Susan Niditch with reverent
respect sets out to expose the factors that come together to formulate the
story of a culture and its chosen religion in her book Ancient Israelite Religion. With evidence presented from both the
realms of archaeology and Biblical text, Susan presents the historicity as well
as the folklore that formulated the Biblical story we have come to know and
love. She argues that the Bible cannot be taken at face value nor can we
understand it from the perspective of our day and time. She lays the chapters
of the book chronologically from Genesis and uses the dimension of time and
culture to build her case.
Susan Niditch migrates through
the chapters in a chronological sort of fashion using the advent of time as the
beginning. She also separates the book into five dimensions. Using beautiful
words even an advanced graduate student will have to stop and look up, the
language is strikingly formal and clear. The first chapter, Religion and the Ancient Isaelites, highlights
the developing culture of the forming nation of Israel and how that affected
both the legends and the written and spoken accounts of the young budding
religion. While the historicity of the Bible cannot be authenticated in very
large sections, many of the stories become bonafide when historical accounts
verify important elements that pull the Bible together.
She expertly builds the chapters
chronologically due to the simple fact that this is exactly how the story would
unfold and build over time. The second chapter, The Experiential, speaks of how the experiences of the person who
lived the story as well as the author writing the account greatly affect the
way the story is told and understood. The portrayal of God, Israel, and
religion are unique to that story, to that author, to the telling of that tale.
These experiential accounts in turn work to shape the spiritual history of the
nation of Israel. We smoothly transition in the third chapter regarding mythic
patterns of origins and death.
Chapter three discusses the
important question “where from, where to”. The mythic patterns that shape a
culture’s beliefs in life from origin to death have many synchronous patterns.
With the advent of a creation story, mankind is liberated from chaos and is
formed fresh and brand new. The Biblical account weaves in many aspects of the stories
of other eastern religions and local cults. Time progresses, stories evolve and
come to exist as we now know them. Susan Niditch would be remiss were she not
to mention the legal and ethical dimension of a growing religion. In the fourth
chapter, The Legal and Ethical Dimension,
she explains why it is so very important.
“Implicit is the importance of
the nuclear family as a microcosm of the larger society and as a human-to-human
echo of the relationship between the deity and humans (p.74).” The system
society is built upon begins with the nucleus of the family just as the
relationship we have with one another begins with our relationship to the
Divine. The moral and ethical codes set by such laws as the Ten Commandments set
a strong precedent in the daily lives of the Israelites. The ethical and legal perspective,
in turn plays a large role in the story of a young, developing nation. Where
would this book be without the mention of the dimension of ritual worship?
The fifth and final chapter deals
with rituals of sacrifice, offering and purification. This is a large thread in
who the people of Israel are, and who they are to become. Blood and water are
the two elements that hold the highest level of significance and wind their way
through almost every ritual. It is important as we glean knowledge to make sure
we consider all of these dimensions as they factor in deeply to the development
of every culture and religion. Perhaps page ninety one surprised me the most.
How can a woman’s cycle which prepares her for the birth process is considered
unclean? I remain confused most by the ideology of war in the Bible as
expressed on page eighty four. If murder is wrong how all the warfare and
killing is justified? This book opened my eyes and I certainly was intrigued
and engaged. The favorite spot for me was on page eighty two where the Bible
states that many provisions must be made for the “marginals” in Israelite culture.
How I would love to see an end of oppression! I thoroughly enjoy eye-opening
reads such as this. Susan Niditch accomplishes her goal successfully ending as
she so desired with an invitation for further study (p. 121).
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