Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic; Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel.

Rating:
Summary: Conservative, Radical, Challenging, Debatable
Review: "Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic" is a series of related essays on the composition of the Hebrew Bible. It is conservative in that it takes the general framework of the Biblical chronology as accurate, and Cross refers readily to "patriarchal folk", "the league" of tribes, "the empire of David and Solomon" and the "divided monarchy". Within this conservatism, Cross adheres to the relative conservatism of the Documentary Hypothesis, which is taken for granted by most scholars, but anathema to those who hold to the unity of the scriptures.

The book is radical in that Cross isolates themes and expressions derived from Canaanite mythology, particularly from mid-2nd millenium tablets found at Ugarit, written in an alphabetic script. He delves deeply into the names, titles and attributes of God, as well as into various sources which were united in the Bible as we now know it. "The Song of the Sea" rates a special chapter in which Cross demonstrates the independence of the poem from the story that surrounds it. He also reconstructs archaic precursor poems to various Biblical texts.

The book is challenging in that it is quite difficult and detailed. When I got started reading "Canaanite Myth..." 6 months ago, I quickly realized I didn't know enough to read it, so I took a few months to acquaint myself with the rudiments of Hebrew and middle-Eastern archaeology. Hebrew text, transliterations of Ugaritic, discussions of etymology and usage, sources of scribal error, and so on, using technical terms are the stuff of the volume, so it's not nearly as simple or neat as a least one of the other reviewers has suggested.

Finally, the book is debatable in that the reconstuctions of archaic texts based on the text we now have, the oldest exemplars of which date from the Hellenistic/Roman period, and projecting them backwards a millenium, and deriving political and ritual presumed practices from them seems to me highly speculative and ultimately dubious. For instance, while Cross does successfully demonstrate that "The Song of the Sea" is independent of the J and E sources, without more data, how can anyone possibly know at what point the poem became Yahwistic? The author cites archaic usage in dating, but it does not escape me that in our own culture, which is much less conservative than ancient cultures were, right into the 20th century, virtually all religious texts were translated into pseudo-King James English, which itself was archaic in 1611. Without securely dated copies, how would any future scholars date these? At the same time the book raises a number of issues which merit further study. This is not a book to read once and put on the shelf. It has much to offer for long term study.

Rating:
Summary: On following the proofs:
Review: Cross is a scholar of outstanding merit. That said, the true worth of this book lies not in its bottom line conclusions-that the God of Israel represents an often overt, sometimes absurd, form of continuity with its antecedent Canaanite theogonic fellows--but in the rigor of its proofs and the tools manipulated in arriving there. However, without specific training in the field, one will be at a loss to evaluate exactly this most valuable dimension. In point of fact, I was often unable to so much as check the content of his citations; Cross, in accordance with ancient phonetizations that I could only glean from assorted footnotes, felt (potentially legitimately) no compunctions to adhere to the Masoritic text that I possessed. With this as the state of affairs, I could not critically examine the salience of any particular argument nor sense when Cross was engaged in something truly novel, to be taken note of.

Nonetheless, there is much to be gained about the rules of this primarily academic game simply by taking stock of Cross' presumptions and tools of reference. On top of that, the conclusions are fascinating, and even without fully 'grokking' the rigor of their proofs, they alone will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful
Review: This book provides valid theories concerning the evolution of the JudeoChristian creed from Phoenician/Canaanite religion.It will dispel many of the misconceptions perpetrated by jewish and christian fundamentalists for many centuries.Includes phonetically translated ugaritic texts semitic names and biblicaltexts, as well as detailed grammatical and linguistc essays on semitic languages.It is a must for anyone interested in near eastern mythology and language.