Zeitlin, Irving. Ancient Judaism: Biblical Criticism From Max Weber to the Present (Polity 1984)

I had pretty much abandoned Max Weber. His German is near impenetrable, but Mr. Zeitlin can handle it. I put this book in the same category as Jesse Byson's books on the government structures in Iceland, as revealed through the sagas. They are like Robert Wolff's book on social customs in Victorian England: a historian reading a text (Wolff had a collection of 3-decker novels, bought for amusement) with a historian's ears. So Mr. Zeitlin reads the Bible with the ears of a sociologist, and apparently knows Hebrew. It is a book I would like to keep to go back to, but I fear I must yield it to Fr. Francis. It is too complex a book on a subject I know too little about for me to cite particular matters. It is astonishing how well it harmonizes with Belloc's book on The Battleground. For those getting into a sweat about "democracy", Mr. Zeitlin points out neatly that Israel is the democratic society: every man is equal before God. No man is greater, no man less than another. Kings as well as swineherds must answer to God. I find astonishing how well Mr. Zeitlin's book clarifies much of the Gospels and Acts and Epistles.