Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel.

• Author: Levine, Baruch A.

Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel. Edited by G. Anderson and S. Olyan. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991. Pp. 217. 27.50[pounds], $47.50.

The present volume is a collection of eight studies on various aspects of cult and religion in Biblical Israel. The editors emphasize the degree to which this area of Biblical studies has recently regained prominence after a long period of relative neglect. It is now possible to assemble interesting collections of individual studies, as the present volume attests.

After a brief summary of the volume's contents, I will focus on those aspects of greatest interest. The eight studies actually fall into two groups: Four studies focus on Leviticus and Numbers, and deal specifically with priestly law and ritual. The remaining four essays cover a variety of historical, literary, and phenomenological subjects and demonstrate diverse methodologies.

Let us take up the latter group first. Gary Anderson, in "The Praise of God as a Cultic Event," discusses the role of praise, including the verbal expression of joy and thanksgiving in the performance of the cult. He concludes that the manifest performance of praise, its recitation or choreography, possessed ritual efficacy. James C. Vanderkam, in "Jewish High Priests of the Persian Period: Is the List Complete?" takes us in another direction entirely. In effect, his article is a response to an earlier study by F. Cross, "A Reconstruction of the Judean Restoration," JBL 94 (1975): 4-18. Accordingly, the present essay deals with the question of whether the Biblical record of six high priests who held the office during the two hundred years of the Persian period is complete, or whether there were additional high priests. Susan Ackerman, in "The Deception of Isaac," presents a comparative analysis of two narratives, Genesis 27 and 48, both of which portray a Patriarch's deathbed blessing and involve deception. Ackerman endorses a cultic interpretation, speaking of "a ritual ceremony of patriarchal blessing." Saul M. Olyan, in "the Oaths of Amos 8:14," reexamines an old crux in comparative perspective employing philological and exegetical analysis of key Biblical texts.

We turn now to the second group of four essays. Baruch Schwartz, in "The Prohibition Concerning the Eating' of Blood in Leviticus 17," pursues further the subject of his doctoral dissertation, a study of Leviticus 17-19. He does so in structuralist fashion, but through a method grounded in philological...