What of the Old Testament, then?

“I have made the argument that the law has no bearing on the life of the believer. But the Old Testament is a treasure that shouldn’t be disregarded. In the Old Testament, we find out how the universe came into existence. We read of the fall of the human race. We learn why there’s so much evil in the world. We experience the history of God’s interactions with his people. We see his faithfulness despite their faithlessness. We see God’s prophets at work and God’s mercy on display. We learn about what God calls wisdom and how it differs from humans’ sense of the same. We discover early indications of the coming Messiah, and we understand more fully how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.

“The Old Testament offers us something we can’t get from the New. It provides a thorough background in how God initiated a relationship with humankind and how we did whatever we could to ruin this relationship...

“To disregard the Old Testament is like covering up a huge portion of a portrait God has been painting for thousands of years... ”—The Naked Gospel, pages 68, 69

<idle musing>
Unfortunately, for a long time the church ignored the Old Testament. This is still true in many places. But, the equally sad thing is that in too many areas, the old covenant has been taught as if it were the new.
</idle musing>

Let's clean house

“But how do we live upright lives if we don’t use the Ten Commandments as our guide? After hearing that believers have no need for the law, this is a natural question. The short answer is this: The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us when we believe, and he is enough! The fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit within us is enough. And “against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:23).

“The New Testament teaches that those who are led by the Spirit are not under the law. The law is a poor substitute for the counsel of the Holy Spirit. We may think that placing ourselves under the Ten Commandments is a good way to clean house. But law-directed living has the opposite effect. The only sensible choice is to allow Christ to be himself through us. This is God’s way of impacting our lives and placing his life on display.

“Some say, “I don’t live under the law of Moses. I know I’m free from those commandments. Instead, I live by ‘Christian principles.’ ” This is a fine-sounding variation on what is still a law-based approach. And it’s an obstacle to enjoying the dependency-based life. We know that living a “good life” by moral standards is an obstacle to understanding salvation. But choosing “morality” can even prevent a Christian from depending solely on Christ. For Christians, a hidden hindrance to the grace life is a “great” life.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 57-58

<idle musing>
We were made for fellowship with God. But, we don't want to submit to the terms. For some reason, we thing the terms are harsh when in actuality the terms are easy—too easy. So, instead we create our own way to obtain fellowship and that way is always via rules and regulations. How blind!
</idle musing>

Meteors

Last night on our walk, we saw several meteors, about one every 3-4 minutes; most of them were just west of Orion. Being the inquisitive guy that I am, I searched today to see if there was a meteor shower predicted. Sure enough, I found out that the Orionids are supposed to happen in October. Only problem is, they are supposed to happen tonight!

So, if you are the late-night kind of person—and live where you can actually see the sky—take a look-see outside tonight toward the east, just west of Orion. If we saw some last night, tonight should be very nice, indeed!

Victory!

“The obstacle to experiencing victory over temptation is the way in which we’ve gone about the battle. When we arm ourselves with the law, we set ourselves up for failure every time.

“We may call it self-discipline or accountability — or plug in some other inventive term. But when it’s anything but dependency on Christ within us, it’ll inevitably put the wheels of human effort in motion. Perspective is everything in our battle against sin.”—The Naked Gospel, page 56

<idle musing>
Human effort will always fail. It is only the power of the Holy Spirit within us that will ever give us success. And, if it is the power of the Holy Spirit, then it is God himself. And, if it is God himself, then how can we fail to be victorious? If we expect to fall, we are saying that sin is more powerful than God.

Is that what you believe? That there is a power that is stronger than God? But if you believe that we have to sin, then that is essentially what you are saying. If it is Christ in us, then it is possible to live without sin. If we do sin (not when), it is because we chose not to appropriate the available power in the Holy Spirit.
</idle musing>

The role of Law

“It’s preposterous for Christians to adopt portions of the law of Moses as our guide for living. We’re presuming that God grades on a curve. But the law is completely incompatible with our attempt to “do our best.” Law is a pass-or-fail system.

“And one strike means you’re out.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 52

“In the United States, some Christians fight for the Ten Commandments to be posted on our public buildings. We say that we don’t want our society to lose its Christian roots.

“But Christianity was never rooted in the law, not even in the Ten Commandments.

“The commandments aren’t intended to supervise Christians. They don’t curb sinful desires. In fact, the law causes more sinning”—The Naked Gospel, page 53

<idle musing>
The various attempts to “return” to some utopian past by posting the Ten Commandments has always struck me as misguided. The idea that somehow knowing them will keep you from doing the forbidden things is one of the main reasons.

I know from my own life that if something is forbidden, it is somehow more desirable. Mark Twain talked about that in Tom Sawyer; when Tom was a member of a youth organization that forbid swearing, he wanted nothing more than to swear. He finally quit, but then the desire to swear disappeared.
</idle musing>

Legalism

“Looking for love and encouragement? You’ll never find them in the law. This is why the strictest legalist you know can fabricate an appearance of morality. But legalism will never produce love. Living under a law mentality is like being a slave to a most demanding taskmaster. There’s always more to do. And you’ll never do enough to please him.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 50-51

<idle musing>
This is so true. There is no way that an attitude of love can co-exist with a legalistic mindset. The legalist is always measuring, weighing—and always finding you (and themselves) coming up short. The only escape is the perfect redemption in Christ and allowing him to live through us.
</idle musing>

SBL in October!

Yep, you read it right: Eisenbrauns is offering in-booth pricing on titles now through the end of October. If you subscribed to BookNews you already saw this:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

Eisenbrauns has two great deals going on right now and running through the end of October. One is for folks who are planning to attend ASOR, ETS, or SBL in New Orleans this year; the other is for those of you who can't make it. The odd thing is...it's the same deal: ASOR/SBL/ETS in October!

No need to pay New Orleans's sales tax, no waiting in line, no worrying about availability or having to elbow your way through colleagues to be sure that you get that book you dearly wanted, plus no shipping costs (for domestic orders over $99.00). Browse our virtual booth and get ASOR/SBL/ETS in-booth pricing, but only until October 31.

OK, enough said! Here's the link to the books:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/vbooth01

The fine print:
1. This sale includes forthcoming Eisenbrauns titles! We will hold any order that includes a book that will be published between now and November 1 until November 1, so that your order can all be shipped together. (Of course, your credit card will never be charged until the books are invoiced and shipped.)

2. The prices on this sale are in-booth prices; these prices are the very best that will be available on these books! Prices will not be lower either in-booth or after the meetings. Order form prices will be 10% higher than in-booth prices on Eisenbrauns titles.

3. We think we've included every book that will be in the booth, plus some extras!

4. No returns will be permitted on this sale.

5. Sale absolutely ends October 31; NO late orders will be accepted.

Of course, we still hope that you will come by booths 704-708 in New Orleans, at the SBL, or by the tables at ASOR and ETS, to say "hi," and chat a bit; but we hope that making this sale available now will make your time at the meetings in New Orleans easier and more enjoyable!

Intimacy with God

“What if we could enjoy so great an intimacy with God that it would seem he was nearly beneath our skin? What if we could just go through life being ourselves and somehow express Christ along the way? And what if all of this could come at no expense of our own? It would mean the religion thing could end. It would mean we wouldn’t have to analyze ourselves and measure our spirituality.

“There is an Old way that forever leads to disappointment, no matter how much “holy” effort is exerted. There is also a New way that comes free of charge and changes everything. And yet there is also a third option — a hybrid of Old and New that you find in many churches today.

“This book is intended to reveal the futility of the Old and the ecstasy of the New. Most important, we’ll talk about how to escape the misery of today’s hybrid religiosity and enjoy the purity of the New. The New is what God intended all along for the dedicated but miserable people throughout history.

“And the New is what God intends for you. “—The Naked Gospel, page 36

<idle musing>
Living in the new covenant, not the old, is enjoying the rest that Hebrews talks about. It is all by the power of God, not our own effort, not our own righteousness; it is all the power of God through the Holy Spirit
</idle musing>

What do e-readers do to the brain?

Interesting post on the New York Time's Opinion page. Five experts give their opinions...here's two of them:

To a great extent, the computer’s usefulness for serious reading depends on the user’s strength of character. Distractions abound on most people’s computer screens. The reading speed reported in academic studies does not include delays induced by clicking away from the text to see the new email that just arrived or check out what’s new on your favorite blog. In one study, workers switched tasks about every three minutes and took over 23 minutes on average to return to a task. Frequent task switching costs time and interferes with the concentration needed to think deeply about what you read.

and, a little later, from a different expert:

My own research shows that people are continually distracted when working with digital information. They switch simple activities an average of every three minutes (e.g. reading email or IM) and switch projects about every 10 and a half minutes. It’s just not possible to engage in deep thought about a topic when we’re switching so rapidly.

