The Death Of Herod: An Essay In The Sociology Of Religion

This study demonstrates how fruitful the relationship between the social sciences and biblical studies can be if sociological method is imaginatively applied to an account of Palestinian society during the first century. It seeks to show how a sociologist, in examining Josephus' account of the struggle for succession within the Herodian household, would set about asking certain questions about Palestinian society as a whole. The author identifies a succession-crisis that affects every level of Palestinian society, which leads him to ask how that crisis may threaten Israel's capacity to reproduce itself from one generation to the next. As an introduction to the peculiar craft of sociology, this book will be of great interest to students of antiquity and of the New Testament. THE DEATH OF HEROD THE DEATH OF HEROD An essay in the sociology of religion RICHARD FENN Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521414821 © Cambridge University Press 1992 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1992 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Fenn, Richard K. The death of Herod: an essay in the sociology of religion / Richard Fenn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 521 41482 2. - ISBN 0 521 42502 6 (pbk.) 1. Herod I, King of Judea, 73-4 B.C. - Death and burial. 2. Herod, House of. 3. Jews — History — 168 B.C. — A.D. — Historiography. 4. Josephus, Flavius. I. Title. DS122.3F46 1992 933'.05'092-dc20 91-36775 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-41482-1 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-42502-5 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2008 To Eugene Schneider Contents Acknowledgments page x Introduction i 1 Two methodological viewpoints: the priestly and the prophetic 33 2 Description, interpretation, and explanation: modes of analysis 55 3 4 Levels of observation and of analysis: making the right choices 81 "What is going on here?" The role of the observer and the beginnings of theory 110 5 The search for useful concepts: evil and charisma 132 6 The making of a theory 157 Epilogue 182 References Author index Subject index Index of biblical citations 192 196 198 200 IX Acknowledgments First I wish to thank Alex