Biblical Captivity

Synopsis: Early literary man learned that free speech and free labor were frequently suppressed or obliterated by powerful governments in the Near Eastern world. This is the source of the Bible's passionate interest in liberation from political and economic repression. Moses and his people in Egypt, for example, experienced the rapid disintegration of their traditional right to religious liberty and self-directed labor. They attempted to rectify the situation at Sinai and in Canaan. Mesopotamians and Egyptians, Greeks, Sicilians, and Romans labored against tyranny as well. Robert Kimball Shinkoskey focuses on stories, laws, and movements dealing with the problem of political idolatry in the ancient world. His purpose is to show that the Bible is a civic narrative as much as a religious one, and that the Ten Commandments are articles in a constitutional law system that promotes the steady rule of law rather than the capricious rule of man. Endorsements: "Shinkoskey makes a serious case for the Bible as a fundamentally political manifesto for freedom and well-being in the face of violent threats and imperial aggressions. The intent of the text is to provide institutional protection against exploitative power. Shinkoskey's claim is against the common reduction of the Bible to an innocuous preoccupation with religion. His argument requires a wholesale reconsideration and suggests an urgency in our current milieu of aggressive power and limitless violence that remains largely unchecked." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary Author Biography: Robert Kimball Shinkoskey is a career employee in the Utah Department of Health. He is a citizen editorial writer, now taking a look at the surprisingly current political conditions of the Bible era.