<idle musing>
Ain't that the truth! I have multiple desktops on my machine; it's the only way I can stay focused. I bury stuff I'm not using, but need to keep open, on other screens than the one I am working on. Even then...now, what was I about to do? Oh, yeah...
</idle musing>

Committed?

“Committed? You bet. But committed to what? Although I’d stand up on the subway and preach to the entire train car, I was still empty inside. Despite my willingness to go door-to-door witnessing in my own neighborhood, I really had no life of fulfillment to offer. Whether I was preaching on a train, in neighborhoods, or even in the local jail, there was always an underlying anxiety.”—The Naked Gospel, page 20

<idle musing>
Yep, that's the christian way; convert others so they can be as miserable as you are! In fact, on page 23, he says, “If I were vulnerable enough to be honest during the times
I was evangelizing, I would’ve made the following pitch: “Would you like to become a Chris tian and be miserable like me?”
</idle musing>

The Bible Among the Myths Review

The Bible Among Other Myths
Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature?

by John N. Oswalt
Zondervan Publishing Company, 2009
192 pages, English
Paper
ISBN: 9780310285090
List Price: $17.99
Your Price: $16.19
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/OSWBIBLEA

I had the privilege of studying under John Oswalt back in the early 1980's, just before he became president of Asbury College. Among the courses he offered was “Myth and History.” The class was influential in my intellectual development, therefore when I heard that he was putting the course into book form I was quite excited to see how it had morphed and grown over the years.

But, before I get into the book itself, let me tell you about his classes. As was common at Asbury (and probably other seminaries), most classes started with prayer. But, Oswalt's were different; most professors offered the perfunctory prayer and went on with class. Not Oswalt. He would say, “let's pray.” Then there would be a shorter or longer period of silence. During that silence, you could feel the Spirit of God come into the classroom in a tangible way. A peace would descend, then Oswalt would pray. The prayer wasn't anything spectacular or different; what was different was waiting for the presence of God.

The other thing that Oswalt stressed in his teaching was that the ramifications of any of his (or other teachers/scholars) teaching would be seen in his students. This viewpoint caused him to be extremely careful about what he said. I suspect it also has kept him more conservative than he would have been otherwise. He always had an eye to what the students would take from his classes and how it would be interpreted in their lives.

That being said, what about the book? Well, I am of two minds about it. One of the endorsements on the back says that “This book will be extremely helpful for both undergraduate and graduate students...” I disagree. I would say it is aimed more for the lay/undergraduate audience, with the exception of 2 chapters, where the lay audience would probably get lost.

Why do I say this? For two reasons. First, there is no bibliography. There are footnotes, but no comprehensive bibliography is included. I know Oswalt must have one; he handed one out when I had the class. One of the things I was looking forward to was seeing what was new in the field. Second, the references cited in the footnotes are quite old. The foundation of his viewpoint is based on Collingwood's definition of history in the 1940's and Child's definition of myth in the 1960's. Don't misunderstand this; I am not one who thinks that newer is better. Rather, I would like to have seen an interaction with what is going on in the field right now. If the field is moribund and nothing new has happened, then that should be noted. But, I don't think that this is the case.

Oswalt's entire thesis hangs on the distinction between transcendence and continuity. He claims that the biblical worldview is unique in this respect. It is true, and shouldn't bother anyone, that the Bible contains many elements that are common to the ancient Near East, says Oswalt. What else would one expect? What is unique is the way they are put together. The other cultures are based on a view that the divine is contiguous with the material (continuity). Consequently, the divine can be controlled via the material, hence ritual and magic. The biblical text, and he is careful to make sure you understand that we are dealing with the text as we have it, has none of that. Not only that, but the text continually condemns any attempts to manipulate the deity.

Oswalt realizes that this is not a popular view right now. Most would say that while Israel might be somewhat unique, it can be explained on the basis of the commonalities, not the differences, with the surrounding culture. He asks why the change in views from those in the middle part of the twentieth century. Have there been any dramatic new finds to justify such a change in views? No. The changes are in intellectual viewpoint.

History writing is based on evaluating the data we have and trying to make sense of them within the constraints of cause and effect. Divine intervention, which is very common in any ancient text, is not considered a valid cause. Of course, this means that the historian is forced to do violence to the explanations given by historians such as Livy and Herodotus, who are full of references to the gods. The situation is even worse in the biblical text! While Livy and Herodotus have a backdrop of gods, they can be utilized without too much damage. Not so the Bible. Because of this, the writers of modern histories of biblical times have to make decisions. Oswalt examines the twentieth century to show how the reigning paradigm has changed, and what that has meant for how the biblical data are interpreted.

Oswalt asks us to examine the biblical texts aside without ruling out divine intervention a priori. His claim is that there is no way to explain the uniqueness of the biblical viewpoint in the ancient world apart from divine revelation. All cultures reason from the visible to the invisible. Aside from the Bible, all cultures have a viewpoint of continuity and rely on ritual and magic to control their world.

Not only that, but even the Israelites continually fall back into attempts to control and manipulate. Of course, we need look no further than ourselves to see it happening in today's world. How many “deals with God” have you done in your life? Oswalt closes the way he began, by pointing out that the option of a transcendent God who cannot be controlled or manipulated, but must be trusted and believed in, is too difficult for most people. The view that allows humanity to control the results and outcomes of life is far more comfortable. It was in the ancient world; it is now.

As I mentioned above, I am of two minds about the book. I agree with his thesis. I agree with the conclusions for trusting God. I just wish he had given more space to proving them. The book can be used profitably by undergraduates, possibly by first-year seminary students, and interested laypeople. I really think that without extensive expansion, it doesn't offer an adequate rebuttal to the prevailing academic paradigm.

<idle musing>
I say that sadly, as I think the reigning paradigm is radically wrong; I would be classified as a “maximalist” by most. The reason I would be a “maximalist” is that I have seen and experienced God breaking in on my life and the lives of others. Once you have experienced that, the stories in the Bible are not so hard to believe. If you read the archaeological reports and the biblical text with a “hermeneutic of sympathy” rather than a “hermeneutic of suspicion,” you can see that it is possible for the text to be correct.

Don't misunderstand what I just wrote! I am not saying that archaeology “proves” the Bible! I don't think that archaeology can “prove” anything. Archaeology can be used to interpret what we see, and what we see depends on our theological paradigm. If you have a paradigm of non-divine intervention, you will come to a radically different conclusion than one that allows divine intervention.

One view is not more scholarly than the other! To believe in a God who can—and does—intervene in human affairs is not naïve and unlearned; it is taking the given data and analyzing them just as carefully as possible. As Sherlock Holmes used to say, if you look at the data and you have dismissed every other possibility, the remaining one must be true—however illogical it seems! Up until the last 300 years or so, the view that deity, or deities, were involved in daily lives of people was normal. That it isn't now is an aberration. Even people who claim not to be religious believe in angels and good luck and superstitions. What they say they believe and what they act out are two radically different things! In the end, they would do well to heed the call of Socrates—through Plato—to “know yourself” and realize that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”`
</idle musing>

Update: FTC disclaimer: I received this book from Emily at Zondervan to review (thanks, Emily). No money changed hands, no approval of the review, etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum (how's that for Latin?).

The end of the matter is...

“In the end...transcendence is too painful. To embrace it is to give up control of the universe. It is to admit that the only thing I can do to get in line with whatever is in control and to 'get on its good side' is to surrender in trust, belief, and obedience. It is to confess that I cannot with my own intelligence ferret out the meaning and significance of life. It is to admit the other side of what Gunton called an 'inescapable' choice: that 'God...provides the reason why things are as they are' [Gunton, The Triune Creator, 36]. It is to refuse the serpent's suggestion that I can not only become like God, I can actually become God. This is a frightening place to live, and the other understanding is much more comfortable.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 191

<idle musing>
But, I want to be God! I deserve to be God! Everyone and everything should serve me! I am the center of the universe! Why doesn't everyone realize it and start worshiping me and doing what I want them to?

