Verified Document

Herodotus Sam Views Of Kingship, Term Paper

Related Topics:

" (8.6-7) Humanity, this suggests, cannot serve two masters -- God and a king, and humanity in the form of Israel chooses kingship. Thus, humanity is far more servile and weak and in need of divine guidance, than human beings who actively resist tyranny, in Herodotus, whether it be in their schema of governance of not. "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots." warns Samuel. (8.11) Unlike Herodotus, failures to come are moral, rather than active events in battle, and they are the failures of Israel, not of her opponents alone.

Thus, Herodotus' vantage as an outsider to Persian customs, and Samuel's view as an insider to the land of Israel affects their points-of-view as well. Both authors take a negative view of autocracy, although one judges it in practical terms and the other in moral terms....

And both authors use their societies as moral benchmarks, for good or for ill, against other ancient societies. However, the means by which they judge these benchmarks differ -- Herodotus remains a narrative, secular historian, concerned with hearsay rather than heresy, for all of his flights of fantasy and belief in what seems less than credulous, and Samuel spins tales with clear morals, rather than political lessons. Prophets cannot fail in Samuel, for they provide the voice of God, while in Herodotus prophets merely unfailingly reinforce political realities in their words. Prophesy limits kings by reminding them of their human limits in Samuel, while in Herodotus defeat in battle is the only limit upon tyranny.
Works Cited

Herodotus. Histories. Lewis Stiles, Translator. (14 October 2004) http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/DeptTransls/Hdt.html#xerxes?

Samuel. King James Version. (14 October 2004) http://www.bartleby.com/108/09/8.html

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Herodotus. Histories. Lewis Stiles, Translator. (14 October 2004) http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/DeptTransls/Hdt.html#xerxes?

Samuel. King James Version. (14 October 2004) http://www.bartleby.com/108/09/8.html
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Excessive Force by Police Many
Words: 1285 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Analysts worry that the imagery of "terrorist" and "immigrant" will be a potent source of increased uses of excessive force (Bai and Tang 2002). Finally, the fact that juries rarely convict police officers for use of excessive force indirectly contributes to this culture. The police officers accused in the Diallo killing and the Rodney King beating, for example, were acquitted. Author and former prosecutor Scott Turrow wrote about the difficulty

Excessive Force an Officer Shoves
Words: 1024 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

If the suspect's injuries required medical attention, though, the use of force might be considered excessive. Each case is considered on an individual basis. Such elements as the officer's size, the suspect's size, the severity of any injury incurred, and the severity of the crime under question will all be taken into account. When defining "excessive force," uninvolved officers who are considered to be reasonable and prudent will provide a

Excessive Force in California
Words: 2215 Length: 8 Document Type: Case Study

Excessive Use of Police Force in the State of California Excessive Force in California The objective of this study is to examine the use of excessive force by police officers in the State of California. Toward this end, this study will conduct an extensive review of literature in this area of inquiry. The work of Wiley (2011) entitled "Excessive Force Claims: Disentangling Constitutional Standards" reports that "excessive force claims seem to be reported

Excessive Force
Words: 959 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Proposal

Excessive Force Since September of 2011, "federal prosecutors are targeting a rising number of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality" (Johnson, 2007). Statistics report that there have been increases in "cases in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victim's civil rights," estimates put it at approximately 25% (Johnson, 2007). Given the increase in excessive force by police, it

Excessive Use of Force the
Words: 1960 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

S. In April 2005, where there is a description of how a cell search took place there as per his version. "The guards secured his hands behind his back and, while he was so restrained, the guards picked him up and slammed his body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell. They then threw him on the floor and continued to pound his body and bang his

Excessive Use of Force by
Words: 1680 Length: 5 Document Type: Thesis

The young man had struck the officer repeatedly before continuing to resist arrest, and finally being killed. The court found in favor of the officer. Hopkins v. Andaya is a similar case in which an officer was struck repeatedly and ignore despite several warnings. In both these cases, self-defense necessitated the use of firearms. In the case of Tennessee v Garner, on the other hand, a suspect was fleeing. According to

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now