Customer Reviews:
Cleverly written.......2007-08-10
"Hittite Warrior" tells the tale of a young noble Hittite, Uriah, who is orphaned when his land is overrun by the mysterious and savage Sea People. Escaping to the south, Uriah comes to live with a family in Tyre, then under the domination of Egypt--the perennial enemies of the Hittites. Though he scorns writing and ciphering of the Tyrian traders at first, Uriah quickly learns to appreciate their skills.
However, the gruesome, child-devouring cult of Moloch is alive and well in Tyre and eventually, Uriah and his Hebrew companion Jotham run afoul of the priests and are forced to flee to the wilderness, having saved young Jabin who was meant for the sacrifice. There they become entangled in the battle between Sisera of Harosheth and the Hebrews under Barak and the prophetess Deborah. How Uriah comes through this battle and which side finally claims his loyalty is the key conflict of "Hittite Warrior."
This is exactly the kind of book I would have enjoyed reading as a kid. Heck, even as an adult, I had a great time with it. I found the characters to be complex and well fleshed-out. The plot was interesting and kept you guessing. I especially liked the first person narrative style--something that's not often seen these days. I thought it brought an intimacy to the character of Uriah and helped display his cultural quirks. The author clearly did a tremendous amount of research and I appreciated how she tied all the ancient stories, myths, and archaeological detail together with the record from the Scriptures.
Some other reviewers have complained about the writing style. While the prose is occasionally awkward, it is certainly no more so than that of the Harry Potter series and it did not dampen my enthusiasm for this book, nor stunt my reading speed in any way. Simply put, this is a great book for kids 10 and up--my own will be reading it when they're old enough.
Excellent Historical Fiction.......2007-05-19
An excellent resource for learning ancient history and the Old Testament. Really shows how wicked the Canaanite peoples were and why God commanded that the Israelites not be influenced by them.
AMAZING!.......2007-03-16
This is an amazing book. It almost beats my Harry Potter books it's so good! I finished it yesterday at the DENTIST, of all places. You see.....I had to take it with me everywhere I went. I really like to read about this time era....it interests me so much. I would rather read this book again than watch TV. If you interested in reading it.....take my word for it....it's GREAT!
Generally fairly good, but the ending needed work.......2006-08-29
Hittite Warrior is an original book set in the thirteenth century BCE. It is perhaps the only childrens' book in print in which the main character is a Hittite, by name Uriah, who flees his crumbling kingdom and ends up with family friends in the Phoenician city of Tyre. Kidnapped by Israelites from the interior, Uriah gains a unique insight into the two-sidedness of the war that follows.
Sadly, this so far fun read stumbles and falls when it reaches the ending. Inexplicably, the book abruptly changes direction and the ending simply does not make sense in conjunction with the rest of the story, perhaps because the moral behind the book didn't fit with the plot with the plot; Uriah's actions made little sense and the Hebrews' less. It wasn't terrible - it had a good message about forgiveness - but it very badly needed streamlining with the rest of the story, and the characters' motives could have done with much more attention. For me, it just seemed too implausible and somewhat soured my experience of the novel, which was a shame.
The characterisation of this book was competent, although some of the characters felt a little lifeless. The writing strategy was equally competent - a previous reviewer has correctly pointed out it's occasional clumsiness, but by in large it keeps the book going. This book's real strength and driving force was it's plot, which was full of adventure, action, and fascinating descriptions of civilisations neglected by history. Overall, a just about worthwhile read for anyone under the age of 13 or so.
Very good book, very bad end.......2006-05-31
This book is set at one of history's defining points: the old, civilised states of Egypt, Phoenicia and Hattusas are crumbling beneath the advance of younger, stronger peoples; the Achaeans (a.k.a. the Philistines) and the Hebrew tribes. The main protagonist is a young Hittite noble, Uriah, who, having fled his ravaged nation, flees south to settle with friends in the Phoenician trading city of Tyre. He is forced to help in the kidnapping/rescue of a child that has been designated for sacrifice, and ends up joining with the Hebrews, among whom he also makes friends. However, as the Hebrew people move into Phoenician territory, Uriah feels that his loyalties lie overall with the Tyrians, so he deserts the Hebrews to join the much smaller army of Egyptians and Canaanites gathering against them. However, despite their best efforts, bad weather causes the defeat of the Canaanites. Uriah barely escapes.
All this high quality writing is, however, squandered. The skillful character development, good plotting and unbiased account of the different peoples is thrown away so that the author can convey some envangelical rubbish to us. Basically, Uriah suddenly decides to go BACK TO THE ISRAELITES, the people he's just been fighting, in search of some spiritual guidance. The Israelites promptly accept him, a man that had previously despised him has his opinion of his IMPROVED by his betrayal and gives his blessings for Uriah to marry his sister. Typically, Uriah then looks at the stars, and decides he wants to convert as well. Right.
Anyway, this is basically a well researched, well written book with a very biased ending that ignores the rest of the book.
