The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile

496 Pages·1972·23.735 MB·English

by  Yehezkel Kaufmann

YEH EZK EL KAUFMANN
The Religion of Israel
From its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile
TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED BY
MOSnE GREENBERG
LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNW IN LTD
FIRST PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN IN 1961
This book is copyright under the Herne, Convention. A pari
from- any fair dealing for the. purpose, of private, study,
research, criticism. or review, as permitted under IhP.
Copyright Ad, J%6, no portion may br. re.preduc.rd tty
any process without written permission. Enquiries should
be. addressed to the publisher.
© iVOO by The University of ( thieago
This book is an abridgment and a translation of
'liZI n':1 *pD o,p 'C'd on’^N'iiiJ'n miDNOI nnVrn jDS'ip ^Npin’
Tel-Aviv: Bialik Institutc-Dvir, VoL I (l/\), 193?
Vol. II (1/2), 1037; Vol. III (1/3), 10:1S
Vol. IV' (U/1), 19-17; Vol. V (1I/2), 1U45; Vol. VI (111/1). 1H7
Vol. VII (III/2), 11MS; Vol. VIII (1\'/1), 1<)5C.
The malarial of Volume YIIT is not included in this ahridgmoni
REPRINTED BY LITHOGRAPHY IN BRITAIN
BY .TARROLH AND SONS I.TH NORWICH
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 supp ly 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 Profesor Kaufmann places the bulk of ancient
IIebrew literature and religious creativity.
This abridgment attempts to co nvey the essence of the seven volumes.
Nearly all the sibjects 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, preferr ing 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 predo minan tly, 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 t,o this rule have been made:
The literary criticism of the Pentateuch and the literature of clasical proph­
ecy is so 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 punctu ate th e 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 po int.
Of other specific items which 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 which the author ascribes
to Israel’s religion is the central pillar of his thought and underlies much
of the later discussion. Professor Kaufmann’s own article oq 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 OP ISRAELITE RELIGION
I. The Basic Problem II 10
II. Pagan Religion II 11
HI. Israelite Religion II 12
IV. Tho Religion of the People Ill 13, 15
PART TWO: THE HISTORY OF ISRAELITE RELIGION
PRIOR TO CLASSICAL PROPHECY
V. The Sources I
VI. The Origins of Israelite Religion III 17
IV I, 2, 3
VII. The Conquest and Settlement III 14
IV 4, 5
VIII. The Monarchy III 16
IV 6, 7, 8,9
IX. Some Aspects of the Popular Religion v
[ Footnote continued on following page
Preface vii
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 Ilerzl Institute), provided a subvention for
the preparation of the manuscri pt. 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 manusc ript. 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.
M oshe Greenberg
Mbbion, Pennsylvania
February I960
PART THREE: CLASSICAL PROPHECY
X. The Literature and the Age VI 1
XI. Amos and Hosea VI 2, 3
Xll. 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 Go/ii ve-Nekiir, I, 6

Contents
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE
THE CHARACTER Olt'
ISRAELITE RELIGION
I. THU BASIC PROBLEM 7
The Gods of the Nations in the Narratives 11
The Polemic against Idolatry 13
Idolatry in the Laws 17
The Basic Problem 20
II. PAGAN RELIGION 21
The Fundamental Idea 21
The Gods and Their Myths 24
Magic 40
Divination 42
The Cult 53
The Pagan Way to Salvation 58
HI. ISRAELITE RELIGION 60
The Basic Idea 60
The Absence of Myth 60
ix
X Contents
Demonology 63
Legends about God 67
Magic and Wonders 78
Divination and Oracles 87
Dreams and Prophecy 93
The Cult 101
IV. THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE 122
The Non-pagan Character of the Popular Religion 122
Universalism and Monotheism 127
The Argument from- History 132
The Nature of Israelite Idolatry 133
The Basic Idea and Its Cul tic Expression 147
Note on the Religion of the Jews of Elephantine 148
PART TWO
THE HISTORY OF ISRAELITE RELIGION
PRIOH '1'0 CLASSICAL PROPHECY
V. THE SOURCES 153
The Positi on of Classical Criticism 153
The Torah and Prophecy 157
The Law Corpora 166
The Book of Deuteronomy 172
The Antiquity of the Priestly Code 175
The Antiquity of the Torah Literature 200
The Torah Book 208
VI. THE ORIGINS OF ISRAELITE RELIGION 212
Apostolic Prophecy and the Rise of Israelite Religi on 212
The Patriarchal Age \ 216
The Beginning of Israelite Religion 223
The Monotheistic Revolution 229
Contend xt
The Exodus and the Covenant 231
The New Divine Drama 240
The Promised Land 241
Note on the Theory of a Kenite-Midianite Origin of Moses'
Religion 242
VII. THE CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT 245
The National Plan of Conquest 245
The {lcrem 24 7
The Course of the Conquest 254
The Union of the Tribes under the Kingdom of God 256
The Cult and Priesthood 258
The First Idolatrous Period 260
Early Eschatology 261
VIII. THE MONARCHY 262
The Founding of the Monarchy 263
The Conception of Kingship 265
David and Solomon 267
The Second Idolatrous Period 26!)
The Sins of Jeroboam 270
The Baal Worship of the North and Its Scope 27;}
The Popular Prophets 275
The New Eschatology 27!}
The Book of Jonah 282
Reform Movements 286
The Josianic Refonn 287
IX. SOME ASPECTS OF THE POPULAR RELIGION 2!ll
Sin and Evil 2112
Israel and the World 295
The National Element in Israelite Religion 2!J8
Priest and Temple 301
The Popular Cult 305
The Living and the Dead 311
Justice and Morality: Introductory 316
xii Contents
The Morality of the Torah 317
The Morality of the Wisdom Literature 323
The Idea of Morality as a National Covenant 327
The Doctrine of Retribution 329
Job 334
Ideal and Reality 3:38
PART THREE
CLASSICAL PROPHECY
X. THE LITERATURE AND THE AGE 343
The Legacy of the Early Religion 343
The Chronological Limits of Classical Prophecy 347
The Composition of the Prophetic Books 349
Prophecies of Consolation 357
The New Historiosophy 358
Speech and Writing 359
XI. AMOS AND HOSEA > 363
Amos 3G3
First Rosea 368
Second Hosea 372
XII. ISAIAH, MICAH, HABAKKUK 378
Isaiah 378
Micah 395
Habakkuk 398
XIII. TOE PROPHECY OF THE FALL: JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL ‘ 401
The Problem 401
Jeremiah 409
Ezekiel 426
EPILOGUE AND PROSPECT 447
INDEXES
INDEX TO PASSAGES CITED 455
INDEX TO SUBJECTS 471