Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah

by Francesca Stavrakopoulou (Editor), John Barton (Editor)

Understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Israelites has changed considerably in recent years. It is now increasingly accepted that the biblical presentation of Israelite religion is often at odds with the historical realities of ancient Israel's religious climate. As such, the diversity inherent to ancient Israelite religion is often overlooked-particularly within university lecture halls and classrooms.  This textbook draws together specialists in the field to explain, illustrate and analyze this religious diversity. Following an introductory essay guiding the reader through the book, the collection falls into three sections.


The first focuses on conceptual diversities. It deconstructs common assumptions about Israelite religion and reconstructs Israelite perceptions of the nature of the religious world. The second section examines socio-religious diversities. It studies the varied social contexts of ancient Israelites, exploring the relationship between worshippers' social locations and their perceptions and experiences of the divine. The third section deals with geographical diversities. It seeks to understand how geographical distinctions engender certain characteristics within Israelite religion and impact upon religious perceptions.

Underpinning each essay in this volume is a shared concern (1) explore the ways in which worshippers' socio-cultural contexts shape and colour their religious beliefs and practices; (2) assess the role, benefits and limitations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in reconstructing ancient Israelite religion.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Judaism

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2010

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

By theologians and for theologians, which means that most if not all of the contributions hinge entirely on the text of the Bible, and most if not all of the conclusions will be plainly obvious to anyone not religiously motivated to miss them—of course there was a great deal of religious diversity among the Israelites of the First and early Second Temple periods; if there wasn't, why would so many of the authors of the Bible be so preoccupied with delineating and enforcing their idea of religious orthodoxy, even ignoring the many specific instances of heterodoxy they denounce? Most of the chapters do concern themselves with what this diversity looked like, at least, and its just the editors who seem to want to frame it as if the very notion of religious diversity is a very new and controversial concept.
The first few chapters are duds, but some of the later ones are worth your time; I expect I'll be returning to Grabbe's examination of the appearance of YHWH outside Israel myself.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The articles in this collection draw upon evidence from archaeology, epigraphy, and texts both biblical and otherwise to reconstruct a picture of the religious landscape of ancient Palestine and the Transjordan. The overarching conclusion one can draw from the volume as a whole is that this landscape was both more and less heterogeneous than either the biblical narratives or generations of biblical scholarship have supposed. Traditional perceptions of where the lines of religious differentiation were drawn are argued to be largely the result of the theological and political motives of the Deuteronomistic scribes who edited the biblical text into an approximation of its present form. This textual mediation of history has been compounded by the implicitly theological biases of modern scholars regarding depictions of cultural practices alien to 'secular' Western values.

Historical and archaeological evidence pointing toward broad similarities across regional culture-groups suggests greater continuity of religious and political ritual between Judah, Israel, and their neighbors than the testimony of the biblical text would allow. Conversely, both biblical and extrabiblical evidence contradicts the impression of diachronic continuity in cultic practices from the Patriarchal age down to the Hellenistic, while also revealing both nonconformity and interdependence between personal, local, and 'national' religions.

In all cases, reconstructions of religious practice – to say nothing of belief – are complicated by the nature of the evidence; texts are biased, archaeological recovery is never truly systematic and always open to the fallibility of interpretation. Moreover, determining just who was being worshiped by whom is made even more uncertain by the multiplicity of divine epithets and frequent syncretic identifications of one god with another. While frustrating for the positivistic aims of scientific scholarship, this very ambiguity offers us perhaps the clearest evidence that we cannot rely upon untested assumptions if we hope to approach an objective understanding of the ancient past.

[Jeremiah W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the diversity and complexity of religion in Ancient Israel and Judah and why the Bible's view of a monolithic religion is not historically representative but motivated by agenda.