IN

Directed toward a synthesis of the history of the religion of Israel, the essays in this volume address key aspects of Israelite religious development. Frank Moore Cross traces the continuities between early Israelite religion and the Caananite culture from which it emerged, explores the tension between the mythic and the historical in Israel's religious expression, and examines the reemergence of Caananite mythic material in the apocalypticism of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In "From Epic to Canon," Frank Moore Cross discusses specific issues that illuminate central questions about the Hebrew Bible and those who created and preserved it. He challenges the persistent attempt to read Protestant theological polemic against law into ancient Israel. Cross uncovers the continuities between the institutions of kinship and of covenant, which he describes as "extended kinship." He examines the social structures of ancient Israel and reveals that beneath its later social and cultural accretions, the concept of covenant--as opposed to codified law--was a vital part of Israel's earliest institutions. He then draws parallels between the expression of kinship and covenant among the Israelites and that practiced by other ancient societies, as well as in primitive societies.

Ancient Yahwistic Poetry is a particularly tempting field of study. In this small body of literature are preserved the oldest and most creative expressions of Israel's faith. this study of ancient Yahwistic poetry by Frank Moore Cross Jr. and David Noel Freedman untangles some of the serious textual difficulties and linguistic obscurities that have been a challenge to students of the Hebrew Bible for many generations.

The discovery of manuscripts in Qumran-the Dead Sea Scrolls-and other sites in the Wilderness of Judah has stimulated a period of unparalleled activity in the study of the biblical text. Students and teachers in this field are overwhelmed with the thousands of articles that have appeared in hundreds of journals in the last thirty years. The older handbooks surveying biblical textual criticism have become hopelessly obsolete. Frank Cross and Shemaryahu Talmon have designed a collection of essays to help the serious student find his way in this transformed field of research. Some of the essays are general surveys, some propound new theories, several publish manuscript data of revolutionary importance. The editors have contributed previously unpublished papers suggesting new approaches to the fundamental task of textual criticism. A list of published manuscripts or manuscript fragments from the Judaean Desert and a bibliography are included.