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9780195091281

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The book offers a first taste of the rich and various religious traditions facilitated by Niditch's succinct comprehensible prose. /Archiv Orientalni Vol 67 1998 Using archaeological evidence as well as biblical texts, Niditch is able to convey the richness and diversity of Israelite religious beliefs and practices without privileging those that are normative in the Hebrew Bible. Furthermore, her sensitive analysis of religious life in the biblical world goes beyond and behind the largely androcentric and urban interests of the biblical writers. She considers issues of gender and social setting, and she connects them to ideas and customs familiar to the contemporary reader. Professor Carol Meyers, Department of Religion, Duke University Susan Niditch is well known for her distinguished work on biblical symbolism and folklore in the biblical tradition. In this volume she has drawn upon those resources, and far more, to produce a rich portrait of ancient Israelite religion that considers both the corporate and the individual, the ideas and the ritual, as well as the ethical aspects of the worldview of the people behind the Hebrew Scriptures. Gene M. Tucker 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. Kirkus The book is eminently usable as a textbook for an introductory course on the Hebrew Bible or in religions, and it should whet most interested students' appetites for more sustained study. W.J. Houston, Journal of Semitic Studies Vol.45 No.1

A very useful overview of ancient Israelite religion, made especially helpful by its use of archaeological materials and the inclusion of supplementary reading suggestions at the end of each chapter. --Victor Roland Gold, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary An innovative new approach to the religion of ancient Israel which integrates archaeology, literature, and anthropological theory. A stimulating window into the world of all of ancient Israel. --William Schniedewind, UCLA Susan Niditch is well known for her distinguished work on biblical symbolism and folklore in the biblical tradition. In this volume she has drawn upon those resources, and far more, to produce a rich portrait of ancient Israelite religion that considers both the corporate and the individual, the ideas and the ritual, as well as the ethical aspects of the worldview of the people behind the Hebrew Scriptures. --Gene M. Tucker, Professor Emeritus, Emory University Using archaeological evidence as well as biblical texts, Niditch is able to convey the richness and diversity of Israelite religious beliefs and practices without privileging those that are normative in the Hebrew Bible. Furthermore, her sensitive analysis of religious life in the biblical world goes beyond and behind the largely androcentric and urban interests of the biblical writers. She considers issues of gender and social setting, and she connects them to ideas and customs familiar to the contemporary reader. --Carol Meyers, Duke University An interesting review of Israelite religion as depicted in the Bible. Niditch focuses on religion rather than philosophy or history, bringing into the foreground a topic often insufficiently distinguished from other areas of Bible studies. --Joshua Fox, Hebrew University, Israel

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)

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Susan Niditch is Samuel Green Professor of Religion at Amherst College. She is the author of numerous books on the Bible, including War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of the Ethics of Violence.

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