The Religion of Israel: from its Beginning to the Babylonian Exile

506 Pages·1972·27.858 MB·English

by  Yehezkel Kaufmann

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Religion
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Babylonian
exile
Yehezkel
Kaufmann
translated and abridged
by Moshe Greenberg
BM Kaufmann, Yehezkel N JEWISH LIFE AND RELIGION
155
-K3743° The religion of Israel, |
from its beginnings to: Worltdheo Taflmu d
the Babylonian exile. ; Bridal Canopy
ys of Awe
ide Kasrilevke
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See back cover for Schocken Paperback titles in other fields.
Fr. Michael D. Guinan, O. F. M.
Franciscan School Of Theology
1712 Euclid Avenue :
Berkeley, California 94709
The Religion of Israel
"TMihe Relizgion oa
From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile
Israel
oy
Yehezkel Kaufman! :
translated and abridged by
Moshe Greenberg
SCHOCKEN BOOKS « NEW YORK
This book is an abridgment and a translation of
wma No Ay op mn :mb>snen anoxn ntdin yopy p Sxpim
Tel-Aviv: Bialik Institute-Dvir, Vol. I (1/1), 1937
Vol. II (1/2), 1937; Vol. III (1/3), 1938
Vol. IV? (II/1), 1947; Vol. V (II/2), 1945; Vol. VI (III/1), 1947
Vol. VII (III/2), 1948; Vol. VIII (IV/1), 1956
The material of Volume VIII is not included in this abridgment
First SCHOCKEN PAPERBACK edition 1972
Copyright © 1960 by The University of Chicago Press
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 60-5466
Manufactured in the United States of America
Preface
The need for rendering into a western language Yehezkel Kaufmann’s
History of Israelite Religion has long been felt. Written in Hebrew, this
major contribution to biblical scholarship has been largely inaccessible
to the many persons here and abroad who have an interest in the subject.
The present work, an abridgment and translation of the first seven volumes,
has been undertaken to supply this need at least in part.
The planned scope of the History takes in the whole of the Second Temple
period, and an eighth volume carrying the study to the beginning of the
Hellenistic age has already appeared. This abridgment, however, is limited
to the volumes treating of the pre-exilic age, which is a self-contained
entity and within which Professor Kaufmann places the bulk of ancient
Hebrew literature and religious creativity.
“This abridgment attempts to convey the essence of the seven volumes.
Nearly all the subjects treated in them have received some space here, with
the exceptions noted below. Although this has meant a high degree of con-
densing, I have endeavored as far as possible to preserve the author’s orig-
inal language, preferring omission and combination to paraphrase.
I have selected from the original only such material as is strictly related
to the history and character of Israelite religion. Discussions of a purely,
or predominantly, literary nature, in which questions of dating and composi-
tion take precedence over religious interest, have been drastically curtailed
or left out entirely. Two major exceptions to this rule have been made:
The literary criticism of the Pentateuch and the literature of classical proph-
ecy is s0 intimately bound up with the history of religion that it was deemed
impossible to omit Professor Kaufmann’s position on it. The gist of the
original argument has, accordingly, been preserved. For the rest, some
v
vi Preface
remarks were all that could be retained of the extensive critical treatments
of the sources that punctuate the original work.
Second, all discussion of disputed points, to which much space is devoted
in the History, has been greatly abridged or wholly omitted. The author’s
position, with only a brief, and at times a merely allusive rather than ex-
plicit, statement of his grounds for differing with the consensus, has been
presented. Reference to the original thus remains necessary for a fair schol-
arly appraisal of the author’s position on any disputed point.
Of other specific items ‘vhich have been omitted I may here mention
the excursus on eschatology at the end of Volume VII, and the treatments
of several of the minor prophets. Documentation and references to the
scholarly literature have been almost entirely excluded by limitations of
space.
In arranging the abridgment I have departed from the original in the
first part by placing the morphological, cross-historical treatment of Israelite
religion before the source criticism. This material, which in any case lies
outside the framework of the historical chapters, has here been placed at
the beginning because the distinctive character wwhhiicchh tthhee aauutthhoorr aassccrriibbee s
to Israel’s religion is the ceennttrraall ppiillllaarr ooff hh iiss tthhoouugghhtt and underlies much
of the later discussion. Professor Kaufmann’s own article on the religion
of Israel in Volume II of the Hebrew Encyclopaedia Biblica follows the same
arrangement. For the rest, the order of the abridgment generally follows
that of the original, as may be seen in the table below.*
* The abridgment corresponds to the original as in the table. In the body of the text
some editorial revisions have been made, and these appear in brackets.
ABRIDGMENT ORIGINAL
Vol. | Chaps.
PART ONE: THE CHARACTER OF ISRAELITE RELIGION
I. The Basic Problem II 10
II. Pagan Religion II 11
III. Israelite Religion II 12
IV. The Religion of the People III 13, 15
PART TWO: THE HISTORY OF ISRAELITE RELIGION
PRIOR TO CLASSICAL PROPHECY
V. The Sources I
VI. The Origins of Israelite Religion Ill 17
1V 1253
VII. The Conquest and Settlement III 14
IV 4,5
VIII. The Monarchy III 16
IV 6, 7, 8,9
TX. Some Aspects of the Popular Religion Vv
[Footnote continued on following page]
Preface vit
This work could not have been undertaken without the support and
encouragement of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which, through its
Book Department (now the Herzl Institute), provided a subvention for
the preparation of the manuscript. I wish to’record here my deep gratitude
for this generous assistance. To my wife I am beholden for constant and
unstinting help in every stage of the work.
If ‘to translate is to traduce,” what shall be said of a translation that is
at the same time an abridgment! So perilous an undertaking, the more so in
view of the relative inaccessibility of the original, would not have been en-
tered upon without the approval of Professor Kaufmann, who passed on the
plan of the work and saw the manuscript. But this permission must not be
taken to involve him in responsibility for the selection of the material or the
manner of its adaptation. That errors of commission and omission have oc-
curred is inevitable in such a work. My hope is that enough has been pre-
served of the original for its force to overcome these defects, so that this
book may not be an unworthy vehicle for bringing something of the con-
tribution of Professor Kaufmann to the attention of a wider audience.
MosHE GREENBERG
Merion, PENNSYLVANIA
PART THREE: CLASSICAL PROPHECY
X. The Literature and the Age VI 1
XI. Amos and Hosea VI 273
XII. Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk VI 4,6
VII 10
XIII. The Prophecy of the Fall: Jeremiah and Ezekiel VII 11, 12, 13
EPILOGUE AND PROSPECT Adapted from: VI 5
and Kaufmann’s Gola ve-Nékar, I, 6