Customer Reviews:
Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel.......2007-10-11
Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel
This is one of the most influential, informative, scholarly works - one of the most important on the subject of Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic and has a prominent place in my personal library.
The Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel are absolutely fantastic - an awesome read - Frank Moore Cross does an absolutely fabulous job with detailed footnotes and a thorough treatment of this all important topic - the ancient council of the gods, the names of deity, their meaning and their influence on the Canaanites and Hebrew people - and on the formation of religion as we know it today, both Jewish and Christian.
A top notch book and one I will highly recommend to all who want to understand GOD more and HIS influence as portrayed through his epitaphs.
Difficult but indispensable.......2007-08-13
This book treads roughly the same ground as Mark S. Smith's The Early History of God and The Origins of Biblical Monotheism. It is a tour de force of historical reconstruction from biblical sources. It deals with many of the thorny problems of the disparate historical books of the Bible (Chronicles and Joshua-2Kings). It includes the crucial paper on the dual redaction of the Deuteronomic History (Deuteronomy and Joshua-2 Kings). That paper alone is worth the purchase of the book, because it has been so influential over the years. Furthermore, he shreds the fashionable Jebusite hypothesis regarding the origins of Zadok, David's high priest, although his own theory has holes as well.
In order to fully appreciate this book you will need a solid grounding in Biblical Hebrew grammar, ancient Near Eastern history and mythology, and Biblical literature. Some of his discussions get extremely technical regarding paleography, epigraphy, and West Semitic grammar.
Still groundbreaking, although some reconstructions pf the premonarchic cultus are questionable.......2006-10-15
As it was written in the 70s, Canaanite Myth is a little behind the times- it assumes, for example, that monolatry was present in Israel from the premonarchic period, and that later prophetic polemics and reforms were directed against "syncretism." We now know that this is probably not the case, and that most of the gods condemned as "foreign" by the prophets and Deuteronomists- Asherah, Astarte, Baal, and the Heavenly Host- were simply pan-Levantine gods that Israel had inherited from its Canaanite ancestors. It is Cross's work that has, in large part, prepared us to deal with this however. Cross's book meticulously examines a wide variety of biblical and extrabiblical texts, early and late, and observes many continuities between Israelite and Canaanite beliefs and modes of worship; poetics, theophanic language, and so on are largely identical between the two cultures, the only real difference being that Israel's public religion was overwhelmingly focused on a single deity (but not, as Cross assumes, completely excluding others, at least until the late monarchy). Cross's reconstruction of the Judean monarchic cultus is based on a lot of evidence both biblical and comparative; the chapters on the development of apocalyptic language are where the analysis really shines. When he extends this reconstruction into the premonarchic period, however, it becomes problematic. His assumption that the Israelite league was a solid and largely unified politco-religious unit, rather than a loose, shifting coalition of tribes as even the Bible itself suggests (the list of tribes in the Song of Deborah includes ten tribes, not twelve, two of which are demoted to the status of sub-tribal "clans" in later lists) largely distorts his analysis. Nonetheless, the book is still a must-read for those interested in understanding the biblical world.
On following the proofs:.......2004-05-31
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.
Conservative, Radical, Challenging, Debatable.......2002-01-11
"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.
Average customer rating:
- Provocative Topic, Mixed Results
- I was hoping for a better
- Intriguing topic tempered by author preconceptions
- Christians United For Genocide speaks out
- Challenging, essential reading
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Show Them No Mercy
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ASIN: 0310245680 |
Book Description
A Counterpoints book that discusses various contemporary views held by evangelicals on God’s command to the Israelites to destroy utterly the Canaanites and how each view sees the relationship between this God of the Israelites and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has commanded us to love our enemies.
Customer Reviews:
Provocative Topic, Mixed Results.......2007-06-05
Four Old Testament scholars debate the ethical issue as to how a God of love could order the genocide of the Canaanite communities. CS Cowles handles this by stating that the Israelites misunderstood what God was saying, and that Canaanite genocide is incompatible with God's love shown in Jesus Christ. His essay was the weakest in my view because he in essence rejected the authority of the Old Testament. The other three writers called him to task on this, and also called on Cowles to strengthen his commitment to the infallibility of Scripture. Yikes!
The best article in my humble opinion was the one by Eugene Merrill of Dallas Theological Seminary, He goes through every salient Hebrew Bible text about holy war (herem) and concludes that God's call for the destruction of these communites was a unique time in history when God was executing judgment on historically oppressive, repressive societies in opposition to the Noachide commandments. He gives the following reasons: 1) the stubbornness of the Canaanites in their persistence in idolatry, child sacrifice, and their opposition to the revealed will of God, 2) because this was a special time in history when the people of Israel were emerging as God's chosen instrument to bring salvation and judgment to the nations (3 to bring Israel into the promised land and to prepare them for the coming of their Messiah (4 to show them that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and 5) to remove communities that would continue to oppress God's people and to tempt them toward idolatry and sin. Never mind that Israel didn't obey God completely, the article deals with the theological reasons for OT holy war.
