The Hebrew God – POrtrait of an Ancient Deity - Hardcover

Lang, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300090250 ISBN 13: 9780300090253

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Originally worshipped by the people of a small and politically insignificant eastern Mediterranean community, the Hebrew God rose to become the monotheistic deity of the entire Western tradition. Indeed, the God of Israel ranks as the most distinguished deity in human history. In this text, biblical scholar Bernhard Lang draws upon the available evidence, including ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian texts and art, to provide a portrait of the ancient Hebrew God. Lang's portrait shows the Hebrew God in five images. He appears as lord of wisdom, lord of war, lord of the animals, lord of the individual, and lord of the harvest - a God whose rule extends to all areas of life. Lang illuminates the completeness of this God's leadership with insights derived from modern religious, anthropological and cultural studies, and he argues that Israel's monotheistic God, far from being simply opposed to other gods, actually echoes and incorporates much of the ancient polytheistic experience of the divine. The worldview of the ancient Semites did not differ from that of the Indo-European peoples as dramatically as others have assumed, Lang contends. Written in a non-technical style, this volume should be suitable for the general reader and religious historian alike.

About this title

Review:

"Lang's brilliant book sheds more and new interesting light on the origins of the god of Israel than any work I know." -- Bruce Chilton, Bard College

'scholarly and schematic' -- Jeanette Winterson, The Times, 27 February 2002

About the Author:

Bernhard Lang is professor of Old Testament and religious studies at the universities of St. Andrews, Scotland and Paderborn, Germany. Among is other books are Sacred Games: A History of Christian Worship (ISBN 0 300 06932 4, [pound]30.00) and Heaven: A History (ISBN 0 300 09107 9, NB paperback, [pound]9.99*), both published by Yale University Press.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0300090250
• ISBN 13: 9780300090253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260