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From Epic to Canon

History and Literature in Ancient Israel

Frank Moore Cross

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Winner of the Centennial Book Award from the Tuttleman Family Foundation of Gratz College

In From Epic to Canon, Frank Moore Cross discusses specific issues that illuminate central questions about the Hebrew Bible and those who created and preserved it. He challenges the persistent attempt to read Protestant theological polemic against law into ancient Israel. Cross uncovers the continuities between the institutions of kinship and of covenant, which he describes as "extended kinship." He examines the social structures of ancient Israel and reveals that beneath its later social and cultural...

Winner of the Centennial Book Award from the Tuttleman Family Foundation of Gratz College

In From Epic to Canon, Frank Moore Cross discusses specific issues that illuminate central questions about the Hebrew Bible and those who created and preserved it. He challenges the persistent attempt to read Protestant theological polemic against law into ancient Israel. Cross uncovers the continuities between the institutions of kinship and of covenant, which he describes as "extended kinship." He examines the social structures of ancient Israel and reveals that beneath its later social and cultural accretions, the concept of covenant—as opposed to codified law—was a vital part of Israel's earliest institutions. He then draws parallels between the expression of kinship and covenant among the Israelites and that practiced by other ancient societies, as well as in primitive societies.

Reviews

Reviews

Distinguished scholar Cross, author of the classic Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, uses excavations at the city of Gerizim, the Daliyeh Papyri and other archaeological finds to give fresh meaning to the reading of the Hebrew Bible... Impeccable scholarship and lucid prose make Cross's book a must-read for Hebrew Bible scholars.

This book is surely destined to become a classic, a crowning achievement to a distinguished life of scholarship.

[From Epic to Canon] has a unity found in the major scholarly concerns which have characterized Cross's academic career... He has an unerring eye for questions which need to be answered and to which is it important to bring a whole range of scholarly tools, archaeological, historical and literary.

A book of substantive argument, scholarly depth, textured reflection, and elegant presentation.

Cross's study is greatly enhanced by the new evidence that has been discovered including the Dead Sea Scrolls. He carefully examines how these documents influence the way we think about the beliefs and institutions of ancient Israel.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
280
ISBN
9780801865336
Illustration Description
6 b&w illus.
Author Bio
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Frank Moore Cross, Ph.D.

Frank Moore Cross is the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages (Emeritus) in the Department of Near Eastern Languages at Harvard University. His many books include The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and, as editor, the Hermeneia series of Old Testament commentaries and Qumran and the History of Biblical Text. In addition...