Abstract
Images of power and powerlessness pervade the Old Testament. While the predominant picture is of men who are more powerful than women, kings who are more powerful than their subjects, and Yahweh who is more powerful than other gods, a more ambivalent picture of power emerges in many passages. This article discusses a number of such cases, with particular attention given to Genesis 19 and 38, 2 Samuel 11, 1 Kings 1, and 2 Kings 3. In each case the depicted power relationships mutate and develop, with the result that the Bible can be seen to be frequently undermining its own assumptions of where power should and does lie. There are enough ‘temporary challenges’ to the standard viewpoint to be significant, and scholars who seek to discover ‘the biblical view of power’ may well be unsuccessful.
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