A Sociological Criticism On The Old Testament

The sociological criticism of western biblical study is springing up with the flourishing of social science in 19th century of which Sociology and Anthropology have greater influence on the study of Bible. It provides a new vision for the study of the biblical text and becomes one of the most promising approaches in biblical study. Meanwhile, it is necessary for all the people who study the Old Testament to understand the ancient Israelite cultural background and the writers' social background due to the cultural differences. So the introduction of sociological criticism in the biblical study is of pervasive significance. However, this approach of study on the Bible in China has not been noticed. The author of the thesis aims to introduce the methods, approaches and practical fruits in western biblical study systematically and comprehensively and tries to use it in the analysis of prophets' images, hoping to contribute to the biblical literature study.This thesis consists of three parts all together, namely, introduction, body and conclusion.Part one firstly analyzes the status and significance of sociological criticism in different research approaches of the Bible. As a literary classic, the Bible can be analyzed from various perspectives, but the method of sociological criticism occupies the fundamental position. Then part one points out that the sociological criticism should be classified into the range of comparative literature due to the multi-subject and cross-cultural nature of it, which will enlarge the research field of the Old Testament greatly. Lastly, part one puts forward the significance and intention of this thesis after comparing the three aspects classified by western sociological criticism studies of the Bible with the present research condition of this field in China.The body part includes three sections.Section one is the overall introduction of sociological criticism and the biblicalresearch. This section is about the definition and theories and methods of sociological criticism and its influence on the biblical research. This section can be divided into five sub-sections. The first sub-section explains what is the sociological criticism of the Bible and what is the sociology of literature, then it illustrates the relation between the two and their influences on the study of literature. The second sub-section indicates the historical background and philosophical basis of sociological criticism. The third sub-section analyzes the influences of important figures of sociology in history on the interpretation of the Old Testament, such as Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. The fourth sub-section talks about the research of the Old Testament from the perspectives of three branches of Anthropology: Ethnology, Social Anthropology and Archaeology. The fifth sub-section comprehensively states the employment of the three social cultural models (conflict versus structural-functional traditions, subsistence strategies versus modes of production, cultural idealism versus cultural materialism) in the research of the Old Testament.Section two is about the history and achievements of sociological criticism. This section includes four sub-sections. The former two sub-sections introduce the history and achievements of the research of the Old Testament by using the method of sociological criticism within the last two centuries. From the late 19th century to the middle 20th century, the representatives in this field include W. Robertson Smith, Max Weber and Antonin Causse and those in the latter fifty years of 20th century are George Mendenhall, Norman Gottwald, Robert Wilson and Thomas Overholt The third sub-section summarizes five topics concerning the Old Testament noticed by social criticism. The fourth sub-section mainly interprets the text. It indicates the significance of social criticism for the interpretation of the Old Testament at the levels of linguistics, culture and mythology respectively. In addition to that, this sub-section mentions the significance of s...