Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel

by Frank Moore Cross

Book Overview

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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674091760
• ISBN13: 9780674091764
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 394 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Difficult but indispensable

This book treads roughly the same ground as Mark S. Smith's The Early History of God and The Origins of Biblical Monotheism. It is a tour de force of historical reconstruction from biblical sources. It deals with many of the thorny problems of the disparate historical books of the Bible (Chronicles and Joshua-2Kings). It includes the crucial paper on the dual redaction of the Deuteronomic History (Deuteronomy and Joshua-2 Kings). That paper alone is worth the purchase of the book, because it has been so influential over the years. Furthermore, he shreds the fashionable Jebusite hypothesis regarding the origins of Zadok, David's high priest, although his own theory has holes as well. In order to fully appreciate this book you will need a solid grounding in Biblical Hebrew grammar, ancient Near Eastern history and mythology, and Biblical literature. Some of his discussions get extremely technical regarding paleography, epigraphy, and West Semitic grammar.

On following the proofs:

Cross is a scholar of outstanding merit. That said, the true worth of this book lies not in its bottom line conclusions-that the God of Israel represents an often overt, sometimes absurd, form of continuity with its antecedent Canaanite theogonic fellows--but in the rigor of its proofs and the tools manipulated in arriving there. However, without specific training in the field, one will be at a loss to evaluate exactly this most valuable dimension. In point of fact, I was often unable to so much as check the content of his citations; Cross, in accordance with ancient phonetizations that I could only glean from assorted footnotes, felt (potentially legitimately) no compunctions to adhere to the Masoritic text that I possessed. With this as the state of affairs, I could not critically examine the salience of any particular argument nor sense when Cross was engaged in something truly novel, to be taken note of.Nonetheless, there is much to be gained about the rules of this primarily academic game simply by taking stock of Cross' presumptions and tools of reference. On top of that, the conclusions are fascinating, and even without fully 'grokking' the rigor of their proofs, they alone will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Insightful

This book provides valid theories concerning the evolution of the JudeoChristian creed from Phoenician/Canaanite religion.It will dispel many of the misconceptions perpetrated by jewish and christian fundamentalists for many centuries.Includes phonetically translated ugaritic texts semitic names and biblicaltexts, as well as detailed grammatical and linguistc essays on semitic languages.It is a must for anyone interested in near eastern mythology and language.

will offend Christian fundamentalists - great for research

This book demonstrates the evolution of the Bible as we eventually wound up with it. This is NOT a book for people in possession of a conclusion searching for a premise. It will definitely offend Christian and Hebrew Fundamentalists, but then they have an enormous stake in maintaing their sense of place and livelihood with the status quo. Buy this book for an IMPARTIAL look at the history of what constitutes the bible.

Extremely Helpful

You won't find any value in this book unless you are really into deep scholarship. This book was written by a leading Harvard expert in the field. I found it very helpful for researching some similarties between Ancient Israel and her polytheistic neighbors.