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Ancient Israelite Religion

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This is an excellent, gentle introduction to an ancient religion. Some of the more controversial themes, for example child sacrifice, are touched on but not fully discussed. Niditch maintains throughout the book a non-pedantic style allowing the reader to gain an overall appreciation of the insights offered by modern scholarship (Ugarit texts, etc.) without getting lost in an endless sea of footnotes and references.

This is readable, and a useful tool for becoming familiar with the ancient Israelite religion written by a well-known biblical scholar.

Book Report on Ancient Israelite Religion

Ancient Israelite Religion is full of interesting critical thought. Published by Oxford University Press in 1997, the book studies the different facets of the Israelite belief system and consequent culture. The author, Susan Niditch, is a professor at Amherst College. As the Samuel Green Professor of Religion, she has also written the book War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of the Ethics of Violence.

Professor Niditch covers the major aspects of the Israelite religion. Her chapter topics are divided logically. The aspects of the Israelite religion are dispersed into the cultural significance, the experiential aspect, the patterns of life and death, the ethics and a chapter on some of the rituals of the Israelites.

The first chapter deals with the cultural significance of the Israelite religion. The author begins by explaining her divisions of the Yahwist religion. She gives a short summary of the story of the Hebrew Bible, beginning with creation, the spread of mankind, Abraham and Sarah, through the prophets of the exile. Professor Niditch uses much archaeological evidence in order to give information about the Israelites daily life. She begins with the Pre-Monarchic Period, the earliest period of Israelite history, beginning about thirteen hundred years B.C.E. Pictures of ancient sites and reconstructions of Israelite houses grace the text, which was easy to follow and understand. The artifacts from the period of the Monarchies follows, with the beginning of the towns of Israel. For the last part of the introductory chapter, Professor Niditch gives many of the different opinions regarding the Hebrew Bible's origins.

The next chapter deals with God's dealings with man, the experiential aspect of the Hebrew religion. Professor Niditch first speaks about the Israelite's concept of a covenant, the agreement between them and God, giving them long life and prosperity if they follow God's decrees. Niditch cites examples from the lives of Abram (later called Abraham), Moses, and the prophet Elijah during his flight from the evil Queen Jezebel (a name now synonymous with wickedness). The author separates the women's experiences from the men's, as the women's most often have to do with prophetic or angelic announcements of their coming son's importance to the cause of their people. The author talks about personal experiences with God, those of Jacob and Moses cited as examples. Next, Susan Niditch discusses the Biblical stories of heavenly visions and experiences, as well as Israelite views on the dead.

Chapter three continues where the second chapter ended. Professor Niditch continues on the subject of the Israelites views of life and death. The author discusses the creation story of the Bible, comparing it to that of the Mesopotamians. She attributes the second form of the Biblical story to the influence of the Babylonians, saying that the fear of the Babylonians caused the Israelites to confirm their beliefs by reworking the story to fit the emotional needs of the people. Niditch explains a view of the character of Wisdom, as the female companion to God. Wisdom, held in the esteem of the writer of Proverbs eight and nine, is described as a woman, which gives rise to Professor Niditch's belief that she may well be the Israelites reaction to the god-pairs of other religions.

In the fourth chapter, Niditch describes Israelite laws and ethics, working from the second chapter's topic area of covenants. She goes into the specific laws of the Israelites, regarding each area of life, such as what is allowed on the Sabbath, the day of rest. The author takes the book of Deuteronomy on as a separate topic. She describes how Deuteronomy is more concerned with giving the law in the context of helping those in need, the Levites, without any land holdings of their own, widows, orphans, and the observing of the Sabbath (which in Israelite culture, involved the freeing of the slaves in Sabbath years). The author spends a great deal of time perusing Deuteronomy, gaining insights and explaining her thoughts about the Israelites that come from this book.

The Ritual Dimension, the last chapter of the book, is developed using four examples of Israelite rituals which Niditch uses to make observations about the Israelite culture. Professor Niditch uses the passages explaining the celebration of the Passover (Exodus 12), the ritual of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), the Israelite ritual regarding the woman's innocence or guilt of an extramarital affair, both from the ritualistic perspective, and from the woman's (Numbers 5:11-31 and Judges 11:29-40).

To complete the book, Niditch included maps and study questions. She also included a extensive list of resources used for the book, including a list of all of the passages used from the Hebrew Bible itself.

Niditch provides a short introduction to the ancient Israelites. She introduces her readers to the differing areas in which they may find Israelite religion to appear. Susan Niditch gives an easy to understand explanation of the worldview of the Israelites.

I feel that Ancient Israelite Religion gave me a concise picture of the Israelites and taught me about their culture. However, Professor Niditch made disappointing statements that Christians and many Jews might find offensive, such as in the section dealing with child sacrifice, and in her general opinions of Biblical characters and situations. It seemed that Professor Niditch often took a negative view on topics, refusing to see the situation from a point of view other than her own, not even adding the voice of another expert or historical fact.
For example, the author assumes that since the Hebrew Bible has directives against mediums, spiritism must have run rampant. Even in our culture today, there are many mediums and psychics, though much of the general populace does not go to these people for direction and spiritual experiences. Americans still use church most regularly for their source of spiritual fulfillment and to turn to in times of bereavement. The author uses the example of Saul going to the medium at Gondor to see the spirit of Elijah as an example of how prevalent the spiritists were in ancient Israel (I Samuel 28). However, the Hebrew Bible also states that the woman was one of the last spiritists left in Israel. Early in his reign, Saul had cut the witches off (I Samuel 28:9-10). It seems to me, therefore, that though some knew of her, the general populace did not, for then she would have been driven away by Saul's men. Why then are the Jews given a sweeping judgment about their ancestors' beliefs in spiritism and the use of mediums by the author? There were a few cases of this type that I found mildly aggravating, as the Jews honor their heritage to such a great extent. I felt that I might be offended, if a member of their race, and that Professor Niditch, in her efforts to refrain from being long-winded, may have made judgment errors in her writing that would be frustrating to some.

I found the book to be informative. However, due to Professor Niditch's assumptions about Israelite culture, I felt that I could not fully enjoy the book, as I had to be on my guard against receiving erroneous information, as she did not back it up with other experts' opinions or archaeological evidence.

I was somewhat disappointed with this general introduction to ancient Judaism/Israelite religion. I must agree with Kirkus reviews that Prof Niditch's conclusions can be rather spectacular with no supporting evidence offered, e.g. the possibility of child sacrifice among the ancient Israelites. Prof Niditch seems to base most of her conclusions on the premise that if the Israelites were admonished not to perform a certain act, that they therefore necessarily had a penchant to perform this act. While this is certainly possible, it seems to me insufficient evidence per se to claim that this was common practice among ancient Jews. I also found her analysis of the Tanakhic worldview into experiential, mythical, ritual, and ethical-legal divisions to be somewhat arbitrary, perforce overlapping, and confusing. Finally, although scholars of ancient Israelite religion should be primarily concerned with the prima facie evidence, I would also like to believe that Second Temple and Mishnaic Judaism are a continuation of ancient Israelite religion and certainly did not arise in a vacuum. Perhaps an inclusion or understanding of Talmudic exegesis in this analysis would prevent some of the more speculative conclusions proferred by Prof Niditch. Thank you.