We recently returned from seeing our grandchildren. They are wonderful kids, and we love them dearly, but they don't have to be very old before they start thinking that way! They think the world revolves around them. It doesn't—usually! But, we are the same; we just have more sophisticated and veiled ways of saying it...

But, guess what? The world doesn't revolve around you and me anymore that it revolves around them. It revolves around God, who has made himself known in Jesus Christ. In the end, that is a much more comforting thought; I would hate to live in a world where I was God!
</idle musing>

Fun new books

This time of year is exciting if you like new books—at least in my areas of interest :) The annual SBL convention is rapidly approaching and every publisher is rushing to get their books into press in time. Eisenbrauns is no exception. This year we have a few books that are very dear to my philological heart; I highlighted them in today's BookNews, below, but I am especially enamored with the first two—the Ugaritic and the Syriac :)

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

This is a busy time of year for us here at Eisenbrauns. SBL is
looming large, and we are feverishly trying to get everything done.
This is also the time when people start e-mailing or calling and
asking what new titles will be at SBL. For the last two years, I
have dedicated a BookNews edition to answering just that question.

Below are the titles that are now in press and will be available
for your to purchase at SBL. I have also included the titles that
won't make it, but will be in proof format; be sure to look them
over and place your order for them.

To see cover graphics and read more information about the new
titles listed below, please follow this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWNOTES
=================================================================

"A Manual of Ugaritic"
by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 3
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming November 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061535
List Price: $69.50 Your Price: $62.55

"A Syriac Lexicon: A Translation from the Latin, Correction,
Expansion, and Update of C. Brockelmann's Lexicon Syriacum"
by Michael Sokoloff
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming, November, 2009. Cloth. English & Syriac.
ISBN: 9781575061808
List Price: $149.50 Your Price: $134.55

"Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook"
by Raymond Westbrook
Edited by Bruce Wells and F. Rachel Magdalene
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming November 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061771
List Price: $119.50 Your Price: $83.65

"Translation Technique and Theological Exegesis:
Collected Essays on the Septuagint Version"
by Staffan Olofsson
Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament Series - CBOTS 57
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming October 2009. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9781575068077
List Price: $39.95 Your Price: $35.96

"The Retelling of Chronicles in Jewish Tradition and Literature:
A Historical Journey"
by Isaac Kalimi
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming, November 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061498
List Price: $59.50 Your Price: $53.55

>These will be available in proof form. Be sure to look them over
and place your pre-order for them:
"Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew: An Introduction"
by Joshua Blau
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 2
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming December 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575061295
List Price: $59.50 Your Price: $53.55

"Aramaic in Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers
from the 2004 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer
Seminar at Duke University"
Edited by Eric M. Meyers and Paul V. M. Flesher
Duke Judaic Studies - DJS 3
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming March 2010. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061788
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $44.55

"Phoenicia: Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean"
by J. Brian Peckham
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming April, 2010. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061818
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $44.55

"Genesis and the Moses Story"
by Konrad Schmid
Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures 3
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming Winter 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061528
List Price: $64.50 Your Price: $58.05

"Reframing Biblical Studies: When Language and Text
Meet Culture, Cognition, and Context"
by Ellen J. Van Wolde
Eisenbrauns, Forthcoming December 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 978157506185
List Price: $39.50 Your Price: $35.55

But its not that unique, really, is it?

“I have called the Bible's [world]view transcendence and the other one continuity. In the first, the divine is other than the cosmos; in the second, the divine is inseparable from the cosmos. This difference is so significant that even today there are only three religions that believe in true transcendence: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and all of them have derived that conviction from one source only: the Bible.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 185

<idle musing>
Then again, it must be unique...
</idle musing>

The FTC guidelines

OK, this is burning up the blogosphere—and my e-mailbox—so let me say it: Yes, I am a bookseller. Yes, I get free books on a regular basis. No, I don't receive any other pay from those publishers, except an occasional lunch, if I can finagle it :)

No, I am not obligated to review the books I receive. Booksellers have been receiving free books from publishers for a l-o-n-g time now. How else do we know what is in them? I do on occasion review some of the books I receive. As of today, the only book I received with the direct request to review was the one I am excerpting now, The Bible Among Other Myths. The other ones that I review are because I like books (I know that was a surprise to all of you!).

For those of you (probably most of you) who don't know what I'm talking about, here's the link to the FTC bulletin. Caution, it is a PDF.

Now, back to our irregularly scheduled postings...

New weekly sale at Eisenbrauns

Here's the skinny, direct from BookNews:
BookNews from Eisenbrauns

Looking back over my records, I noticed that I haven't run a
sale on Museum Tusculanum books since June 2006. This sale
remedies that, offering you savings from 20-40%.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through October 18, 2009.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"The Carlsberg Papyri 3: A Miscellany of Demotic Texts and Studies"
Edited by Paul John Frandsen and Kim Ryholt
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 22
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8772895470
List Price: $108.00 Your Price: $75.60

"Studies in Zoroastrian Family Law: A Comparative Analysis"
by Bodil Hjerrild
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 28
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8772898070
List Price: $80.00 Your Price: $56.00

"Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne"
by Alexandra von Lieven
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 31
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2008. Cloth. German.
ISBN: 8763504065
List Price: $155.00 Your Price: $124.00

"Le recit de ma vie"
by Mohamed Ghabdouane
Edited by Karl-G. Prasse
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 21
Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997. Cloth. French.
ISBN: 8772894172
List Price: $54.00 Your Price: $37.80

"The Pre-Islamic Coinage of Eastern Arabia"
by D. T. Potts
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 14
Museum Tusculanum Press, 1991. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8772891564
List Price: $61.00 Your Price: $48.80

"Lexique Touareg-Francais"
by Karl-G. Prasse and Mohamed Ghabdouane
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 24
Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998. Cloth. French.
ISBN: 8772894709
List Price: $64.00 Your Price: $51.20

"The Carlsberg Papyri 4: The Story of Petese Son of Petetum and
Seventy other Good and Bad Stories"
Edited by Kim Ryholt
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 23
Museum Tusculanum Press, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8772895276
List Price: $59.00 Your Price: $47.20

"Acts of the Seventh International Conference of Demotic Studies:
Copenhagen, 23-27 August 1999"
Edited by Kim Ryholt
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 27
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002. Cloth. English, German, and French.
ISBN: 8772896485
List Price: $117.00 Your Price: $70.20

"The Petese Stories II"
by Kim Ryholt
Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies - CNIANES 29
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 8763504049
List Price: $91.00 Your Price: $72.80

"Aus der Buchhaltung des Weinmagazins im Edfu-Tempel:
Der demotische P. Carlsberg 409"
by Maren Schentuleit
Carlsberg Papyri - CP 32
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006. Cloth. German.
ISBN: 8763503441
List Price: $229.00 Your Price: $160.30

But where did it come from?

“If genius is the key, then there is no reason for Israel to have made these unique discoveries [of a transcendent God]. Pride of place would have to go to the Sumerians or the Old Kingdom Egyptians. Here were the real cognitive and cultural geniuses of the ancient Near East. Their discoveries shaped the thinking, commerce, politics, and science of the whole region for almost three thousand years. In fact, we still today use the Sumerians' sexagesimal mathematics when we divide a circle into 360 degrees. Yet when it came to their perception of ultimate reality, these profound thinkers came out where they started. If the given is this world and if any outside interpretation of that given in rejected, the final conclusions are all going to be the same—namely, those detailed in the earlier chapters.

“So if the Hebrews came out with different—radically different—conclusions about the nature of reality and the nature of human experience, they did so because they started somewhere different from everybody else. They, of course, tell us what that point was. It was in direct revelation from the transcendent One himself. Unlike the Greeks, who were willing to accept the accolades of being the world's greatest thinkers, the Israelites tell us that they were religiously retarded. Far from claiming to be unusually sensitive to religious truth, they tell us again and again that they were stubborn and stiff-necked, a people afflicted with severe spiritual myopia.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 148

<idle musing>
But, if you aren't willing to accept that a god can break into human history, what can you do? You end up running in circles; creating all sorts of interesting theories and ideas. They might make for good reading, and even spawn a new school of thought, but in the end they will fail. Without allowing for divine participation, they are all like dogs running on three legs.
</idle musing>

Control

“Like their pagan neighbors, the Israelites were constantly trying to fit the divine into a box of their own making so that the divine could be understood and controlled. Clearly, they forgot what their own doctrine of creation taught them: God is the infinite Creator, who cannot be boxed in. Unlike the gods, who are the recurring system and thus are incapable of doing anything new, Yahweh is outside this system, its Maker, and he rejoices to do things that have never happened before. Will he be consistent? Absolutely! Will he be predictable on our terms? Never!...

