Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey, by Richard Hess. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. 5 + 432 pp. Dr. Richard Hess is professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages at Denver Seminary. His scholarly publications have often focused on ancient near eastern backgrounds to the Old Testament (Hess 1993a; 1993b; 1996; 2003 to name a few). It is this linguistic, cultural perspective that he brings to his survey of Israelite religions. Hess attempts to assess the state of Israelite religion based on interaction between ancient near eastern text, archaeology, and how the two relate to the Hebrew scripture. Hess makes clear that his work is not to be representative of a whole discipline; it is only a survey. He reexamines extrabiblical/biblical evidence for religions of the Southern Levant in the Iron Age and attempts to locate features distinctive of the religions of Israel/Judah. Hess believes that despite a variety of beliefs and practices, it is possible to determine a single core of beliefs from pre‐
exilic Israel/Judah. He focuses first on the study of religion and biblical criticism, something that has been done recently from the same conservative perspective and covered more thoroughly by Provan, Long, and Longman (2003). He then examines what is known of West Semitic religions before the time of the Israelites, and compares this information with the religious practices of the Pentateuch. Then the formative years of Israelite religion and the emergence of the central cult are looked at. The book concludes with a small section on exilic and post‐exilic religion. Hess writes that each culture must be examined on its own merits, according to its own understanding of religion. A noble idea, one that is worthy of seeking out, and has been attempted by Walton (2007) recently from an ancient near eastern background perspective. Hess concludes that there is no single synthetic model of Israelite religion, however there is enough evidence for “multiple, diverse, and at times contradictory expressions of religious belief and practice within ancient Israel (p. 348).” Within the polytheism of the Middle Bronze Age/Late Bronze Age there is evidence of traditions and parallels to Israelite religion. Remnants of polytheism exist in Genesis 1‐11, but from Exodus onward YHWH, who emerges from the southern desert, is the singular deity. YHWH is monolatrous, aniconic, and a personified rejection of West Semitic deities, but cultic practices and objects remained similar to their ancient near eastern counterparts. So, despite ancient near eastern backgrounds and parallels, Israelite religion emerges with a distinct set of practices and beliefs. Throughout the Old Testament the Israelites typically fit somewhere along a continuum between YHWH alone (see theology of the OT, Ketef Hinnom, Judahite personal names) to only Baal worship (Jezebel, Ugarit, Phoenician/Canaanite temples and personal names). Typically however they rested somewhere in the middle, with Baal along with Asherah fertility deity as part of popular religion (Taanach cult stand, Kuntillet Ajrud, figurines) and YHWH as the remote national deity (see Dever 2005 for a similar perspective). Being a survey one of the main strengths is the vast number of sources. In the footnotes, reference is made to a number of other sources available on the subject being discussed. However the weakness of a survey is that many of the things Hess writes about have been covered in previous books, which are often referenced in his footnotes as well (see Day 2000, Smith 2001; 2003, and especially Zevit 2001). There are over 50 pages of references in the bibliography and ample space is given in the text to archives and inscriptions. Hess deals directly with these primary sources, including his own transliterations and in some cases translations of the Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Akkadian sources. For example, in Chapter 4, Hess brings the archives of Emar to the forefront, including all of his own translations. He notes the similar cultural aspects of Emar and Israel (inland, pastoral, 13th century B.C.) and how they seem to influence aspects of ritual and festival that also are similar between the two societies (p. 112). The main argument Hess makes is for an Israelite religion rooted in the milieu of ancient near eastern traditions and yet one that (especially in Judah) evolves into a unique entity. The ancient near eastern context is where Hess is at his strongest. His previous work on personal names and on the texts of Ugarit and Emar proved quite useful when writing this book. I think he proves fairly convincingly that the Old Testament belongs in this ancient near eastern context. His sections on the West Semitic archives (Chapter 4) and on inscriptions from Israel and Jordan (Chapter 9) are quite comprehensive, and include many of his own translations (some from personal readings of the original inscriptions). His translations of the Emar texts are particularly valuable because they have only been published previously by Fleming (1995; 1999). For a survey there are very few weaknesses in this book. Discussion of the Nuzi and Alalakh tablets would have been a nice inclusion in Chapter 4. Hess includes some maps of archaeological sites, but others for 12‐11th century cult sites, Negev sites, and Middle Bronze Age/Late Bronze Age cult sites would have been useful, as would a table comparing features in the various temples discussed in Chapter 5. Other issues are minor; such as occasionally overstating claims (i.e. “Jerusalem played no significant role [in Genesis 12‐50] (p. 150).”) or omitting topics from discussion due to summary nature of the text (i.e. failing to properly discuss Bethel/Beth Aven connections in the section of Chapter 9 on prophets in ancient Israel) (p. 256). The book is well edited with only a few minor mistakes (such as “(c. 250‐1150 B.C.) (p. 78)” instead of 1250 and “Tsafut (p. 132)” for the tell in Jordan instead of “Safut”). That being said, I would highly recommend this book to any student of the ancient near east (whether undergraduate or graduate student), as well as to scholars as an excellent resource tool, due to the very thorough bibliography. Hess’ work has proved to be a solid contribution to the numerous works on the religion of ancient Israel. Owen Chesnut Institute of Archaeology, Andrews University References Day, J. 2000 Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series 265. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic. Dever, W.G. 2005 Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Fleming, D.E. 1995 More Help from Syria: Introducing Emar to Biblical Study. Biblical Archaeologist 58: 139‐
47. 1999 The Israelite Festival Calendar and Emar’s Ritual Archive. Revue Biblique 106: 8‐34. Hess, R.S. 1993a Amarna Personal Names. American Schools of Oriental Research Dissertation Series 9. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. 1993b Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1‐11. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 234. Neukirchener: Neukirchen‐Vluyn. 1996 A Comparison of the Ugarit, Emar, and Alalakh Archives. Pp. 75‐83 in Ugarit, Religion and Culture: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Ugarit, Religion and Culture. Edinburgh, July 1994. Essays Presented in Honour of Professor John C.L. Gibson, eds. N. Wyatt, W.G.E. Watson, and J.B. Lloyd. Munster: Ugarit‐Verlag. 2003 Preliminary Perspectives on Late Bronze Age Culture from the Personal Names in Palestinian Cuneiform texts. Dutch Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures 5(1‐2): 35‐57. Provan, I.; Long, V.P.; and Longman, T. 2003 A Biblical History of Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox. Smith, M.S. 2001 The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Oxford: Oxford University. 2003 The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Walton, J.H. 2007 Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. Zevit, Z. 2001 The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Parallactic Approach. New York: Continuum.