Fortress Press

"Remarkable for his range of his interests, erudition, and mastery of detail, Mark S. Smith here makes available to non-specialists new thinking on two key issues in biblical interpretation. The two issues are collective memory and monotheism. Smith skillfully shows how profoundly they affect the meaning of divinity in the Bible, the concept of history, and the formation of Israel's concept of God. On the way, the reader is constantly brought up to date on a wide variety of biblical topics. Highly recommended."
— Richard Clifford, S.J., Professor of Old Testament, Weston Jesuit School of Theology

"In this extremely well-written book, Mark Smith brings his groundbreaking work on the religion of ancient Israel to the general public. Going beyond his earlier work, this book also applies the revolutionary work of historians on collective memory to understanding the history and religion of ancient Israel. Readable, yet scholarly, this delightful book deserves to be ready by both Christians and Jews, scholars and students, or anyone interested in understanding the Bible."
— William M. Schniedewind, University of California, Los Angeles

"This new book by Mark Smith is not simply a study of the history and religion of ancient Israel nor of the literature of the Hebrew Bible, but of the complicated interface between them — of how the Bible chose to remember the history and religion of the Israel that gave it birth. As Smith compellingly argues, the formation of memory is indeed the central characteristic of the Biblical text, and in a wide-ranging provocative discussion, he allows us to see the multiple ways in which the Biblical authors struggled to make sense of their past and to define its ongoing significance for them."
— Peter Machinist, Harvard University

"Sophisticated in its analysis yet accessible in its presentation, this book is a brilliant piece of intellectual and cultural history. Informed by the author's wide knowledge of Near Eastern literature, it tells the complex and fascinating story of ancient Israel's evolving traditions and beliefs. Memoirs should be required reading for anyone, general reader or specialist, who wants to understand how collective memory as well as amnesia worked together to produce the monotheism that became the hallmark of Hebrew scripture."
— Carol Meyers, Duke University, author of Households and Holiness: The Religious Culture of Israelite Women

"Mark Smith's view of the evolution of monotheism in Israel is highly persuasive, and should command a consensus. In this book he enriches the discussion by explaining the process of selective memory that shaped the biblical account. An important contribution to the study of the religion of Israel."
— John J. Collins, Yale Divinity School

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Time Lines: Periods, Events, and Writings

Maps

Introduction

1. The Biblical Backdrop to the Story
   Introduction: The Bible and the Task of History
   The Mythic Period of Moses
   The Period of the Judges (ca. 1200-1000?)
   The Period of the Monarchy (ca. 1000-586)
   The "Exile" (ca. 586-538)
   The Persian Period (ca. 540-333)
   
   
2. Challenges to Israel during the Biblical Period
   Premonarchic Challenges
   The Challenges of the United Monarchy: Saul, David, Solomon
   The Challenges of the Divided Monarchy
   Responses to the Fall of Judah and Jerusalem (586)
   Persian Period Challenges
   Textual Creations as Responses to Postexilic Life
   Concluding Remarks and Reflections
   
   
3. Biblical Monotheism and the Structures of Divinity
   Introduction
   Structures of Divinity: Deities versus Divine Monsters
   The Divine Council and the Divine Family: From Polytheistic Ugaritic through Polytheistic Israel to Monotheistic Israel
   Monotheism: From Crises to New Religious Vision
   
   
4. The Formation of Israel's Concepts of God: Collective Memory and Amnesia in the Bible
   Introduction
   Collective Memory and Amnesia
   Re-membering Divinity at Mount Sinai
   "Methods of Monotheism" and Collective Memory
   Cultural Memory and Amnesia of Divinity through the Lens of Divine Oneness
   
   Postscript: Biblical Memory between Theology and History
   Biblical Narrative and Systematic Theology
   Revelation, Tradition, and the Idolatry of History
   The Paradox of Revelation: Eternal yet Temporal
   Revelation and the Limits of the Biblical Canon
   Biblical Supersessionism
   World Theology
   
   Sources and Bibliogrpahy
   Index