“It is often said, 'The winners write history.' But that is exactly what Yahweh would not allow to happen. He told them what their history meant, and it was usually quite different from what the rich and powerful would like to have had said about it and about themselves. In the end, the idea that the God of these little Canaanite principalities called Israel and Judah was in fact using the mightiest powers of the world to discipline and refine his people was the last thing that anyone would have expected to emerge from Israel's historical experience. For in the end, Israel's history is tragedy compounded by tragedy.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, pages 135-136

<idle musing>
Not a whole lot has changed in the last 2000+ years, has it? We still try to fit God into our box. We still want to control him. We still want to be the ones who write the story...
</idle musing>

More on magic

“...since we are discontinuous with God, we cannot participate in his life or receive his blessings through magical means. Any attempt to do so is met in the Bible with the bitterest of denunciations. Magic is a denial both of transcendence and of personhood, an attempt to mechanically manipulate another for one's own benefit while bypassing any meaningful relationship with that other.

“Interestingly, magic is not denounced, as in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century West, because it does not work. Whether it works or not, and often enough it does, is beside the point. The Bible denounces it because it is ra`—an attempt to use the world in ways it was never intended to be used.” —The Bible Among Other Myths, pages 132-133

<idle musing>
Interesting insight, isn't it? Whether magic works or not is irrelevant; it is an attempt to manipulate. That is not just true of magic; one thing that immediately comes to mind is pornography. That is clearly an attempt to “mechanically manipulate another for one's own benefit” and certainly bypassing “any meaningful relationship.”

Of course, another thing that fits that category all too well is advertising. Advertising certainly isn't interested in a meaningful relationship with anything other than you wallet! And it definitely is manipulative...just an
</idle musing>

Why not magic?

“Yet another example of these boundaries between God and creation is found in the prohibition of the use of all magic. Sorcery of every kind is forbidden, and the Israelites may not attempt to manipulate God in any kind of ritualistic way. Nowhere is this clearer than in the prophets with their insistence that the rituals in and of themselves accomplish nothing. It is only as the rituals express genuine repentance, exhibiting itself in the nonmanipulative behavior of righteousness and justice, that the ritual gives any pleasure to God at all The attempt to lay hold of divine power to accomplish our purposes and to supply our own needs is represented as disgusting to God. He is not a part of this system and cannot be manipulated through it.

“But if that is the case, how are the Israelites to get their needs supplied? Theyare to do so by surrendering themselves and their need to God in trust and faith (Ps. 51:16-17). They are to do so through personal communication, that is, prayer. This is, of course, a rather frightening alternative. As we said above, it is to put oneself at the mercy of the gods. But unlike the fickle gods, who sometimes bless their human worshipers to aggrandize themselves, the biblical God is faithful, keeping his word no matter what the cost. he longs to bless his people if they will only surrender their own attempts to get what they want without commitment, and trust him. But the price of self-surrender is a high one, and we often find the Israelites slipping back into the attempts to manipulate God through magic.

“This prohibition of magic calls our attention to a feature of the Israelite understanding of God that has been implicit in much that we have already observed. This is that Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, is absolute. There is nothing and no one beyond him. There is no raw power, no 'meta-divine' outside of him that can be appealed to through magic to force our will on him whether he likes it or not. Thus the Old Testament teaches us that the Absolute is a personal Spirit who is the source of all things—not because they emanate from him, but because of his creative will. He cannot be manipulated through creation, but he intends to bless all those who will surrender their attempts to perform such manipulation”—The Bible Among Other Myths, pages 75-76

<idle musing>
Not a whole lot has changed, has it? We still try to manipulate God; nothing is more scary than being out of control and depending on someone else. We want to be in control, always have. Didn't work in Genesis 3, doesn't work now...
</idle musing>

Apples

Over the weekend, I picked and processed some apples. The abandoned orchard where I usually pick apples didn't have any left; I should have picked them before going on vacation. Oh well, instead I went to Kercher's Orchard in Goshen. I usually buy our apples there during the winter; we prefer buying apples from the orchard instead of the store.

I wanted to pick 2 bushels; one of Jonathan and one of Cortland. I picked up my 4 empty 1/2 bushels and went out to the orchard to pick. I have never seen the apples as thick on the branches! I picked 2 bushels in about 15 minutes. I think I stood in line to pay for them longer than it took to pick them :)

Well, that was the easy part. Yesterday, I canned applesauce—15 quarts worth. Tonight I will continue to can applesauce—probably another 8-10 quarts. Then we will cut up about 1/2 bushel of Jonathans and dry them. Meantime, we have lots of apples to eat :)

New sales at Eisenbrauns

How about a new monthly sale? Here it is, direct from BookNews:

As the leaves begin to turn and the mornings get colder here in
Indiana, it seems like a sale on Israel Archeological Authority
titles is appropriate. Think hot and dusty--and savings of 20-40%.
Quantities are limited, so hurry.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns will be
permitted. Offer good only on orders placed at www.eisenbrauns.com
through October 30, 2009.

To easily access all the sale items, please visit:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/SPECIAL
================================================================
"Atiqot 45: Early Bronze Age Site at Ashkelon, Afridar"
Edited by Zvi Gal
Atiqot 45
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2004. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9654061589
List Price: $36.00 Your Price: $21.60

"Atiqot 52 (2006): Studies in the Persian and Hellenistic Periods"
Edited by Zvi Gal
Atiqot 52
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2006. Paper. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 9654061902
List Price: $20.00 Your Price: $16.00

"Maresha Excavations Final Report I: Subterranean Complexes 21, 44, 70"
by A. Kloner
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 17
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2003. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9654061503
List Price: $28.00 Your Price: $22.40

"Gamla I: The Pottery of 2nd Temple Period"
by Andrea M. Berlin
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 29
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2006. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9654061910
List Price: $28.00 Your Price: $22.40

"Tel Mor: The Moshe Dothan Excavations 1959-60"
Edited by Tristan J. Barako
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 32
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2007. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9789654062022
List Price: $28.00 Your Price: $22.40

"Bet She'an I: NYSA-Scythopolis: The Caesareum and the Odeum"
by Gabriel Mazor and Arlan Jajjar
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 33
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2008. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9789654062015
List Price: $28.00 Your Price: $22.40

"Necropolis of Bet Guvrin - Eleutheropolis"
by G. Avni, U. Dahari, and A. Kloner
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 36
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2008. Paper. English.
ISBN:
List Price: $37.00 Your Price: $29.60

"Panes - Volume 1: The Roman to Early Islamic Periods.
Excavations in Areas A, B, E, F, G and H"
by V. Tzaferis and S. Israeli
Israel Antiquities Authority Reports - IAAR 37
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2008. Paper. English.
List Price: $37.00 Your Price: $29.60

"Eretz Zafon: Studies in Galilean Archaeology"
Edited by Zvi Gal
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2002. Paper. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 9654061457
List Price: $45.00 Your Price: $36.00

"Flights into Biblical Archaeology"
by Duby Tal, Moni Haramati, and Shimon Gibson
Israel Antiquities Authority, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9789659028344
List Price: $62.00 Your Price: $49.60

Maybe you prefer the 10-day sale? OK:

Freshly back from tramping in the Minnesota woods and canoeing
the waters, I came up with a sampling of Eisenbrauns titles for
you to choose from. Enjoy 30-50% off on these titles.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through October 7, 2009.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts"
Edited by Bernard F. Batto and Kathryn Roberts
Eisenbrauns, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060922
List Price: $55.00 Your Price: $27.50

"Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-First Century:
The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference"
Edited by Jerrold S. Cooper and Glenn M. Schwartz
Eisenbrauns, 1996. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 093146496X
List Price: $59.50 Your Price: $29.75

"A Handbook on Isaiah"
by Jan de Waard
Textual Criticism and the Translator - TCT 1
Eisenbrauns, 1997. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 157506023X
List Price: $39.50 Your Price: $19.75

"Scripture in Context II: More Essays on the Comparative Method"
Edited by William W. Hallo, James C. Moyer, and Leo G. Perdue
Eisenbrauns, 1983. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0931464145
List Price: $42.50 Your Price: $21.25

