The Empty Men: The Heroic Tradition of Ancient Israel

by Gregory Mobley

Publisher:

Doubleday

, 2005

Overview

Gregory Mobley brings a highly original eye to the familiar stories found in Judges, which depict Israel’s frontier era, and in First and Second Samuel, which portray the ragged and violent emergence of kingship in Judah and Israel. Mobley draws upon Semitic and European heroic traditions about warriors and wild men, and upon Celtic, Anglo-American, and African-American balladry about borderers and outlaws, to dig out the heroic themes submerged in biblical adventure stories.

The Empty Men describes the process by which adventure stories—replete with foolish love, warfare, assassinations, ritual slaughter, and grim masculine codes—were transformed into sermons and history lessons. Mobley also offers reflections on the Iron Age theology of these narratives, with their emphasis on poetic justice, and on the mythic dimensions of landscape in these stories. Mobley is sure to attract much attention in the scholarly community for his raw portrayals of biblical heroes, for his unblinking attention to the martial codes and the warrior subculture of ancient Israel, and for his bittersweet reflections on the theological and ethical significance of this corpus of adventure stories that are under the surface—but close to the bedrock—of the many mansions that Judaism and Christianity have built in subsequent centuries on these foundational texts.

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Key Features

• Discusses heroic themes that have been traditionally submerged in biblical adventure stories
• Explores the Iron Age theology found in biblical narratives
• Reflects on the theological and ethical significance of the adventure stories of ancient Israel

Contents

• Muster
• Heroic Culture
• Heroic Conventions
• Ehud and the Monoliths
• Gideon and the Winepress/li>
• Samson and the Three Women
• The Heroic Age

Top Highlights

“Iron Age martial heroism, which in those days included the ceremonial slaughter of enemy leaders, blood feuding, and trophy taking.” (Page 8)

“is an attempt to isolate the heroic tradition of ancient Israel” (Page 5)

“But before the material in Judges and Samuel became God’s holy words, there were stories.” (Page 7)

“(-â can function in Hebrew as a directional marker; i.e., ‘toward the paršĕdōn” (Page 82)

Praise for the Print Edition

Biblical texts that go down and dirty in narrative imagination are often squeezed out among us between high theology and humorless historical criticism. Greg Mobley knows how to do theology and is erudite about critical matters. In this book, however, he stays focused on the odd social misfits featured in the Book of Judges in its tales of daring and adventure.

—Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

Gregory Mobley has written a lively book full of adventure and challenge. It offers the skill and artistry of a seasoned storyteller, the tenacity of a mature scholar, and the honesty and play of an astute interpreter. My counsel to the reader is to enjoy the author's many gifts while pondering the violence of an ancient world that is eerily contemporary.

—Phyllis Trible, Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature, Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary

In The Empty Men, Greg Mobley offers us close and nuanced readings of some of the most neglected—and sometimes some of the most maligned—stories of the Hebrew Bible, the stories of the great heroes of the days of the Judges, especially Ehud, Gideon, and Samson. A must-read for both students of Judges and of the heroic traditions of the ancient world, as well as for those who just appreciate a good adventure story!

—Susan Ackerman, Professor of Religion and Women's and Gender Studies, Dartmouth College

Product Details

• Title: The Empty Men: The Heroic Tradition of Ancient Israel
• Author: Gregory Mobley
• Series: Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Print Publication Date: 2005
• Logos Release Date: 2010
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Heroes in the Bible; Bible. O.T. Judges › Criticism, narrative; Bible. O.T. 1 Samuel › Criticism, narrative; Bible. O.T. 2 Samuel › Criticism, narrative
• ISBNs: 9780385498517, 9780300140125, 0385498519, 0300140126
• Resource ID: LLS:EMPTYMEN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:40:53Z

About Gregory Mobley

Greg Mobley came to Andover Newton in 1997. He previously taught at Union Theological Seminary (New York), Harvard Divinity School, and, for two years following college, at a high school in Jos, Nigeria. He is the author of The Empty Men: The Heroic Tradition of Ancient Israel (2005), Samson and the Liminal Hero in the Ancient Near East (2006), and with co-author T.J. Wray, The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots (2005). Mobley has contributed to the Journal of Biblical Literature, the Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible, Perspectives in Religious Studies, and he wrote the introductions to and annotations for the books of the Minor Prophets in the 3rd edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible. He has done archaeological fieldwork in Israel and editorial work for the Dead Sea Scrolls project. In 2000 he received the Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar award. Mobley is an ordained American Baptist minister. Mobley is active in Christian-Jewish relations both in Massachusetts and, especially, through our partnership with Hebrew College here on campus.