An overly brief but very well organized and informative overview of
Judaism's formative stage during the 13th to 5th centuries B.C.
Bible scholar Niditch (Religion/Amherst Coll.) focuses on the
worldview expressed in the Hebrew Bible. She devotes chapters to
four aspects of that worldview: the experiential, the mythical, the
ritual, and the ethical-legal, largely basing her analysis on close
readings of biblical texts. Sometimes, though unfortunately not
often enough, she uses insight garnered from archaeological
findings or the texts of other ancient Near Eastern religions.
Niditch's greatest strength is her succinct, accessible prose;
there is solid scholarship, but no academic pretentiousness or
jargon here. She is particularly good at capturing and evoking an
aspect of ancient Judaism in a sentence or a phrase. For example,
after exploring the Yom Kippur ritual of the scapegoat that is
prescribed in Leviticus, she observes how it is linked to other
biblical rituals involving uncleanliness and danger, then concludes
that "sin, like the seductive personification in the story of Cain
and Abel, the one who crouches at the door, is real and visceral, a
contaminant which makes impossible a healthful continuation of the
covenant community." Also enhancing her book is an excellent
bibliography. The work's only weakness is an occasional penchant
for deriving conclusions from insufficient evidence. An example:
Niditch states that the context and content of the ritual of
redeeming the first-born son (see Exodus 22) "seems to be support
that child sacrifice was indeed a thread in ancient Israelite
religion." Far more evidence is needed for this spectacular claim.
On balance, though, this is a first-rate introduction, for
undergraduate and graduate students and all serious students of
Judaism, to the social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual
underpinnings of the Hebrew Bible. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is a readable introduction to the religious traditions of the ancient Israelites, the people of the Hebrew Bible. It sets forth the biblical and extra-biblical evidence concerning their beliefs, myths, and ritual practices.
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