"Jeremiah: A Study in Ancient Hebrew Rhetoric"
by Jack R. Lundbom
Eisenbrauns, 1997. Paper. English.
ISBN: 1575060167
List Price: $22.95 Your Price: $16.07

"Patterns of Destiny: Narrative Structures of
Foundation and Doom in the Hebrew Bible"
by Diane M. Sharon
Eisenbrauns, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060523
List Price: $42.50 Your Price: $21.25

"The Reconstructed Chronology of the Divided Kingdom"
by M. Christine Tetley
Eisenbrauns, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060728
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $24.75

"In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient
World and the Origins of Biblical History"
by John Van Seters
Eisenbrauns, 1997. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060132
List Price: $47.50 Your Price: $23.75

"The Wilderness of Zin"
by C. Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence
Eisenbrauns, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060779
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $24.75

"Ritual in Narrative: The Dynamics of Feasting, Mourning,
and Retaliation Rites in the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat"
by David P. Wright
Eisenbrauns, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060469
List Price: $45.00 Your Price: $22.50

Hesed

..the word hesed, a word not attested outside Hebrew, comes to be used as the descriptor par excellence of God in the Old Testament. The word speaks of a completely undeserved kindness and generosity done by a person who is in a position of power. This was the Israelites' experience of God. He revealed himself to them when they were not looking for him, and he kept his covenant with them long after their persistent breaking of it had destroyed any reason for his continued keeping of it. Ultimately they came to understand that God's holiness, that which in common ancient Near Eastern terms separated a god from a human, was most to be seen in his character. Unlike humans, this deity was notfickle, undependable, self-serving, and grasping. Instead he was faithful, true, upright, and generous—always. So the typical description of him, found throughout the Old Testament, is that he is patient, slow to get angry, merciful, kind, and true. He is just in that he does not suspend cause and effect for his favorites, But he does limit those effects to three or four generations, whereas he extends the effects of obedience to thousands of generations.—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 71

<idle musing>
Hesed has got to be the most wonderful word in the Hebrew language! Pull out TDOT some day and read the article. Then, go find a copy of TWOT by Harris, Archer, and Waltke and read their article. Both of them together give you a good idea of the meaning of the word.
</idle musing>

The significance of omens

“The past is only significant insofar as it shows us continuities that will repeat themselves. Thus, omens are of great importance. At some time in the past the shape of the entrails of a sacrificial animal coincided with some significant event. If that shape should present itself again, we may expect the same events to happen again. Thus the past will repeat itself and it is helpful to have information on hand to plan for that repetition.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 61

<idle musing>
If you have studied the ancient world much at all, you know how important omens were. If the omens weren't favorable, the army wouldn't move. Armies could be across from each other for days, waiting for the omens to be favorable—insanity by today's standards!

There are catalogs of omens, “if this then this will happen.” That is also why they watched the stars so carefully—remember the stars were divine, so they had an affect on your life (modern astrology depends on this same idea). There were tablets that listed “good days” called ume tabuti in Akkadian (sorry no diacritics).

As an aside, did you know that the Greek word for “left” actually means “well-omened”? The Greeks believed that bad omens came from the left, so they wouldn't mention the left, but instead they called it the well-omened side—no sense in invoking bad luck! Oh, and the Fates were called the “well-omened ones.”
</idle musing>

Frost!

We just had our first frost last night, two weeks early, too. I just couldn't bring myself to wear mittens this morning on my bike ride to work, but I sure wished I had 5 minutes into the ride.

We'll see how much of the garden escaped. I hope that the cherry tomatoes did; I want to take a cutting from it and raise them indoors all winter—or at least try it :)

This is actually one of my favorite times of the year. I love the crisp morning rides to work with the leaves turning and the fog rising off the lake, the warm afternoons with the smell of leaves in the air. The smell of wood-burning stoves...ahhh

The principle of continuity (long)

Oswalt has an extensive discussion of subject-object distinction. Huh? What that means is that the object is distinct from me, that there is a reality that exists apart from my existence. Something doesn't have to relate to me to have meaning. Am I making sense? Maybe this snippet will help:

If there is anything that is discontinuous with me, it is meaningless. If it is truly separate from me, it does not exist for me; I cannot participate in its life and it cannot participate in mine. Things only have meaning for me as they relate to me. It is pointless to make a distinction between me the subject and something that is not-me. What else is there but me the subject? Of what importance is anything except as it relates to me?”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 53

This has some important ramifications:

When this understanding is projected on the divine, the result is obvious. Deity must be part of me as I must be part of it. To say that I am not divine, or that the divine is not me, or to say that the deity is not the world, or that the world is not the deity, is to make life uncontrollable and meaningless. As the source the divine is the subject, but as the manifestation it is the object. Because of continuity, it must be both at once. To distinguish between the source and the manifestation is to make the source unreachable through the manifestation, a circumstance that is highly undesirable.—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 53

Oswalt applies this to the Golden Calf incident:

Since Moses was worshiping the invisible One, the source, on the mountain, why should not the people worship one of his visible manifestations as a part of the Many in the valley? So God could be the invisible Creator and the visible created (the bull) at one and the same time. The text shows us that this is how they were thinking when it tells us that Aaron said of the image, “Behold your God [Heb. 'elohim] who brought you forth from Egypt” (Ex. 34:4, lit. trans.)

Aaron and the people did not consider themselves to be doing anything heretical. After all, this is religion as they had observed it in Egypt for years. As the source, God is One, and other than creation. But as a manifestation he is many and a part of creation. The mythmaker sees no contradiction. But Moses understood that the God who was revealing himself to the Israelites was somehow distinctly other than creation. Thus, no blurring of God and creation could be allowed to exist. To permit it to exist would be to deny that nature of reality as Yahweh was revealing it to his people.—The Bible Among Other Mythspages 53-54 (brackets his)

<idle musing>
Did you follow that? I hope so, because it is essential to his arguments throughout the book. Oswalt is arguing that the mythmaker looks around at reality as (s)he sees it and projects that onto the divine. There is no distinction (his principle of continuity) between the two realms. What you do in the visible realm is effective in the invisible realm because the two are essentially one. This is why magic, rituals, liturgies, etc., are effective; you are forcing something to happen in the divine by declaring it in the visible.

This reasoning is the basis for the “name it, claim it, stomp on it and frame it!” reasoning of some “christians'” use of the Bible. Many people use the Bible as a book of magic; find a verse you like, or a promise that is appealing, speak it forth verbally and, voila! it has to happen. By speaking it, you have tied God's hands; he has to do it! Talk about paganism at its most blatant! Yet, that is accepted in some circles as “good Christian practice.”
</idle musing>

Danker's Concise Lexicon

The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament

Edited by Frederick W. Danker
University of Chicago Press, 2009
408 pages, English and Greek
Cloth
ISBN: 9780226136158
Your Price: $55.00
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/DANCONCIS

I just received Danker's new Concise Lexicon and thought you might like to know a bit more about it.

In the preface, he says that it is not an abridgement of BDAG, although it owes much to it. It is also not a reworking of his earlier (1983) Concise Lexicon. Rather, it is a fresh work that owes a bit to many sources, including a modern Greek, a Ms. Krug, who offered insights that he found helpful (this follows nicely with the recent thread on Greek NT scholarship by modern Greeks). In fact, she is even included on the title page.

The entries are short, with a brief etymology (where known), a definition, glosses, and references for the gloss. As befitting a work of this sort, many irregular verb forms are listed, referencing the correct lexical form.

I especially liked where he stated in the preface that Greek does not exist to serve the translator and is unapologetic for coining neo-logisms where English is inadequate.

This work certainly won't replace BDAG, but it isn't intended to. At $55.00, it is more affordable for the beginning student, but I would hope that whoever purchases it would eventually/soon use BDAG also.

The chaos monster!

