Overview

A panoramic, thousand-year history of Israelite religion, from the Iron Age to the birth of Judaism, by a renowned biblical scholar From its Iron Age beginnings to its aftermath in the Roman period, Israelite religion went through significant changes and transformations. As the Israelites responded to major historical events and political realities, their collective beliefs and practices evolved over time and developed new forms, even as earlier elements of religious culture remained an active substratum. Weaving together biblical literature, archaeology, and comparative sources, award-winning author Karel van der Toorn tells the sweeping story of how Israelite religion evolved from a tribal cult honoring the ancestors and the ""god of the fathers"" to a scriptural religion practiced by an ethnic minority within the Roman Empire. He demonstrates how religion was integral to nation-building as Israel transitioned from a nomadic chiefdom to a monarchical state; how religious practices changed in response to the loss of political independence; and how in the final centuries before the Common Era, as Hellenistic culture permeated the Eastern Mediterranean, Israelite religion gave rise to a variety of reading communities committed to a body of sacred scripture, with the law of Moses at its core. Combining literary studies, anthropology, linguistics, history, and more, this book tells the fascinating story of Israelite religion as it has never been told before.

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9780300248111

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Reviews

“This fresh and timely synthesis combines van der Toorn’s own prodigious expertise with the best of contemporary scholarship. The result is judicious, sophisticated, and comprehensive—and will be indispensable for students and scholars alike.”—Molly Zahn, Yale Divinity School “With the careful eye of a historian and the sensibility of a storyteller, van der Toorn mines the clues in textual and material sources to reconstruct Israelite religion in all its variety, complexity, and foreignness. He masterfully loosens Israelite religion from the grip of anachronism and bias, revealing worldviews that are enigmatic yet logical in their own right. Refreshingly readable, up-to-date, and disorienting in all the best ways, Israelite Religion reveals the importance of letting the ancient sources and their contexts speak for themselves—and what we gain when we learn to listen.”—Sara Milstein, author of Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law “In this wonderful study, Karel van der Toorn clearly and skillfully leads readers through the historical unfolding of Israelite religion. This is the work of a mature scholar at the top of his craft.”—J. Andrew Dearman, Fuller Theological Seminary “In this book, Karel van der Toorn provides an erudite and accessible synthesis of the history of ancient Israelite religion, embedded in its cultural, political, and social historical contexts. It includes a plethora of new ideas, but never loses sight of its overall subject.”—Konrad Schmid, University of Zurich “Using literary, historical, and archaeological sources, van der Toorn presents the reader with an extremely well-written, magisterial synthetic analysis of the history of the Israelite religion from its early beginnings until the first century CE.”—Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Author Information

Karel van der Toorn is professor and chair of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible and Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine, among other publications.

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