This satisfies the biblical reasoning more than it solves the ethical dilemna, but nevertheless, I found it to be the most compelling discussion in the book, and John Gard and Tremper Longman (two of the other contributors found themselves in substantial agreement with a number of Merrill's arguments).
John Gard (the Missouri Synod Lutheran contributor) ties this topic in with God's eschatological judgment on His enemies. And Tremper Longman says that the NT carries on the Old Testament idea of holy war in the spiritual realm (pointing out Jesus' encounter with the demon world at His first coming).
This was a good book. It satisfied me. I have never really had a problem with the idea of God judging whole civilizations. He is the Lord, He can do what is right in His own eyes. I am just glad that He has given me life and allows me to live in His world.
I should also say that I commend all four writers for noting that this was an unusual time in history and that there is no authorization or word from God to continue this sort of action today. In the book of Revelation, God pours out His wrath on the beast and his minions, but that will be at His initiative.
This is a tough subject where it will be hard to find a unanimous consent. But I commend the writers for their courage in taking up such a hot potato.
I was hoping for a better.......2007-05-01
"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations... then you must destroy them totally... and show them no mercy. Do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them... as the Lord your God has commanded you."
These statements found in Deuteronomy and Joshua serve as the backdrop to one of the hardest stories in the Bible to reconcile with my beliefs and with the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus. It is the story of the genocide of the Canaanites. It is with that in mind that I picked up Show Them No Mercy: Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide edited by Stanley Gundry. It contains essays by four scholars, C.S. Cowles, Eugene Merrill, Daniel Gard, and Tremper Longman. What made it especially interesting for me was that I had read some of Longman's other work that he has done with Dan Allender, so that was at least one familiar voice.
The four essays widely varied in quality. While I liked Longman's article, I thought that Cowles, who was the least conservative of all of them, actually had the best argument. I thought Merrill's arguments were poor and would put Gard above Merrill but below Longman. Without a doubt, the three conservative articles shared the most in common in that they all defended the idea that God had actually told Moses and Joshua to conquer the land just as is recorded in the Bible. They solve the tension for themselves by jamming the proverbial square peg in the round hole and saying, "look it fits!" Cowles, to put it simply and most accurately, solves the problem by denying that the Bible records God's command to the Israelite leaders accurately.
To critics who would say that Cowles selection of scripture is arbitrary he would respond thus,
"... how can we speak of Jesus as the embodiment of deity when he not only fails to incarnate Israel's image of a warrior God, from whom `good and evil comes forth,' but discloses its exact opposite?.. what is our criterion for selection [of Scripture]? John Wesley would answer in a flash: Jesus! As the full and final revelation of God, Jesus is "the criterion" for evaluating Scripture, the prism through which the Hebrew Scriptures must be read."
For Cowles, Jesus is the "canon" so to speak. Now from what I've read from others who have read Karl Barth, this sounds like the logical extension of his idea that Jesus, as opposed to the Bible, is the true Word/Revelation of God. To loosely paraphrase N.T. Wright who put it something like this in a panel discussion with Anne Rice: Jesus didn't say all authority has been given unto the books and letters which you chaps will go on to write. He said all authority has been given unto me. Ostensibly, to bring a modern reformed voice into the discussion, Cowles quotes John Stott who says, "our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance... and that the secret of both is Jesus Christ."
(Disclaimer: I am pretty sure that none of the above mentioned writers would absolutely deny any kind of inspiration in Scripture).
Cowles goes on to say that "Jesus exercised an audacious prophetic authority over the Torah and on how it was to be interpreted... The benchmark of divine revelation in the era of the new covenant was no longer the Word of God mediated by Moses but by Jesus." He then traces the evolution of the Israelite beliefs, from blaming bad events on God (2 Sam. 24:1) to blaming bad events on Satan (I Chron. 21:1). He goes on to say it was not that the revelation of God was ever full of malice and genocidal intentions but that the Israelites misinterpreted and distorted God's command. He points out how God's command to annihilate everything was conveniently modified as the conquest went on.
To be fair, Cowles attempts to point out that the Israelites acted in good faith based on what they understood of God's will, much as a Crusader might have done back in the middle ages. He compares an Old Testament treatment of the unbeliever to the New Testament treatment by quoting Jack Ford and A.R.G. Deasley: "There can be no doubt that, armed with the Christian gospel and endued with the Holy Spirit, Paul would have entered Canaan as he entered Corinth to show God's triumph over evil in transformed lives."
He closes with the following,
"Where was God in Israel's genocidal conquest of Canaan? In the `lost hopes,' the `charred past,' the "extinguished future,' of the babies, the infants, the little children - all the `Julieks' of Canaan. It was in those like Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, and Rahab, who might have glorified God had they been given the chance." [His quote marks are in reference to Elie Wiesel's book "Night".]
