Prophets and Markets Revisited

The prophetic figure is possibly one of the most influential figures in the world. They are an actor of social change, and many of the most significant religions in the world were started by prophetic figures. For example, Buddhism was initiated by the Buddha, Jesus initiated Christianity, and Mohammed initiated Islam. Likewise, political movements arguably have prophetic leaders such as Vladimir Lenin with Bolshevism, or Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X with the Civil Rights Movement. Some of the most iconic examples come from Israelite prophets in the Bible, who spoke against the kings of Israel for their idolatry. With these examples, it is often assumed that prophets are almost always in direct opposition to the established order and are innovators creating social change, but this is not the case. The evidence, from the Ancient Near East, displays that prophets were not innovators, going against the established order, but rather they were reactionaries. The prophets acted as mouthpieces of the gods; they attempted to keep the status quo and established ideology of the Ancient Near East, by ensuring the king fulfilled the ideals of kingship of the Ancient Near East.

2013

ii DECLARATION By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights, and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.

Verbum et Ecclesia, 2018

The text of Isaiah 5 describes a rapidly changing society in 8th-century BCE Judah. This shift is driven by forces such as increased international trade, the clash of urbanisation and agrarianism, and the rise of the urban elites. These changes have direct correlation with the transforming economic environment of that period. Yet scholars have paid little attention to the economic realities reflected in the message of the prophet Isaiah. This article explores the context of Isaiah 5 through an engagement with economic theory. While recognising the dilemmas in the adoption of tools from contemporary economic theory to analyse an ancient society, this article utilises game theory to shed light on the historical and cultural background to the text. By applying the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ it explores the ‘deal’ being offered by the prophet to the Judahite leaders in Isaiah 5: 8–24. In particular, the article looks at rational choice and the self-interested basis of decision-making to draw ...

Studi epigrafici e linguistici sul Vicino Oriente antico , 2002

Pickwick Publications, 2019

Like the first volume in this series (WealthWatch, Pickwick, 2011) this volume attempts two things: (a) to examine the primary socioeconomic motifs in the Bible from a comparative intertextual perspective, and (b) to trace the trajectory formed by these motifs through Tanak into early Jewish and Nazarene texts. Where WealthWatch focuses on Torah, however, WealthWarn focuses on the single largest section of Tanak—the Prophets. Where the ancient Near Eastern texts surveyed in WealthWatch include the Epic of Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Erra Epic, the texts examined here include Inanna's Descent, the Babylonian Creation Epic (enūma elish), the Disappearance of Telipinu, and the Ba`al Epic. Where the Jewish texts surveyed in WealthWatch include historical and sectarian texts, the texts studied here include Ezra-Nehemiah, the Epistle of Jeremiah and Tobit. Where the Nazarene texts in WealthWatch focus on the stewardship parables found in the Gospel of Luke, the texts examined here focus on several prophetic vignettes from the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles.