Table Of ContentBible and Justice
BibleWorld
Series Editor: Philip R. Davies and James G. Crossley, University of Sheffield
iBiibleWorld shares the fruits of modern (aBndi bpolest maondder nJ)u bsibtliiccael scholarship not only among practitioners
and students, but also with anyone interested in what academic study of the Bible means in the twenty-first century.
It explores our ever-increasing knowledge and understanding of the social world that produced the biblical texts,
but also analyses aspects of the bible’s role in the history of our civilization and the many perspectives – not just
religious and theological, but also cultural, political and aesthetic – which drive modern biblical scholarship.
Published:
Sodomy: A History of a Christian Biblical Myth Sex Working and the Bible
Michael Carden Avaren Ipsen
Yours Faithfully: Virtual Letters from the Bible Redrawing the Boundaries: The Date of Early
Edited by Philip R. Davies Christian Literature
Israel’s History and the History of Israel J.V.M. Sturdy, edited by Jonathan Knight
Mario Liverani The Archaeology of Myth: Papers on Old Testament
Uruk: The First City Tradition
Mario Liverani N. Wyatt
The Apostle Paul and His Letters Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New
Edwin D. Freed American Century
James G. Crossley
The Origins of the ‘Second’ Temple: Persian Imperial
Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem On the Origins of Judaism
Diana Edelman Philip R. Davies
An Introduction to the Bible (Revised edition) The Bible Says So!: From Simple Answers to Insightful
John Rogerson Understanding
Edwin D. Freed and Jane F. Roberts
The Morality of Paul’s Converts
Edwin D. Freed From Babylon to Eternity: The Exile Remembered and
Constructed in Text and Tradition
The Mythic Mind: Essays on Cosmology and Religion
Bob Becking, Alex Cannegieter, Wilfred van der Poll
in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature
and Anne-Mareike Wetter
Nick Wyatt
Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition:
History, Literature and Theology in the Book of
Essays in Honour of Maurice Casey
Chronicles
Edited by James G. Crossley
Ehud Ben Zvi
A Compendium of Musical Instruments and
Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderization
Instrumental Terminology in the Bible
of Healing in Early Christianity
Yelena Kolyada
Elaine M. Wainwright
Jesus Beyond Nationalism: Constructing the Historical
Jonah’s World: Social Science and the Reading of
Jesus in a Period of Cultural Complexity
Prophetic Story
Edited by Halvor Moxnes, Ward Blanton,
Lowell K. Handy
James G. Crossley
Symposia: Dialogues Concerning the History of
The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy
Biblical Interpretation
and Prophets in Yehud
Roland Boer
Edited by Diana V. Edelman and Ehud Ben Zvi
Sectarianism in Early Judaism
The Social History of Achaemenid Phoenicia: Being a
Edited by David J. Chalcraft
Phoenician, Negotiating Empires
The Ontology of Space in Biblical Hebrew Narrative Vadim S. Jigoulov
Luke Gärtner-Brereton
Biblical Resistance Hermeneutics within a
Mark and its Subalterns: A Hermeneutical Paradigm Caribbean Context
for a Postcolonial Context Oral A. W. Thomas
David Joy
Three Versions of Judas
Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts: An Introduction to Richard G. Walsh
Approaches and Problems
Edward Said, Contrapuntal Hermeneutics and the
Ian Young and Robert Rezetko
Book of Job: Power, Subjectivity and Responsibility in
O Mother, Where Art Thou?: An Irigarayan Reading of Biblical Interpretation
the Book of Chronicles Alissa Jones Nelson
Julie Kelso
Forthcoming:
Vive Memor Mortis: Qoheleth and the Wisdom of his Simulating Jesus: Reality Effects in the Gospels
Day George Aichele
Thomas Bolin Surpassing the Love of Two Women: The Love of David
The Joy of Kierkegaard : Essays on Kierkegaard as a and Jonathan in Text and Interpretation
Biblical Reader James Harding
Hugh Pyper The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Literature
Charismatic Killers: Reading the Hebrew Bible’s Hell, Scatology and Metamorphosis
Violent Rhetoric in Film István Czachesz
Eric Christianson Delivering the Word: Preaching and Exegesis in the
Reading Acts in the Second Century Western Christian Tradition
Edited by Rubén Dupertuis and Todd Penner Edited by William John Lyons and Isabella Sandwell
Queer Theory and the Marriage Metaphor
Stuart Macwilliam
BIBLE AND JUSTICE
ANCIENT TEXTS, MODERN CHALLENGES
Matthew J.M. Coomber
First published 2011 by Equinox, an imprint of Acumen
Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© Matthew J.M. Coomber and contributors 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notices
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein.