All in all, the book did not meet my expectations. Other than Cowles, the other 3 had very similar views and seemed to sort of shirk the question that still haunts me even after reading this book.
Intriguing topic tempered by author preconceptions.......2006-10-25
This book deals with one of the more difficult questions arising out of the OT narratives: How could a God of love, as he is described in the NT, order the wholesale slaughter of the Canaanites in the OT? The answers and analyses in this book are certainly thought-provoking. I wasn't sure I appreciated the book's frequent use of the term "genocide" to describe the Israelite's warfare, as this word tends to produce a very emotional reaction in people and is often assumed to describe an inherently evil act which has no regard for the value of human life. (And all the contributors deny that God ever does evil or that he lacks respect for human life.) The word "genocide" seems more like an attempt to appeal to sensationalism and capitalize on the events of Sept.11, than a completely accurate term for what happened to the Canaanites.
Also, each of the authors' chapters is heavily based on unproven presuppositions which he simply assumes to be true. Specifically:
--C.S. Cowles assumes that parts of the OT (namely, those ordering the warfare) either are not inspired by God, or that they completely misconstrue God's true intent (Cowles doesn't specify which of these options he prefers), to the extent that they are of little if any value to modern readers.
--Eugene Merrill assumes that a dispensational interpretation of the Bible is accurate. (While I understand that many people today are dispensationalits, Merrill simply assumes this scheme without proving it).
--Daniel Gard assumes that an eschatological theme exists in 1-2 Chronicles (spending more time commenting on implications of this theme, and tracing it through the rest of the Bible, than establishing whether it even exists in the first place).
--Tremper Longman assumes that some of God's ways are inherently mysterious and impossible for finite humans to understand completely. (This allows him a very convenient excuse to what otherwise would be a major hole in his argumentation -- namely, why God orders the destruction of the Canaanites but protects the Israelites, when both groups were guilty of sin.)
Personally I was most convinced by Longman -- partly because I reject the presuppositions of Cowles and Merrill and agree with Longman's, and partly because of Longman's appeal to "intrusion ethics" (p.185 if you buy the book) as a way of linking God's OT savagery against the Canaanites w/ his future Final Judgment over all mankind. I find this a fascinating concept in explaining God's warfare-commands to Israel. Other readers are certainly free to side with other contributors of the book, but anyone who reads this will get 4 intelligent, well-argued, yet markedly different approaches toward making sense of a problem for which no easy answers exist.
Christians United For Genocide speaks out .......2006-10-20
"Show them no mercy" is a book published by the mainstream Christian publisher Zondervan. But are the ideas contained in the book mainstream among evangelical Christians? If they are, I suddenly became more sympathetic to the wackos that are waging war on Christmas. I found the book to be both disturbing and revealing.
The book deals with the perhaps most shocking part of the Bible, the Book of Joshua, included in both Jewish and Christian Bibles. Joshua and the Israelites conquer the land of Canaan (Palestine) and exterminate the entire civilian population of several towns, most notably Jericho. This genocidal butchering is commanded by God himself, who is also portrayed as the leader of the war effort. In plain English, God commands genocide against civilian men, women and children. They are all evil, and every one must die, lest they pollute the Israelites with their wicked heathen cults. Indeed, "Show them no mercy" is actually a quote from the Bible.
By modern standards, Joshua was a war criminal. There is also an obvious difference between the message of the Book of Joshua, and the message of Jesus, for instance as recorded in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet, Christians are supposed to believe that the God of Joshua was the same as Jesus Christ. Does this mean that genocide is justified from a Christian perspective?
Disturbingly, only one of the four contributors to this volume reject genocide. The exception is C.S. Cowles. Judging by his contributions, he is some kind of Methodist. He argues for a radical downplaying of the Old Testament in favor of the New. Cowles articles are very spirited and emotional, indeed the only contributions that are. Hes getting it.
The three other writers are all pro-genocide. I couldnt decipher their exact denominational affiliations, but I guess one of them is a Baptist and the two others Calvinists. Their texts, by contrast to that of Cowles, are dispassionate, scholarly, even boring. Given the subject, this give them a truly bizarre appearence. All three of them argue that genocide is not allowed today, neither for Christians or anyone else. It was allowed "only" in the past, "only" for Gods chosen nation Israel, and "only" at Gods express command.
So that makes it alright, then?
Its very difficult to interact with these kinds of ideas in a dispassionate way. However, I will make my best. But first, a hot coffee....
OK, Im back.
First, the practical problem. The fact that Merrill, Gard and Longman limits genocide to the distant past (but also to the future, in the form of the apocalypse) may convince their own followers, but the real world is more complicated than that. And more evil. A prophet or churchman may claim that its the will of God that a certain people, say the Tutsi, should be exterminated. He may claim that the apocalypse draws near, and that his people are simply doing Gods work. The prophet may even claim to have recieved a direct communication from God himself as to that effect. Its unclear what Merrill, Gard or Longman would say in such a situation. "You are right, God does occasionally command genocide, but not in the present dispensation. You have to wait until the apocalypse for the next chance". Oh my...
Indeed, every argument used by the three writers defending Joshua is used to justify genocide still today. The Jews are not the only people who claim to be chosen. For all I know, the Hutu claimed to be Gods chosen people. One of the writers even argues that not even the children of the Canaanites were innocent, since they were part of an inherently wicked culture. They too must therefore die. The same line of reasoning was used by White settlers to kill Indian babies, and (I imagine) by Nazis to kill Jewish children. Nits, after all, make lice. Its pretty chilling to see every genocidal argument on record in a Christian book!
But what about the theological arguments? According to Merrill, Gard and Longman, God isnt simply loving, good and forgiving. He is also holy. The holyness of God means that he cannot suffer sin, but must exterminate it completely. That is what happened at Jericho and Ai. But what exactly is holyness? The contributors seem to regard it as something existing in and of itself, without any attributes. God is altogether different from everything human and created, and this Wholly Otherness is his holyness. Logically, this means that God stands apart from our modern human morality, according to which genocide is always wrong and its perpetrators should be brought to justice for crimes against humanity. Should we simply say "Amen" to such a God? Its indeed absurd that our gut reflex when reading the Book of Joshua, one of shock and horror, is brushed aside by arguments about the unfathomable workings of God, his holyness, how we puny humans cannot judge him, and so on.
Lets grant for the sake of the argument that God exists. How do Merrill, Gard and Longman know that his holyness is a separate quality? Perhaps Gods holyness, his perfect nature, means that he is loving, good, forgiving and long-suffering. After all, perfect goodness would also set God apart from fallen humanity and creation.
If God is unfathomable, how do Calvinists and Southern Baptists know that the entity they are worshipping is really God? For all we know, it could be the Devil. Indeed, if holyness lacks any qualifying attributes, the result can only be nominalism: what God does is right by definition. But a God whose raw power and will isnt coupled with moral goodness, is not much different from Satan. Im not being demagogical. Im trying to make a serious point.
For what is power without morality if not the very definition of evil?
Challenging, essential reading .......2005-05-09
Every Christian needs to read this book which confronts us with the inescapable gory nature of our history. We believe in a God who is loving and merciful, but who is also holy and cannot abide evil.
We rightly focus on the New Testament and its message of love and forgiveness for sins: this book reminds us that our salvation has a bloody history, not only in the torture and crucifixion of Christ, but also in the death of many hundreds of thousands of people, by leaders who believed they were ordered to do this by God himself.
Three of the book's contributors understand that Moses, Joshua and David were led by God to wipe out Canaanites, Amalekites, Philistines and others, but Nazarene pacifist C S Cowles believes that the New Testament shows that they were misled.
It is worth reading the articles from the different points of view, but also intriguing to read each author's critique of the others' views.
I felt that each article was worth having been included in the book, but I would have liked to read what an evangelical pacifist with a high view of the bible would have written, too.
Highly recommended
Customer Reviews:
Yahweh Was Not Alone.......2003-01-06
Almost anyone reading this review knows that Yahweh was not the only deity in the Ancient Near East. However, if you are not Mark S. Smith, you probably cannot describe the relationship between Yahweh and these other gods and goddesses. This is what John Day's book is all about.
In regards to El, Day finds that Yahhweh and El were originally separate deities. El is portrayed in the Ugaritic texts as benevolent whereas Yahweh is sometimes a warrior, and El is not a storm god whereas Yahweh is. Though they were different, El did have an influence on Yahweh. Yahweh sometimes appears as aged and wise.
Of course El is not the only deity considered by Day. Yahweh's relationships to Baal, Asherah, Astarte, and Anat, the Sun, the Moon, and Lucifer, Mot, Resheph, Molech, and the Rephaim are all considered. Day concludes with a chapter on the rise of monotheism.
_Yahweh_ is an erudite book whose author did not write in a short period of time but who spent 25 years collecting sources. As such this book is worthy reading for *anyone* who
is interested in the religion of the ANE outside of the Bible.
Superb commentary on the impact of Canaanite polytheism.......2001-05-19
John Day's Yahweh And The Gods And Goddesses Of Canaan is impressive, scholarly, the product of meticulous research, and an essential, core title for any serious personal, professional, or academic reference collection or reading list on the subject of Canaanite religion and mythology on the development of Israel and the Old Testament literature. Day examines in detail the relationship between the Yahweh and the leading gods of Canaan including El, Baal, Asherah, Astarte, Anat, the astral deities (Sun, Moon, Lucifer), and the underworld deities (Mot, Resheph, Molech, the Rephaim). Of special note is Day's superb commentary on the impact of Canaanite polytheism on the development of Israelite monotheism. Very highly recommended.
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Old Testament Studies
Godfrey Rolles Driver
Manufacturer: T. & T. Clark
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Binding: Paperback
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Average customer rating:
- A good introduction on the peoples of the land of Canaan
- Starts slowly, but a good work for the archeology student or dedicated layman
- Very Interesting to Read!