"...myths are tied to the 'status quo.' They have two chief concerns: explaining why things are as they are now, and maintaining things as they are now. These concerns spring directly out of the human terror of chaos. We are afraid of chaos because it always destroys our security, and security is perhaps the greatest of all human longings. if we are to gain the security we so desperately want, the first order of the day is some sense of intellectual order. If we can explain why things are the way they are, then we have that sense of intellectual order, and we also have the feeling that we know how to relate to the thing explained."—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 49

<idle musing>
In other words, we want to be God; Genesis 3 all over again...the more things change, the more they stay the same. We don't want to submit to God; we don't want somebody else to have any authority over us. We are in control; we are God—NOT! We are not in control; we are not God. And we never have been! We are in need of God's empowering presence in the form of the Holy Spirit (some call it grace...) for our very existence from breath to breath.
</idle musing>

Vacation

As you probably noticed, I'm back from 2 weeks of wandering the world. OK, actually, I'm back from 2 weeks of spoiling the grandchildren :)

We had an enjoyable time—and an interesting time. While visiting Joel and Renee, I went on a day hike/canoe with Joel and Ryan (our son). Along the way up the Gunflint Trail, your tax dollars were at work; they had torn up 5 miles and it was some of the worst road I have ever driven on. For part of it, you couldn't exceed 10 miles per hour, and even then it was horrendous.

We made it to our put-in point and canoed to the bluffs we wanted to climb. You can see some nice pictures of them and from them here. After an enjoyable morning and afternoon, we headed back—over the same bad road. At the end of the washboarding, I shifted into second, accelerated...and heard a whine and clunk. Uh-oh. As I pulled over to the side of the road, transmission fluid spilled out onto the road. A short hike to the nearest phone (cell phone reception? are you kidding!) to call the tow truck and Renee and all was in control. Well, maybe.

The tow truck driver said he could repair it by Friday, if he could find the parts, which seemed likely. Once Renee came, we headed in to town to see him at the shop. His first words were, "We've got problems." He led me to the car and pointed to a nice separation of the axle from the frame. Literally shaken loose by the washboarding. Since a Metro is a unibody, there was nothing to do except bury it.

No problem; we can rent a car and drive it back, or so we thought. God had other ideas. Who would think that there wouldn't be a single car available for rental in Duluth and Minneapolis-St. Paul on a Tuesday! Guess we need another option.

We headed to the shop to see if he had any junkers we could buy cheaply. He had just gone to lunch! Hmmm...How about the local car dealer? Ryan and I walked in and I told him my car had jut died. He asked what I was looking for. I told him I was used to getting 50 miles per gallon. Rather than the expected look of terror, he said he had a used 2006 Prius. Ouch. I haven't had car payments for 14 years. But, that seemed to be what the Lord was directing. So, we are now the owners of a Toyota Prius with 50,000 miles.

By the way, it gets 57 miles to the gallon :)

Augustine and the Jews

Ok, I've been promising this for a while, so here we go (yes, I really did do something while on vacation other than spoil grandchildren!):

Augustine and the Jews
A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism
by Paula Fredriksen
Doubleday, 2008
xxiii + 500 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9780385502702
List Price: $35.00
Your Price: $29.75
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/FREAUGUST

The book is divided into three sections: The legacy of Alexander, which describes the cultural background of Augustine's world, The prodigal son, which a biography of Augustine, and God and Israel, which deals with Augustine's evolving theology of what to do with the Jews.

The first section could almost be a book on its own. The cultural background, with the importance of paideia (the way society educated its young, especially wealthy, males) for worldview, the importance of rhetoric in daily life, the role of the gods in society, are all laid out in a very coherent and understandable way. The heavy influence of the Platonic/Neo-platonic disdain for the physical is highlighted, as it will have an important role in the development of Christian theology.I could recommend the book for this section alone. I only have one complaint, and that is that she has bought the current academic fad that there were multiple christianities that were all equally valid prior to “the triumph of orthodoxy.” But, that is another argument for another day.

Since I have lived with this material for so long, I tend to forget that most people don't know about the multiplicity of gods and their role in the ancient world. I was reminded of it just the other day while on vacation. I made some statement, which I thought would be self-evident, and had to spend the next ½ hour explaining polytheism and the concept of placating the deities. This section of the book would make a good read on that subject.

The second section, Augustine's biography, is a look at his journey through school, Manicheeism, and his eventual return to Christianity. The role of the Latin classics and translated Greek classics (Augustine never did learn Greek well enough to read it easily) in his spiritual journey is recounted. Along the way, Fredriksen highlights the importance of these ideas in Augustine's intellectual development and the way they informed his later ideas, especially in Confessions.

The third section finally gets to the title of the book! But, the first two sections are essential to the development of her arguments. You can't jump right in to the last section and understand how Augustine arrived at his, for the time, radical ideas about the Jews. The role of Faustus the Manichee is highlighted—indeed, many of Augustine's more important ideas are the result of his invectives against the Manichees. She examines Augustine's way of reading scripture, which included the, normal for the time, allegorical reading. But, he also read scripture ad litteram, which Fredriksen translates “historically.” This was unusual for the time, but it allowed Augustine to read the Old Testament as a document that wasn't just an allegorical statement pointing to the coming of Christ. He took the unique view that these things actually happened, and that by doing these things, the Jews were actually doing what God wanted. The common Christian viewpoint, under the heavy influence of Neo-platonism, was that the Jews misunderstood what God wanted and the physical fulfilling of the sacrifices was a punishment and didn't really please God at all.

As an example of how far the allegorical interpretation had taken hold, the confrontation between Peter and Paul in Galatians was seen as a ploy. The common view, held by Jerome and others, was that Peter knew that the law was no longer of value, and as a teaching tool he and Paul staged the confrontation. Augustine's reading of the text ad litteram allowed him to say that it was a genuine confrontation. He was more concerned that deceit not be in the scriptures than that Peter looked like a fool. Needless to say, Jerome launched an attack such as only a person of Jerome's personality could! He cited Patristic sources (all in Greek, since he knew Augustine couldn't read it!) showing how the church had always seen it as a ploy, but Augustine held firm. He saw that the New Testament church was—gasp—Jewish! The Jewish Christians continued to live as Jews, while the Gentile Christians continued to live as Gentiles. This was the only way that Augustine could make sense of the New Testament.

Augustine's realization that the Jews were fulfilling God's commands by doing the sacrifices allowed him to value the Jews in a way that the rest of the church didn't. It was this understanding that caused him to write of the value of the Jewish people. Fredriksen chases the development of what this entailed through Augustine's later writings. Realizing that rhetorical statements and real life don't always line up, she looks for any real encounters that Augustine might have had with Jews. Finding two, she examines them and finds that here, at least, Augustine was consistent with his rhetoric.

I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the history of the late Roman Empire, or the theology and history of the church in the fourth-fifth century. As I mentioned above, aside from her acceptance of the current academic fad of “all early versions of Christianity were of equal validity,” her presentation of the culture of the late Hellenistic-Roman Empire is excellent and could be read with profit by itself.

Cyclical reasoning

OK, looks like the review will have to wait...vacation starts at 5:00 PM today!

After basically adopting Child's definition of myth (in Myth and Reality, pp. 27-28), Oswalt goes on to say:

Thus, myth is a form of expression, whether literary or oral, whereby the continuities among the human, natural, and divine realms are expressed and actualized. By reinforcing these continuities, it seeks to ensure the orderly functioning of both nature and human society...The fact is that the Bible has a completely different understanding of existence and of the relations among the realms. As a result, it functions entirely differently. Its telling does not actualize continuous divine reality out of the real invisible world into this visible reflection of that reality. Rather, it is a rehearsal of the nonrepeatable acts of God in identifiable time and space in concert with human beings. Its purpose is to provoke human choices and behavior through the medium of memory. Nothing could be farther from the purpose of myth.—The Bible Among Other Myths, pages 45-46

<idle musing>
Sounds like myth is a Platonic construct, doesn't it? We have the “idea” in the divine realm which we want to make real in the human realm. Does this definition of myth still make sense? Is it still commonly accepted? I don't know; the date on Childs is 1960. Can somebody help me out here?
</idle musing>

New sale

Eisenbrauns is running a new sale. Because I will be gone for two weeks, this sale will be longer than normal. Here's the skinny:

There will not be a BookNews for the next 2 weeks. I'm heading
to Minnesota to enjoy 2 weeks with two new granddaughters, some
nice hikes along Lake Superior, and, hopefully, some canoeing.

