Using a wide range of biblical texts, Rex Mason looks at the political and religious propaganda in the Old Testament, showing the significance of its subversive character.

Propaganda & Subversion in the Old Testament

History

Mason, Rex

Ancient Civilizations

SPCK Publishing

This book compares the addresses in the Books of Chronicles with similar material in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah and in the post-exilic prophets. Dr. Mason contends that there are many features of style, theme, and purpose in these latter books that closely echo features found in the addresses. The striking parallels suggest that the later material has been influenced by homiletical style and preaching practice in the second temple period. Mason shows how the careful reinterpretation of tradition kept faith alive for the post-exilic community in the most challenging circumstances.

Preaching the Tradition: Homily and Hermeneutics after the Exile

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Cambridge University Press

As in other volumes of the Cambridge Bible Commentary, there are introductions to the books dealt with, followed by the text of the New English Bible divided into sections. Each section of the text is followed by the commentary upon it. The preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah gave a new impetus to the life of the 'remnant' of the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian exile. Haggai stresses the importance of the relationship to God of the community as a whole, while Zechariah is seen as a prophet of hope, promising Yahweh's salvation to his people. Dr Mason considers Malachi, dating perhaps from a little later than the other two, a fitting conclusion to the group of prophetic books, in that it reminds its readers of the role of the prophets in preparing the people for God's coming, that they might enjoy salvation rather than suffer punitive judgement.

The Books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (Cambridge Bible Commentaries on the Old Testament)

Mason here provides a valuable basic orientation to the modern reading of these short and often difficult prophetic books. By carefully surveying and evaluating the historical critical options that have been proposed during the last century, Mason then outlines the message of these books within a post-exilic, canonical context. In the face of differing critical opinion as to what does, and what does not, come from Micah in the book of Micah, the position taken here is that the book has to be read finally as a coherent postexilic tract which re-interprets the prophet's message in the light of the situation after the exile. For Nahum and Obadiah, which have so often received a bad press because of their theology of apparent hate for the foreigner, it is argued that the function the books were designed to serve in the Book of the Twelve must be taken seriously.

Micah, Nahum and Obadiah (T&T Clark Study Guides)

T&T Clark

Old Testament Pictures of God (Regent's Study Guides, 2)

Smyth & Helwys Pub

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Books by Mason, Rex