The old Israelite community and the rise of the monarchy

The egalitarian instincts of Israel, the emphasis on the rights of the individual, and the loose organisation of corporate life owed something to the background of nomadic existence prior to the settlement in Canaan. Tribalism continued as a factor in the Israelite community after the settlement, and there was the consciousness of a tension between the wider loyalty required by an inter-tribal society, and the old and narrower loyalties focused intensely on tribal prestige, and unable to transcend tribal boundaries. These centrifugal tendencies were counteracted by the functioning of amphictyony as a cement. The organs of amphictyony were the central sanctuary with its covenant cult and covenant law to which all the tribes subscribed. Thereby it was possible to frame such legislation as would, secure the coherence of the wider society and determine the essential characteristics of its corporate life, because the authority of Yahweh, which was behind the operation of the amphictyonic machinery, was acceptable to all. Amphictyony knew of no division between sacred and secular, since it endeavoured to bring the sum total of corporate relationships under the aegis of Yahweh, With the advent of the monarchy the preservation of this unity was no longer possible. Partly this was the to the unwillingness of kings to subordinate themselves to the policies and goals of amphictyony and partly, to the incompatibility between the ideals of amphictyony and the survival of Israel as a nation among the nations. The Icings resolved to organise Israel in accordance with accepted worldly standards of strength and fitness for survival. The emergence of mercenaries may have been partly a consequence of this, although it was also connected with the failure of David and Solomon to retain the sympathy of their people, and the consequent necessity to rule tyrannically through power elements in their personal employ. David and Solomon lost the support and confidence of their people because, in creating a centralised kingdom, they invaded the liberties of the individual Israelite, wounded tribal susceptibilities, and destroyed the corporate values of amphictyony which was ideally a religious brotherhood. Great social and economic equalities were created by the development of trade and commerce. The concentration of wealth in the hands of the few marched with excessive poverty amount the many. In particular the peasant's plot, which was in the gift of Yahweh and inalienable from its ancestral owner, ceased to be the subject of religious demand. Instead it was exposed to the market and treated as an article of commerce, so that the plight of the pleasantly was desperate and a fundamental social sanction subverted. Solomon ruled as an absolute monarch and used his people as means to his own personal ends. They paid for his pretensions to greatness and his attachment to the pattern of oriental monarchy in the grand style in forced labour, crushing taxation and reduced living standards. The Jerusalem cult of the king which flourished under Solomon, was a device to invest his despotism with a Divine Right by declaring him to be a Son of Yahweh, and by asserting that the well-being of the people depended absolutely on his effective fulfillment of his unique mediatorial role. The offices of prophet and priest are grounded in the unity of the araphictyonic community, and both ministered to its wholeness by performing complementary functions. The great debate between the canonical prophets and the cult was directly associated with the effects on the latter of the rise of the monarchy. It was the policy of the monarchy to maintain the fiction of Yahweh's continued sway over the life of His community. The canonical prophets saw that in this the kings wore using Yahweh's cult as a tool for the securing of the own contrary ends, and that, while Yahweh was honoured in the cult, with festival and sacrifice, large sectors of the corporate life of Israel had been wrested from His control, and ordered so as to repudiate the corporate values of amphictyony

Long- and short-term outcomes in renal allografts with deceased donors: A large recipient and donor genome-wide association study.

Improvements in immunosuppression have modified short-term survival of deceased-donor allografts, but not their rate of long-term failure. Mismatches between donor and recipient HLA play an important role in the acute and chronic allogeneic immune response against the graft. Perfect matching at clinically relevant HLA loci does not obviate the need for immunosuppression, suggesting that additional genetic variation plays a critical role in both short- and long-term graft outcomes. By combining patient data and samples from supranational cohorts across the United Kingdom and European Union, we performed the first large-scale genome-wide association study analyzing both donor and recipient DNA in 2094 complete renal transplant-pairs with replication in 5866 complete pairs. We studied deceased-donor grafts allocated on the basis of preferential HLA matching, which provided some control for HLA genetic effects. No strong donor or recipient genetic effects contributing to long- or short-term allograft survival were found outside the HLA region. We discuss the implications for future research and clinical application

Renal artery sympathetic denervation:observations from the UK experience

Background: Renal denervation (RDN) may lower blood pressure (BP); however, it is unclear whether medication changes may be confounding results. Furthermore, limited data exist on pattern of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) response—particularly in those prescribed aldosterone antagonists at the time of RDN. Methods: We examined all patients treated with RDN for treatment-resistant hypertension in 18 UK centres. Results: Results from 253 patients treated with five technologies are shown. Pre-procedural mean office BP (OBP) was 185/102 mmHg (SD 26/19; n = 253) and mean daytime ABP was 170/98 mmHg (SD 22/16; n = 186). Median number of antihypertensive drugs was 5.0: 96 % ACEi/ARB; 86 % thiazide/loop diuretic and 55 % aldosterone antagonist. OBP, available in 90 % at 11 months follow-up, was 163/93 mmHg (reduction of 22/9 mmHg). ABP, available in 70 % at 8.5 months follow-up, was 158/91 mmHg (fall of 12/7 mmHg). Mean drug changes post RDN were: 0.36 drugs added, 0.91 withdrawn. Dose changes appeared neutral. Quartile analysis by starting ABP showed mean reductions in systolic ABP after RDN of: 0.4; 6.5; 14.5 and 22.1 mmHg, respectively (p < 0.001 for trend). Use of aldosterone antagonist did not predict response (p < 0.2). Conclusion: In 253 patients treated with RDN, office BP fell by 22/9 mmHg. Ambulatory BP fell by 12/7 mmHg, though little response was seen in the lowermost quartile of starting blood pressure. Fall in BP was not explained by medication changes and aldosterone antagonist use did not affect response

The Old Testament Library: V.16.: Proverbs: A New approach

Philadelphiaxxii, 670 p.; 23 cm

Torch Bible Commentaries : V.9-10: I and II Samuel

London303 p.; 19 c

The Old Testament Library : Proverbs

London670 p.; 23 c

Prophets and Wise Men : Studies in biblical theology

London136 p.; 21 c