Power and Politics in the Book of Judges: Men and Women of Valor

Power and Politics in the Book of Judges studies political culture and behavior in premonarchic Israel, focusing on the protagonists in the book of Judges. Although the sixth-century BCE Deuteronomistic editor portrayed them as moral champions and called them judges, the original bardic storytellers and the men and women of valor themselves were preoccupied with the problem of gaining and maintaining political power. These mighty ones were ambitious, at times ruthless; they might be labeled...