In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety
of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products,
instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13 978 1 84553 526 1 (hardback)
978 1 84553 527 8 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bible and justice : ancient texts, modern challenges / edited by Matthew J.M. Coomber.
p. cm.—(BibleWorld)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-84553-526-1 (hb)—ISBN 978-1-84553-527-8 (pb)
1. Justice—Biblical teaching—Congresses. I. Coomber, Matthew J. M.
BS680.J8B54 2011
220.8’303372—dc22
2010012569
Typeset by S.J.I. Services, New Delhi
For my parents, Jim and Eleanor
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
PART I: Challenges and Understandings of Bible and Justice
On the Genesis of the Alliance Between the Bible and Rights 13
Yvonne Sherwood
Rough Justice? 43
Philip Davies
Is the Belief in Human Rights Either Biblical or Useful? 57
John Sandys-Wunsch
Jesus: The Justice of God 70
Stanley Hauerwas
PART II: Uses and Approaches to Bible and Justice
Justice and Violence in the Priestly Utopia 93
Walter J. Houston
A Signs Source: Approaching Deaf Biblical Interpretation 106
Louise J. Lawrence
From a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of
the Economy to the RDP of the Soul: Public Realm Biblical
Appropriation in Postcolonial South Africa 122
Gerald West
PART III: Prospects for Applications of Bible and Justice
The Old Testament and the Environment 147
J. W. Rogerson
viii Bible and Justice
Ecojustice in the Bible? Pauline Contributions to an
Ecological Theology 158
David G. Horrell
Can the Book of Revelation Be a Gospel for the Environment? 178
Simon P. Woodman
The Kindness of Strangers: Biblical Hospitality and the Politics
of Intervention 195
Diana Lipton
Prophets to Profits: Ancient Judah and Corporate Globalization 212
Matthew J.M. Coomber
Index of References 238
Index of Names and Subjects 242
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As with any project of this size, there are many people to thank. To all of
those who made the 2008 Conference on Bible and Justice and this volume
possible, from the speakers and the delegates to the staff at the Richard
Roberts Auditorium, the Mappin Building, and Sheffield Cathedral, I
express my immeasurable gratitude. I would like to use this space to also
thank a few people and organizations, individually.
First of all I would like to thank Hugh Pyper and James Crossley, who
were dedicated and patient mentors as I made my first attempt at organizing
an academic conference. They always made themselves available to answer
questions, help with various tasks, and offer their expert advice both leading
up to and during the conference. Their help was truly invaluable. I am also
especially grateful to Philip Davies, who was not only encouraging and
supportive throughout the course of organizing the conference, but has
also been a most gracious mentor throughout the process of editing this
volume.
I am greatly indebted to the Department of Biblical Studies and the
University of Sheffield, as a whole, for helping to make the conference
possible. In particular, I am grateful for the help, support, and advice of
Diana Edelman, Berry Matlock, Will Lamb, Keith Whitelam and Alison
Bygrave. I would like to extend my special thanks to Gillian Fogg, who
kindly and patiently endured all of the additional work that the conference
added to her workload in the Department of Biblical Studies office. I would
also like to thank the undergraduate and research students from the
Department of Biblical Studies who offered their most welcome assistance
during the course of the conference: Michelle Krejci, Cynthia Shafer-Elliott,
James Anderson, Dohyung Kim, Aimie Hope and James Gould. Without
their assistance in directing delegates through the labyrinth that is the
Mappin Building and assisting with last minute details and all of the little
surprises that came up, the chaos behind the scenes would have been far
more noticeable. I would also like to thank my dear friends Jamie Hilton