Meanwhile, enjoy the extended weekly sale, and don't forget
the monthly sale, as well: up to 50% off on Hebrew and
Ugaritic titles.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through September 27, 2009.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"Ottoman Izmir: Studies in honour of Alexander H. de Groot"
Edited by M.H. van den Boogert
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 107
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2007. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9789062583188
List Price: $45.00 Your Price: $36.00

"Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period:
Old Assyrian Archives, Studies, Volume 3"
Edited by J. G. Dercksen
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 111
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2008. Paper. English and French.
ISBN: 9789062583225
List Price: $49.00 Your Price: $39.20

"Constructing Communities: Clustered Neighbourhood Settlements of the Central Anatolian Neolithic ca. 8500-5500 Cal. BC"
by Bleda S. During
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 105
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2006. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062583164
List Price: $72.00 Your Price: $57.60

"Zur Chronologie der Kaufmannsarchive aus der Schicht 2 des Karum Kanes: Studien und Materialen"
by Guido Kryszat
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 99
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2004. Paper. German.
ISBN: 9062581005
List Price: $49.00 Your Price: $29.40

"Old Assyrian Studies in Memory of Paul Garelli"
Edited by Cecile Michel
Old Assyrian Archives 4
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2008. Paper. English, French, and German.
ISBN: 9789062583232
List Price: $67.00 Your Price: $53.60

"The Ilipinar Excavations II"
Edited by J. Roodenberg and L. C. Thissen
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 93
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2001. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062580947
List Price: $129.00 Your Price: $103.20

"Hittite Votive Texts"
by Johan de Roos
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 109
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2007. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9789062583201
List Price: $69.00 Your Price: $55.20

"Elusive Silver: In Search of a Role for a Market in an Agrarian Environment--Aspects of Mesopotamia's Society"
by G. van Driel
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 95
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2002. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062580963
List Price: $85.00 Your Price: $68.00

"Veenhof Anniversary Volume: Studies Presented to Klaas R. Veenhof on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday"
Edited by Wilfred H. van Soldt
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 89
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2001. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062580912
List Price: $111.00 Your Price: $88.80

"Tell Sabi Abyad II - The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Settlement: Report on the Excavations of the National Museum of Antiquities
Leiden in Balikh Valley, Syria"
Edited by Marc Verhoeven and Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Publications de l'Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul - PIHANS 90
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2000. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9062580904
List Price: $97.00 Your Price: $77.60

The warrior

Lawson Stone, of Asbury Seminary is doing a 365 day project: one photo per day. That's no big deal, except it is a self-portrait and usually contains some good insight. Today's rings very true for me. Here's a snippet:

The uninitiated, the new student in a biblical studies program, seminary, or young scholar, encounters a gaggle of disconnected methods, a cacophony of voices, and a chaos of ideological values, typically supported by the power and resources of the scholarly guild, tenure review committees, and major publishers. It confuses, but it also dazzles and hypnotizes. The literary critic and philosopher George Steiner has pilloried the tribalized academy as “…covens which celebrate this or that rite of explication.”

And, we might add, eager for new initiates. The student began simply enough with a love for God and his word and a desire to study scripture responsibly, rigorously, and faithfully. But now she feels an undertow, a pull toward the fashions, predilections and preoccupations of the academy. A new acculturation begins to take place, the desire to please a particular professor, to appear on top of the latest trends, current, relevant…to whom?

Then there are the insistent demands of a church that is all too often in the tank with popular culture and impatient with analysis and reflection in its rush to be relevant. We demand that God speak to our problems right now, and any explanation of the Bible that isn’t “practical” is rejected. The concept that we might need to set our needs and agendas aside and simply listen to God…who does that? But in fact, if I don’t think the Bible applies to my life, maybe it is my life that is in the wrong place!

<idle musing>
Do read the whole thing; very insightful. Biblical studies can indeed be a dangerous place...
</idle musing>

The hound of heaven

Ok, I was hoping to post a review of Augustine and the Jews, but I ran out of time. Maybe tomorrow or Friday; if not, then it will be done while I am on vacation. Meantime, I started reading Oswalt's The Bible Among Other Myths. Here's a brief snippet from it:

When we ask the Israelites where they came up with these fantastic concepts, they tell us they did not “come up” with them. They tell us that God broke in upon their lives and dragged them kicking and screaming into these understandings. They tell us that they did their best to get away from him, but that he would not let them go. He kept obtruding himself into their lives in the most uncomfortable ways.—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 17

<idle musing>
Augustine called the Holy Spirit the “hound of Heaven.” He doesn't let us go, but chases us, woos us, pursues us to the depths of our being; he never lets us go. Praise God for that!
</idle musing>

A bit of perspective

"The empire, neither demonic before 312 [the date of Constantine's "conversion"] nor holy thereafter, lacked any absolute religious significance. And events whether positive (such as the universal proclamation of the gospel) or negative (famine, earthquake, or the fall of Rome) were eschatologically opaque: they could not be matched with scriptural prophecy to indicate anything of the divine plan. However certain in their faith, Christians could never be certain of their circumstances. For the period of time that stood outside the biblical canon, history's patterns and the ultimate significance of events, like God's standards of justice, were occultissimi [most hidden] as well."—Augustine and the Jews, pages 342-343

<idle musing>
Would that some of our modern "prophecy experts" would learn from Augustine! Why do we not heed the cry of Jesus that no one knows the day or the hour except the Father? Oh wait, I know, it's because we want to be God and know all things! Genesis 3 again; I might have guessed it. :(
</idle musing>

Free will

"But will operated with extreme internal constraints. The will as now constituted—as Augustine argued brilliantly when explicating Romans 9 to Simplicianus; as he demonstrated brilliantly in his narration of his own past in the first eight books of the Confessions—is undermined by its own self. Conflicted, ineffectual, this will is indeed "free"—no star or demon or external power compels it—but it is free only to sin. Absent grace, the best that a person can do is to want not to sin, though he cannot not sin.—Augustine and the Jews, page 277

<idle musing>
I don't disagree with this. But, I do disagree about the extent of grace; Augustine believed in apportioned grace. I believe in free grace—free to all, free from limits, free!
</idle musing>

Mosquitoes!

Bugs haven't been much of a problem this year; it has been quite dry; the garden hasn't suffered, though because of the drip irrigation. But, the rain 2 weeks ago sure changed things!

For the last few days, you can't hardly walk outside without being accosted by mosquitoes. I have started wearing long pants and a rain jacket while working in the garden. They bite right through a regular shirt; the nylon jacket seems to stop them. But, my hands and head are getting attacked continually while I am working.

Debbie read somewhere that Bounce™ sheets work for repelling insects, so she has started attaching the sheets to herself. Last night, she had one pinned in her hair, one on each sleeve, and one on her belt loop. It looked pretty funny—and she still got bit!

It reminds me of living in the north woods! But, "count it all joy..." keeps coming to mind.

New monthly sale at Eisenbrauns

Another back-to-school sale this month. Here's the blurb from BookNews:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

As school starts again this fall, I'm sure many of you have read the Beloit College "Mindset List" (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php). They missed one very important item this year: Waltke & O'Connor's "Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax" has always been the standard by which other Hebrew grammars are judged.

In keeping with that theme, Eisenbrauns is offering you savings of 10-50% on Hebrew and Ugaritic resources for the entire month of September.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns will be permitted. Offer good only on orders placed at www.eisenbrauns.com through September 30, 2009.

To easily access all the sale items, please visit:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/SPECIAL
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"Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax"
by Bruce K. Waltke and Michael Patrick O'Connor
Eisenbrauns, 1990. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0931464315
List Price: $59.50 Your Price: $41.65

"Beginning Biblical Hebrew"
by Mark D. Futato
Eisenbrauns, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060221
List Price: $44.95 Your Price: $31.47

"A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew"
by Choon L. Seow
Abingdon, 1995. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0687157862
List Price: $36.00 Your Price: $23.40

"A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax"
by Bill T. Arnold and John H. Choi
Cambridge University Press, 2003. Paper. English.
ISBN: 0521533481
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $15.99

"Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: Edited and enlarged
by E. Kautzsch; Second edition"
Edited by E. Kautzsch
by William Gesenius
Clarendon Press, 1910. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0198154062
List Price: $69.95 Your Price: $55.96

"A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar: With minor revisions"
Edited by Christo H. Van Der Merwe, Jackie A. Naude, and Jan H. Kroeze
Biblical Languages: Hebrew - BLH 3
Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Paper. English.
ISBN: 1850758565
List Price: $72.00 Your Price: $50.40

"The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon with an
appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the
numbering system from "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible""
by Francis Brown, et al.
Hendrickson Publishers, 1995. Cloth. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 1565632060
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $20.97

"A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament"
by William L. Holladay
Eerdmans, 1971. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0802834132
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $24.00

"Dictionary of Basic Biblical Hebrew: Hebrew-English"
by Shlomo Karni
Carta, Jerusalem, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9652204986
List Price: $24.95 Your Price: $19.96

