The Social World of Deuteronomy

The book of Deuteronomy is not an orphan. It belongs to a diverse family of legal traditions and cultures in the world of the Bible. The Social World of Deuteronomy: A New Feminist Commentary brings these traditions and cultures to life, and uses them to enrich our understanding and appreciation of Deuteronomy today. Benjamin uses social-scientific criticism to reconstruct the social institutions where Deuteronomy developed, and those that appear in its traditions. He uses feminist criticism to better understand and appreciate how powerful elite males in Deuteronomy view not only the women, mothers, wives, and widows in their households but also their powerless children, liminal people, slaves, prisoners, outsiders, livestock, and nature. Benjamin also uses feminist criticism to describe important aspects of the daily lives of these often overlooked peoples in ancient Israel. How the elite males in Deuteronomy view the women and other members of their households seldom reflects the underlying reality of how these women and others function.