Studies in Historical Method, Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism

648 Pages·2016·50.76 MB·English

STUDIES IN
THE CULT OF YAHWEH
VOLUME ONE
Studies in Historical Method,
Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism
RELIGIONS IN
THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD
EDITORS
R. VAN DEN BROEK H.].W. DRIJVERS
H. S. VERSNEL
VOLUME 130/1
STUDIES IN
THE CULT OF YAHWEH
VOLUME ONE
Studies in Historical Method,
Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism
BY
MORTON SMITH
EDITED BY
SHAYEJ.D. COHEN
EJ. BRILL
LEIDEN . NEW YORK· KOLN
1996
This series ReligWns in the Graceo-Roman World presents a forum for studies in the social and cultural
fonction of religions in the Greek and the Roman world, dealing with pagan religions both in their own
right and in their interaction with and irifluence on Christianiry and Judaism during a lengthy period of
fUndamental clumge. Special attention will be given to the religious history of regions and cities which
illustrate the practical workings of these processes.
Enquiries regarding the submission of works for publication in the series may be directed to Professor
HJ. W. Drijvers, Faculry of Letttrs, Universiry of Groningen, 9712 EK Groningen, The Netherlllnds.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahtne
The CIP data has been applied for.
ISSN 0927-7633
ISBN 90 04 10477 1 (Vol. 1)
ISBN 90 04 10479 8 (Vol. 2)
ISBN 90 04 10372 4 (Set)
© Copyright 1996 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlllnds
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translllted, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in a'!)l form or by Q'!)I means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission .from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by EJ. Brill prouided that
the appropriate fees are paid directlY to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Danvers MA 01923, USA.
Fees are suiject to clumge.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERlANDS
CONTENTS
Preface ................................................................................................................ vii
PART ONE: HISTORICAL METHOD
1. Historical Method in the Study of Religion.......................................... 3
History and Theory, Beiheft VIII (I968), 8-I6
PART TWO: ANCIENT ISRAEL
2. The Common Theology of the Ancient Near East... .......................... 15
Journal of Biblical Literature 7I (I952) I35-I47
3. On the Differences Between the Culture of Israel and the
Major Cultures of the Ancient Near East.. ......................................... 28
The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Columbia
University 5 (Gaster Festschrift) (I973) 389-395
4. The Present State of Old Testament Studies. ....................................... 37
Journal of Biblical Literature 88 (I96c)) I9-35
5. Pseudepigraphy in the Israelite Literary Tradition ........................... 55
Entretiens sur l'antiquite classique, XVIII: Pseudepigrapha I (I972)
I9I-2I5
6. II Isaiah and the Persians ... .... .... .... ..... ...... .... .... ...... .... ... .... .... ... ..... ...... ... 73
Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (I963) 4I5-42I
7. East Mediterranean Law Codes of the Early Iron Age ..................... &J
Eretz Israel I4 (H. L. Ginsberg Volume) (I978) 38*-43*
PART THREE: ANCIENT JUDAISM
8. Terminological Booby traps and Real Problems in Second-Temple
J udaeo-Christian Studies ........................................................................ 95
Traditions in Contact and Change: Proceedings of the XIV
Congress of the International Association for the History of
Religion, edd. P. Slater and D. Wiebe (Wilfred Laurier University
Press, I983) 295-306
9. Palestinian Judaism in the First Century ........................................... 104
M. Davis (ed.), Israel: Its Role in Civilization (New York: Harper
and Brothers, for the Jewish Theological Seminary, I956) 67-8I
vi CONTENTS
to. The Image of God: Notes on the Hellenization of Judaism,
with Especial Reference to Goodenough's Work on Jewish
Symbols................................................................................................. 116
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 40 (I958) 473-5I2
11. On the Shape of God and the Humanity of Gentiles .................... 150
1. Neusner (ed.), Religions in Antiquity: Essays in Memory of Erwin
Ramsdell Goodenough (Supplements to Numen, XIV) (I968) JI5-
326
12. What is Implied by the Variety of Messianic Figures? ............... 161
Journal of Biblical Literature 78 (I959) 66-72
13. The Dead Sea Sect in Relation to Ancient Judaism ..................... 168
New Testament Studies 7 (I96I) 347-360
14. Goodenough's Jewish Symbols in Retrospect... ............................ 184
Journal of Biblical Literature 86 (I¢7) 53-68
15. The Work of George Foot Moore .................................................... 201
Harvard Library Bulletin I5 (I967) I69-I79
16. Zealots and Sicarii, Their Origins and Relation ........................... 211
Harvard Theological Review 64 (I97I) I-I9
17. On the Wine God in Palestine .......................................................... 227
Salo W. Baron Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem: The American
Academy for Jewish Research, I975) 8I5-829
18. Helios in Palestine .............................................................................. 238
Eretz Israel I6 (H. Orlinsky Volume) (I982) I99*-2I4*
19. The Gentiles in Judaism 125 BeE -AD 66 .................................... 263
Cambridge History of Judaism III
20. Were the Maccabees Priests? ........................................................... 320
Index ................................................................................................................. 326
PREFACE
Papers on the Cult of Yahweh was the title chosen by Morton Smith
for the collection of his scholarly articles that he first planned in 1972.
Unfortunately, the pressure of other commitments - a glance at the list
of his publications will reveal how much he accomplished after 1972! -
and then, towards the end of his life, ill-health combined to prevent
him from realizing this project. A year or two before his death he
asked me to serve as his literary executor and empowered me to
republish whichever of his articles I thought worthy. I set before me
his 1972 outline, retained about half of it, and filled out the collection
with work from his later period. I also changed the title slightly. No
doubt Smith himself would have found much to correct and much to
supplement in these essays - all of them need bibliographical up
dating, and not a few need some polishing - but I have left the essays
in their original form with only minor changes. I have introduced a
measure of consistency in the transliteration of Hebrew, in the citation
of biblical, classical, and rabbinic texts, and in the footnote style, but I
did not allow myself to become obsessed with absolute consistency,
and I know that inconsistencies remain. In the course of re-typing and
re-setting the essays, I have tacitly corrected numerous mistakes
(incorrect references, typographical errors, etc.) but whatever joy I
experienced by the removal of errors from my teacher's work is offset
by the certain knowledge that, in spite of all my exertions, I have
introduced new errors into the text. For all the errors and
inconsistencies for which I am responsible, I beg the reader's
indulgence and Smith's forgiveness.
These corrections aside, any intentional deviation from the original
text of these essays has been indicated by brackets. In chapters 2, 4, 6,
7, 9, 10, and 16 Smith himself is responsible for the text in brackets:
these are corrections that Smith entered on the margins of his offprints
of the original publications. In chapters 19 and 20 I (and, in the case of
chapter 20, Joseph Sievers) am responsible for the text in brackets.
(Throughout the essays, Smith occasionally uses brackets to fill out
self-understood but unexpressed words in quotations; this is a common
usage which is easily recognizable and should not be confused with the
additions and corrections which I am now describing.) To facilitate
reference, the original pagination is indicated in each article, this too in
viii PREFACE
brackets; all cross references within the volume are to the original
pagination.
A complete list of Smith's publications, as well as an appreciation of
his scholarly achievement, will appear in volume 2.
I would like to thank the following people: the holders of the
copyright of the original publications, for permission to reprint; my
students William K. Gilders and Ami Eden for assistance in checking
the proofs; Prof. Seth Schwartz and my student Andrew Jacobs for
their assistance in editing chapter nineteen; Dr. Joseph Sievers for
editing chapter twenty.
Shaye J. D. Cohen
PART I
METHOD