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Canaanites (Peoples of the Past, 2)
Jonathan N. Tubb
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 080613108X |
Customer Reviews:
A good introduction on the peoples of the land of Canaan.......2006-04-14
After reading "Archaeology of the Land of the Bible" by Amihai Mazar and "Who were the Early Israelites and Where did they come from?" by William Dever, it seemed to me that this book on the Canaanites would be a useful complement to these two works. It was published relatively recently (1998) as part of the "Peoples of the Past" series, and I felt that the author has sufficient scholarly credentials for it to be reasonably objective. It is a fairly short book (160 pages) and its primary focus is on the archaeological and written evidence of the peoples of the land of Canaan from the earliest the period c 8500BCE up to the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great in 332BCE.
As with other informative books on archaeology about "The Land of the Bible", there is an introductory chapter which reviews basic assumptions, and this is important because it lets the reader know in advance where the author is coming from. In this chapter, the author defines the ancient land of Canaan as covering the modern states of Israel, Jordan, and Parts of Syria and that the evidence presented in his book demonstrates a population continuity such that the Canaanites known to the writers of the biblical texts are to be seen as the same people who settled in farming villages in the 8th millenium, and that these peoples spoke a Semitic language whose closest modern relatives would be Syriac and Hebrew
The findings from the major archaeological sites up to the end of the Bronze Age are described in Chapters 2 to 5:
Chapter 2: Prehistory: The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods (8500 to 3300BC)
Chapter 3: The Early Bronze Age and the Rise of Urbanism (3300 to 2400BC)
Chapter 4: Economic Recession: The Early Bronze IV Interlude (2400 to 2000BC)
Chapter 5: The Middle Bronze Age and the Hyksos (2000 to 1550BC)
Chapter 6: The Imposition of Empire: The Late Bronze Age (1550 to 1150BC)
After reading Chapters 2 and 3, I realized that the author was covering much of the same ground as Dr Mazar in his book "Archaeology of the Land of the Bible". So from then on I read the two books in parallel, which was a useful comparative exercise. While there are some differences in emphasis, Dr Mazar provides considerably more detail, is more analytical about the archaeological evidence and very careful about his conclusions. Professor Tubbs, on the other hand, has a more interpretative approach which becomes clear, for example, in his analysis of the Hyksos Dynasties of Egypt (Dynasties 15-17). He considers this era to have been an imposition on Egypt of the Canaanite civilization which was probably directed by an aristocratic elite of non-Semitic people known as the Maryannu and Hurrians, who seem to have infiltrated and integrated into the Semitic population of Syria during the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC.
Chapters 7 to 10 deal with the invasions of Egypt and Canaan by the Sea Peoples and the rise, division, and destruction of the kingdoms of Israel
Chapter 7: Sea Peoples and Egypto-Canaan
Chapter 8: The Early Iron Age and the Rise of Israel (1150 to 900BC)
Chapter 9: The Late Iron Age (900 to 539BC)
Chapter 10: The Persian Period (539 to 332BC)
I found the discussion on the origin, invasion, and settlement of the Sea peoples to be most interesting, since I have yet to find a book which adequately covers that particular event. In Chapters 8 to 10, however, the descriptions seem to rely more on the biblical texts than on the archaeological evedence, although the author does present fairly detailed descriptions of the excavations at the important site of Tell es-Sa'idiyeh with which he has first hand knowledge. This is a site on the E side of the Jordan valley about 30 km east of Samaria, the capital of later kings of the northern kingdom of Israel.
The final chapter entitled "The Canaanite legacy: the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians and beyond" briefly covers the return of the Exiles, the Hasmonean (Maccabean) monarchy, and the fortunes of the last Canaanites - the Phoenicians of the Lebanon, and their North African colony of Carthage - before those people were absorbed into the main stream of the Roman dominated Mediterranean civilization.
The maps showing major sites at the beginning of the book, and the photographs, particularly the colour plates, were quite helpful, while the notes, chronological chart, books for further reading, and the index at the end of the book were less so. In summary, I found Prof. Mazar's book to be generally more informative, although Prof. Tubbs does provide some interesting insights on the topics which are more completely covered in his book. I do think, though, that his book provides a good introductory overview on this subject, but if you are interested in detail, then I would recommend Mazar's book. For my part I am quite happy to have both!
Starts slowly, but a good work for the archeology student or dedicated layman.......2006-01-20
This is an informative, balanced work that will reward an archeology student or patient layman with a fuller understanding of the Canaanite culture/structure. This includes how the cities of Canaan interacted with their neighbors (particularly Egypt), the infiltration of the various "Sea Peoples", Hebrew/Israelite conquest and control, as well as what Canaan gave to the world (the basis of our alphabet), and finally insight into Canaanite culture's powerful Phoenician/Carthaginian descendents.