"Ezra-Nehemiah: Biblia Hebraica Quinta"
Edited by David Marcus
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 20
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2006. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052806
List Price: $98.00 Your Price: $63.70

"General Introduction and Megilloth: Biblia Hebraica Quinta"
Edited by Adrian Schenker, et al.
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 18
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2004. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052784
List Price: $98.00 Your Price: $63.70

"Proverbs"
Edited by J. de Waard
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 17
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2008. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 9783438052773
List Price: $98.00 Your Price: $63.70

"Deuteronomy"
Edited by Carmel McCarthy
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 5
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2007. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 9781598561982
List Price: $99.00 Your Price: $64.35

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Large Format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052180
List Price: $79.99 Your Price: $47.99

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Paperback Edition"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2001. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052229
List Price: $34.99 Your Price: $26.24

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Small format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052199
List Price: $69.95 Your Price: $41.97

"Konkordanz zum hebraischen Alten Testament"
by Gerhard Lisowsky
Edited by H. P. Ruger
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1958. Cloth. Hebrew and German.
ISBN: 343805230X
List Price: $84.99 Your Price: $67.99

"Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting:
Typological and Historical Perspectives"
Edited by Steven E. Fassberg and Avi Hurvitz
Eisenbrauns, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575061163
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $34.65

"Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 BCE"
by W. Randall Garr
Eisenbrauns, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060914
List Price: $47.50 Your Price: $28.50

"Untersuchungen zur verbalen Valenz im biblischen Hebraisch"
by Michael Malessa
Studia Semitica Neerlandica - SSN 49
Van Gorcum, 2006. Cloth. German.
ISBN: 9023242408
List Price: $85.00 Your Price: $68.00

"The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches"
Edited by Cynthia L. Miller
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 1
Eisenbrauns, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060361
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $29.70

"Hebrew Verse Structure"
by Michael Patrick O'Connor
Eisenbrauns, 1997. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0931464021
List Price: $59.50 Your Price: $29.75

"Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics"
Edited by Robert D. Bergen
SIL International, 1994. Paper. English.
ISBN: 1556710070
List Price: $42.00 Your Price: $33.60

"Ugaritic Textbook: Grammar, Texts in Transliteration,
Cuneiform Selections, Glossary, Indices"
by Cyrus H. Gordon
Analecta Orientalia - AO 38
Biblical Institute Press / Editrice
Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1998. Paper. English.
ISBN: 8876532382
List Price: $128.00 Your Price: $115.20

"A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language
with Selected Texts and Glossary"
by Stanislav Segert
University of California Press, 1984. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0520039998
List Price: $70.00 Your Price: $63.00

"Ugaritic Grammar"
by Daniel Sivan
Biblical Encyclopaedia Library - BEL 9
Bialik Institute, 1993. Paper. Hebrew.
List Price: $32.00 Your Price: $25.60

"Ugaritische Grammatik"
by Josef Tropper
Alter Orient und Altes Testament - AOAT 273
Ugarit-Verlag, 2000. Cloth. German.
ISBN: 3927120901
List Price: $100.00 Your Price: $80.00

"Ugaritisch: Kurzgefasste Grammatik mit Ubungstexten und Glossar"
by Josef Tropper
Elementa Linguarum Orientis - ELO 1
Ugarit-Verlag, 2002. Paper. German.
ISBN: 3934628125
List Price: $24.00 Your Price: $19.20

Sound familar?

"...any male member of the cural class from whatever religious or ethnic group would have been educated within and would have reaped the benefits of a purely pagan curriculum. Despite traumatic episodes of earlier pagan hostility, then, and despite the vituperation heaped upon civic celebrations and entertainments by their own church leaders, Christians, like Jews, accommodated themselves to majority culture, evidently with much less difficulty than some of their leaders would have liked. That is because majority culture, in many ways, was their culture. All of these people were themselves Romans."—Augustine and the Jews, pages 95-96

<idle musing>
The more things change, the more they stay the same...change the name from Roman to whatever culture you're in, and you get the same results.
</idle musing>

Define Consumer Christianity

Out of Ur ran a contest of sorts last month. They requested that people define or provide illustrations of "consumer christianity." They posted the results today. Some of them are quite funny, in a sad sort of way. Definitely take the time to read them.

Persecution

Another snippet from Augustine and the Jews, this time about persecution of the Christians:

We are so accustomed to "knowing" that Rome persecuted ancient Christians that we can fail to see how odd, unprecedented, and anomalous such a persecution, in such a society, actually was. Pragmatic religious pluralism had long characterized ancient Mediterranean kingdoms in general, the Roman Empire in particular. (No one wanted to have to deal with an angry god.) To understand the sources of this unhappy social innovation—the invention of religious persecution—we need to recall what concerned ancient people when they engaged in what we think of as "religious" activities. Ethnicity and antiquity; the standing obligations to one's own gods; the importance of communal cult acts, of showing and being seen to show respect; the premium placed on maintaining the pax deorum, the concordat between heaven and earth that guaranteed the well-being of city and empire: These are the considerations that mattered to them. Cult, the ancients assumed, made gods happy; and when gods were happy, humans flourished. Conversely, not receiving cult mad gods unhappy; and when gods were unhappy, the made people unhappy.

The problem with gentile Christians, then, in the view of the pagan majority, was not that these people were "Christian," but that they were "gentile," or rather that they were still "pagan"...Gentile Christians became the objects of local resentments and anxieties precisely because they were deviant pagans, refusing to honor the gods upon whom their city's well-being depended. In consequence, when things went wrong—as things tend to do—gentile Christians were easily, readily blamed...Divine anger would affect everybody. In brief, ancestral obligation, not particular beliefs—what people did, not what they thought—was what mattered.—pages 86-87

<idle musing>
I fear I might have cut too much out. I hope that makes sense to you. Atheism is what Christians were accused of—not in believing in no god, but in not honoring all gods!
</idle musing>

More about gods

Another selection from Augustine and the Jews. Speaking about Paul's view that the other gods are subservient to the true God:

But Jewish apocalyptic convictions, such as Paul expresses to his communities, represent an extreme attitude toward foreign gods and thus are by definition exceptional. On a day-to-day basis, for Jews as well as for others, what mattered was deciding how to deal with the gods of outsiders while dealing with their humans as well. This was a practical question: Any god by definition was more powerful than any human, and gods as a group tended to be incensed when slighted. In general, most people opted for a sensible display of courtesy, showing and (perhaps just as important) being seen to show respect. Such courtesy went a long way toward establishing concord both with other gods (who, if angered, could be dangerous) and with their equally sensitive humans.—pages 10-11

<idle musing>
Sort of like avoiding breaking a mirror, or not letting a black cat cross your path, or...you know the kinds of things I'm talking about. Rule 1: Don't tick off the gods. Rule 2: If you do, get it right, now! Or you might not be around to find out why they got mad.
</idle musing>

The ancient world

A few selections from Augustine and the Jews over the next few days, then—hopefully!—a short review.

...the existence or nonexistence of the gods of outsiders (those of a different genos or natio) was not at issue. Ancient people generally assumed that various gods existed, just as their humans did. When these gods, with their humans, were encountered, various kinds of recognitions and acknowledgments might occur. When Alexander conquered Egypt, for example, a priest of the god Ammon greeted him as Ammon's son. Deified himself, Alexander was depicted on coins in gorgeous Hellenistic profile, the ram's horns of the Egyptian deity growing out of his head. As culture encountered each other, their gods might be identified with, associated with, or assimilated to each other. Thus the Roman Jupiter took on characteristics of the Greek Zeus; statues of the Roman Minerva replicated aspects of Athena; indigenous Semitic gods (such as Ba'al shamim, "lord of heaven") gained currency by being present under Olympian names ("Zeus"). When different peoples clashed, their gods were imagines as fighting, too. But this was not always the case. The Romans, ever practical, bagan sieges by addressing the presiding deities of the enemy. Through rituals of evocatio ("calling out"), the Romans summoned the city's gods ot come over to them, promising in exchange for victory to respect and to continue their cult.—pages 8-9

<idle musing>
If there is one thing that people need to realize when studying the ancient world, this is it. The gods were/are real to these people. They have an affect on what you are, what you do, etc. These are not theoretically constructed deities for the sake of theological argument. They are real, and can really mess you up if you tick them off! Don't ever forget that!
</idle musing>