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A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period: Volume II: From the Exile to the Maccabees
This book, the second of two volumes, offers a comprehensive history of Israelite religion. It is a part of the Old Testament Library series. The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.
372 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 28, 2020
A well structured book, well researched and argued. Albertz covers a lot of ground in a manageable space and offers a compelling portrait. His insights regarding the sociological reasons for certain theological developments are particularly helpful.
The book does suffer from a few drawbacks. First, the book relies quite heavily on certain documentary hypotheses for his constructions to work, and these documentary theories are highly speculative. More so, they are constantly being reworked, which renders many of Albertz's ideas obsolete in a fairly short amount of time.
Second, Albertz's documentary theories, and therefore his sociological reconstructions, rely upon specific dating for certain texts that are open to considerable debate. Again, if some of his dates are off, then many of his theories don't work.
Third, Albertz is right to understand that there was no monolithic "mainstream" Judaism in the Second Temple Period, but he swings maybe too far in the opposite direction, where he seems to view every document as the product of some very specific group which not only has its own interests, but whose interests are essentially contrary to the interests of all of the other "groups." It is likely that some Israelite/Jewish authors were counteracting one another, but Albertz sees nearly all of the literature in the contrarian light, and some of these "groups" he imagines may have never even existed.
Finally, Albertz ignores, or makes too little use, of some fairly important Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha texts, and I think any attempt at a historical account seems incomplete when leaving out so many documents.
On the whole, helpful, but of limited value for anyone looking for a fuller account which considers all the literature, or for anyone who questions Albertz's views on redaction and the dating of certain documents.
The book does suffer from a few drawbacks. First, the book relies quite heavily on certain documentary hypotheses for his constructions to work, and these documentary theories are highly speculative. More so, they are constantly being reworked, which renders many of Albertz's ideas obsolete in a fairly short amount of time.
Second, Albertz's documentary theories, and therefore his sociological reconstructions, rely upon specific dating for certain texts that are open to considerable debate. Again, if some of his dates are off, then many of his theories don't work.
Third, Albertz is right to understand that there was no monolithic "mainstream" Judaism in the Second Temple Period, but he swings maybe too far in the opposite direction, where he seems to view every document as the product of some very specific group which not only has its own interests, but whose interests are essentially contrary to the interests of all of the other "groups." It is likely that some Israelite/Jewish authors were counteracting one another, but Albertz sees nearly all of the literature in the contrarian light, and some of these "groups" he imagines may have never even existed.
Finally, Albertz ignores, or makes too little use, of some fairly important Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha texts, and I think any attempt at a historical account seems incomplete when leaving out so many documents.
On the whole, helpful, but of limited value for anyone looking for a fuller account which considers all the literature, or for anyone who questions Albertz's views on redaction and the dating of certain documents.
September 2, 2025
Incredible scholarship; helpful, challenging
This book, and volume one, represent incredible scholarship. Readable, informative, enlightening. If you’re considering it, buy it. If you’re looking for the history behind the Biblical content, this is the best book (two volumes) I’ve found. It’ll be read/reread/studied.
This book, and volume one, represent incredible scholarship. Readable, informative, enlightening. If you’re considering it, buy it. If you’re looking for the history behind the Biblical content, this is the best book (two volumes) I’ve found. It’ll be read/reread/studied.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews