The history of Israelite religion

Abstract

The “history of Israelite religion” may be provisionally defined as the attempt, by various means and methods, to reconstruct the religious thinking and practices of the ancient Israelite people during the periods reflected in or most directly pertinent to the biblical texts themselves – namely, the Late Bronze Age through the Persian Period/Iron Age III (1500–332 BCE). However, even this provisional definition faces immediate problems. First, the chronological range is extensive. Consequently, the amount of evidence available is massive, even for what is, comparatively speaking, a relatively small geographical region. Hence, the task of describing “Israelite religion” as a comprehensive phenomenon, not to mention its history – which would include matters of emergence, influence, development, and so forth – is herculean. Second, the provisional definition is complicated by additional challenges, including the nature of the sources available to us, the interpretation of nontextual material, and a host of specific questions pertaining to the biblical texts themselves, not the least of which is whether and how they ought to play a role in the study and definition of Israelite religion in the first place. Given the complexity inherent in the subject, this chapter cannot hope to address all these issues and questions, as important as they are. Instead, it will provide a brief overview of the history of the study of Israelite religion before discussing three important issues that have been the subject of significant recent (re)investigation. These issues, which concern the sources, locus, and content of Israelite religion, are critical ones that pertain to any endeavor to write the history of ancient Israelite religion. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAELITE RELIGION Prior to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when artifacts from Mesopotamia and Egypt began to come to the attention of Western Europeans, discussions of Israelite religion were entirely dependent on the Bible and the few classical sources that existed that could shed light on the subject (e.g., Berossus, Manetho, Herodotus, Philo of Byblos, and Lucian). The classical texts were typically scrutinized, if not chastened, by the biblical evidence, which was, at this point in time, deemed superior a priori.

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