Canaanites relies primarily on archaeological data. This is both a strength and a weakness since it removes much of the speculative Biblical interpretations (and many agenda.) While the archaeological finds are interesting, they are most interesting when placed into a recognizable historical context and that most often means Biblical, Egyptian or Ugarit type texts. The author often fails to provide this historical context until late in a chapter or in the book, instead leaving the reader to slog through the list of stratum, dates, and Tells looking for a familiar landmark. The work is well written, but for those unfamiliar with the sites and geology/terrain, the book demands a considerable learning curve to be appreciated.
The crucial early summary of Canaan and Canaanites is lost or fragmented among the discussion of how to approach and interpret the archaeology.
Unless one is already intimately familiar with the geology of the Levant, a geographic atlas map is a necessary companion. The two small outline maps provide a fine list of sites, but little else to guide the reader through the geographical text.
Despite the above criticisms, I recommend this book to anyone seeking a balanced, archaeological approach to Canaan's history and peoples, but be cautioned that this is not a work suited for skimming. The author's reasoning and approach to various issues appear sound.
Very Interesting to Read!.......2003-05-08
The book begins with coverage of Canaanite beginnings in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods (8500-3300 bce) and continues through the Late Iron Age (900-539 bce). It does conclude with a synopsis of Canaanite connections to Phoenicians subsequent Carthaginian ties concluding with the close of the third Punic War. The bulk of the detail of Canaanite culture, however, is provided for the periods between 8500 bce and 539 bce.
The author (Jonathan N. Tubb)has directed the British Museum's excavations at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh in present-day Jordan since 1985 and is curator of Syria-Palestine within the Western Asiatic Department of the British Museum.
Tubb provides easy-to-read details of ancient international trading systems between the Canaanites and other culture groups from the Egyptians and Mycenaeans to Indus River Valley peoples. Though based primarily on archeological evidence to infer Canaanite culture habits, the book also objectively takes into account many historically accurate aspects from written records both Biblical and secular.
Extra-cultural influences upon the Canaanites are inferred through changing burial techniques (particularly Canaanite shaft tombs), architecture, and to a lesser extent, pottery styles. Evidence from archeological sites in Persia and Egypt show how widespread trade was even at such an early time in ancient history.
Pieces of the archeological puzzle are fit together with historical written records to show when and where new culture groups began to settle in the region and what eventually became of the Canaanites. The power vacuum left after the fall of the Egyptian empire allowed for expansion of new groups such as the Sea Peoples from southwestern Anatolia and the Aegean that settled in the Gaza area (of whom included the Philistines), and the Hebrews who eventually established the Kingdom of Israel around the Jordan River in Judea and Samaria. The author posits that the Israelites were in fact a sub-set of Canaanite culture and many parallels are drawn in the book on this point.
I found the book to be very informative and easy to follow. There are both color and black and white photos of Canaanite artifacts and sites in the book that really help to bring about a better understanding of the text you read. A very informative and enjoyable book!
Customer Reviews:
Baal and Asherah and all that.......2000-05-19
This book is a collection of almost all of the Myth related texts from Ugarit (now Ras Shamrah, Syria. The bulk of the text are direct translations of those works, presented in parallel with transliterations of the Ugaritic. Gibsion gives a brief introduction which recounts the tablets' discovery, summarizes each myth, and presents an interpretation. Footnotes are copious throughout. Also included are more recent transliterated, but untranslated texts, an Ugaritic-English Glossary, a table of Biblical references, and an extensive bibliography. This is the most thorough and most up-to-date telling of the Ugaritic myth cycle I have seen.
Product Description
Ancient Israel did not emerge within a vacuum but rather came to exist alongside various peoples, including Canaanites, Egyptians, and Philistines. Indeed, Israels very proximity to these groups has made it difficultuntil nowto distinguish the archaeological traces of early Israel and other contemporary groups. Through an analysis of the results from recent excavations in light of relevant historical and later biblical texts, this book proposes that it is possible to identify these peoples and trace culturally or ethnically defined boundaries in the archaeological record. Features of late second-millennium B.C.E. culture are critically examined in their historical and biblical contexts in order to define the complex social boundaries of the early Iron Age and reconstruct the diverse material world of these four peoples. Of particular value to scholars, archaeologists, and historians, this volume will also be a standard reference and resource for students and other readers interested in the emergence of early Israel.
Customer Reviews:
Biblical People & Ethnicity.......2007-10-14
In terms of the history of settlement in the holy land the book does a good job of describing three groups, the Canaanites, the Philistines, and the Egyptians' influence. These groups are well described. If however you are looking for the Israelites in this volume you are going to have difficulty finding them. The author comes to the conclusion that Israel arose from existing Canaanite groups or a combination of Canaanites and transient immigrant groups. The book approaches the subject from a scientific and archeological perspective. The fact that early Israel was semi nomadic presents a problem for this approach because of limited fixed Israelite settlement, predating the period of the kings, available for excavation of archeological evidence.
