1. THE BIBLE UNZIPPED
Recommended book:
Norman K. Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh
FROM TRIBAL CONFEDERACY TO STATE: DIALECTIC APPROACH TO SCRIPTURE AND A VERY BORING BIBLE PASSAGE THAT MIGHT COME TO LIFE.

2. What held the tribal confederacy together?
Descendants of Abraham
The Promise
Collective Memory: from slavery to freedom
Religion: Law, Covenant, Sanctuary
Strong Personalities: The Judges

3. STRUCTURE OF ISRAEL TRIBAL CONFEDERATION (12 Tribes)
Assemblies to commemorate the covenant and recite laws.
Assemblies to organise defensive wars
TRIBE
Assemblies three times a year for religious celebration
Assemblies to organise defensive wars
Assemblies for for weddings
MISHPANHAH ( 50 of them per tribe)
Heads of clans meet to determine military quotas.
Heads of clans lead religious ceremonies
Heads of clans meet to discuss problems
BETHAN ( Extended Family)
Weddings, funerals, defense, education, agricultural production,
feasts and religious services
Source: Norman K. Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh

4. LIFE AS AN ELDER OFA BETHAN

5. STRUCTURE OF ISRAEL TRIBAL CONFEDERATION (12 Tribes)
Assemblies to commemorate the covenant and recite laws.
Assemblies to organise defensive wars
TRIBE
Assemblies three times a year for religious celebration
Assemblies to organise defensive wars
Assemblies for for weddings
MISHPANHAH ( 50 of them per tribe)
Heads of clans meet to determine military quotas.
Heads of clans lead religious ceremonies
Heads of clans meet to discuss problems
BETHAN ( Extended Family)
Weddings, funerals, defense, education, agricultural production,
feasts and religious services
Source: Norman K. Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh

6. How did you feel?
What was important to you?
To whom could you appeal
Where were your emotional ties?

7. By Samuel’s day what were the problems?
Spiritual apostasy
Civil war
Poverty
Philistines
Technology

8. So was the monarchy a good idea?
1 Samuel 8:1-9
Psalm 45:1-5

9. The Big Change
1 Kings 4:1-19
Think back to your role play:
What‘s the difference now?
To whom do you appeal?
How do you feel now?

10. Though clan ties persisted, and though the twelve-tribe system continued as a sacred tradition, on a national scale the tribes as tribes no longer cut a figure. Tribal independence had ended. Tribesman who had once known no central authority and no political obligation to rally in times of danger were now organized in government districts, liable to heavy taxes and conscription for manual labour. The tribal system was broken; the effective basis of social obligation was no longer Yahweh’s covenant, but the state. And this meant inevitably that in daily affairs covenant law lost much of its relevance.
More than that, the framework of tribal society had been sprung. Onto Israel’s traditionally agrarian and pastoral society an imposing commercial and industrial superstructure had been grafted. She was no longer merely a nation of small farmers.
- John Bright

11. What’s changed?
Centralised
More Urban
Tribal bonds weakened
Higher taxes and slavery
Centred on the South ( Jerusalem)
Are they a society of equals now? No
Free of Philistines
They have the new technology
Master traders
Prosperity
Arts and culture
Temple and religion
National debt, treaties with pagan nations
Divided nation
They have a king.