charged--vantage point for viewing the history of ancient Israelite politics, including even its pre-state history. As we shall see, this historical assessment is very important for Gottwald's basic thesis.

It appears to me that Gottwald assumes two somewhat different rhetorical postures in the book, juxtaposed throughout. The first posture is that of the biblical studies guild proper, and its product is a chronicle of Israel's history and politics that would suit all but the most skeptical of the minimalist scholars. At this macro-descriptive level, there is nothing really unique about Gottwald's presentation, excepting perhaps its utter lucidity. For this readers will be grateful.

The second posture is more idiosyncratic and reflects Gottwald's well-known political and theological leanings. Gottwald believes that simple, kinship-based societies are the healthiest expressions of human culture and hence are inherently superior to state-based political modalities. Why so? Kinship political structures are embedded within the societies they govern and are therefore more responsive to fundamental social needs--and provide greater freedoms--than the political bureaucracies of transregional states, which often pursue state progress at the expense of lower level social modalities. How does this theory play out in the case of ancient Israel? Gottwald believes that the Hebrew Bible has preserved many beautiful expressions of Israel's primitive kinship-based society. These images of healthy tribal life were "unwittingly" preserved in literature by the Hebrew states of Israel and Judah, which periodically recycled the old traditions in order to legitimize their statist powers. Upon the demise of the Hebrew states, these tribal patterns resurfaced as the powerful forces behind Judaism's success in the...