Interesting look at a topic of growing interest.......2007-06-19
Killebrew's book attempts to sift archaeological, historical and biblical data to discover what distincitves can be known about some of the ancient people groups of the Levant, specifically the Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, and Philistines.
Egyptian presence in Canaan is seen as an imperial link rather than aggressive domination (total control). The author disagrees with the view that Canaanites were attempting to emulate Egyptian styles and sees cultural artifacts as evidence of Egyptian enclaves, some especially set up as administrative districts for regulation and the collection of taxes. The Philistine occupation of the Levant is understood by the author as one of intentional colonization rather than a group of invaders or migrating conquerors and much of the author's writing moves in support of that view. For the Canaanites, mostly data from composite archaeological findings is presented, including temples, burials, housing, & especially pottery. Defining the Canaanites is a struggle and so they are identified primarily by date and region. Little is said about the Transjordanian Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites in the book.
Killebrew's acceptance of the current position that Israel emerged from native Canaanites makes her identification of Israel a bit speculative. Israel is seen as a mixed people group derived from the native Canaanite population under the influence of Egyptian politics. Briefly discussed are some of the ethnic identifiers for Israel that have been suggested previously, for example, the four room house or the collared rim storage jar. The author is sensitive to the biblical story but rejects much of the biblical record as having any historical value.
The book is a bit more orientated toward ethnic interchange or cultural migration than an examination of ethnic identity. It is well documented and Killebrew supports her views with ample reference to archaeological data, especially pottery, and there is little emphasis on linguistic material. Her discussions of pottery will be perceived as a bit tedious to some but they provide helpful material in support of her points and reduce perceptions of speculation. The emphasis on pottery is an expression of the author's expertise in that area but also a reminder of how little physical evidence for a discussion of ethnicity really exists.
The book is a helpful summary of archaeological data, especially pottery, and a helpful presentation of the many issues involved in seeking the ethnicity of ancient peoples. Her presuppositions about the origins of Israel and the biblical narrative shape her conclusions about Israel.
Average customer rating:
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Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon As Bureaucracy
Lowell K. Handy
Manufacturer: Eisenbrauns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0931464846 |
Average customer rating:
- "Just One More Page - Then I'll Turn Off the Light"
- A wonderful story
- Fantastic
- Interesting and believable.
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Brothers (Legacies of the Ancient River)
Angela Elwell Hunt
Manufacturer: Bethany House Publishers
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ASIN: 1556616082 |
Book Description
Twenty-two years have passed since Joseph, the great vizier of Egypt, last set sight on the ten sons of Israel. As his brothers kneel before him, he is suddenly overwhelmed by the stinging memory of their treachery when they sold him into slavery. They have journeyed to Egypt to buy grain, but Joseph detains them like criminals and accuses them of being spies.
Joseph decrees that Simeon, the overbearing one whose brash opinions often divided the brothers, must remain under house arrest until the youngest brother is brought before the vizier. Strong as an iron chain and as unyielding as a rock, Simeon chafes at his confinement and turns hostile toward his captors.
Mandisa, the widowed handmaid of Joseph's wife, speaks the Canaanite language and is assigned to serve the angry Simeon. Slender, poised, and fiery, the young woman brings hope to his imprisonment and soon comes to understand his explosive disposition. Although love for Simeon blossoms within her, Mandisa cannot give her heart to him until he confronts his father, his past, and his God . . .
Second in the Legacies of the Ancient River Series!
Customer Reviews:
"Just One More Page - Then I'll Turn Off the Light".......2005-04-02
I found this Biblical fiction very well written. It was one of those rare books that you pickup that is not only entertaining but one that you find yourself at night when you should be going to sleep saying to yourself "Just ONE more page - then'll I'll turn off the light".
The author wrote this is in such a style that I found myself absorbed in the lives of each character and felt their sadness when they were sad and their joy when they were joyous. I felt like I was actually in Egypt and was living with these people feeling their feelings.
A quick read and I can't wait to read the next in the series.
A wonderful story.......2002-08-13
This is not only the story of Joseph's reunion with his family, but the story of Simeon--the brother who is the Destroyer. He has destroyed anything that meant anything in his past. When he is selected to remain in Egypt until the other brothers come back with Benjamin, he is forced to look at himself. But it is not until he goes back to Canaan that he truly examines who he is and what he believes.
There are lots of little sub-plots in the book that keep it interesting. I thought the writing was good, and the plot was fast-paced enough. There are also a few surprises along the way.
Basically, an enjoyable book and I will be reading the next one.
Fantastic.......1999-05-12
This is a very well written book. The characters and situations portrayed are enjoyable and very believable. I have recommended this book to my friends.
Interesting and believable........1999-03-30
The characters in this novel seem more real than those in the first book in the series. While I didn't always like Simeon, I found his story fascinating. A well-written interesting piece of "biblical" fiction, with interesting insights into life in ancient Egypt.
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