Ebook: Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy

In his preface, Niels Peter L.emche acknowledges the long list of existing histories of Israel and Israelite religion but states that his work is needed as an alternative approach to the traditional rationalistic paraphrase of the biblical version of history and its religion, which permeates most other volumes. He wisely gives notice that the volume is intended to be an introduction to a renewed debate, rather than as a definitive synthesis. Since he begins with the traditional comments on geography and demography, and includes not only a reconstruction of Israelite history from ca. 1350 to 331 B.C. but also a reconstruction of Israelite religion and the emergence of Judaism in a mere 246 pages, the discerning reader should be able to anticipate the depth of coverage of the stated topics before beginning the book.
Although not indicated anywhere in print, the volume is a translation of an original Danish work written as an introductory text to be used at the high school level. This background information should have been included in the foreword because it would have helped the scholarly audience understand the book's format. It is a popular presentation and so lacks the extensive footnotes and documentation that one might expect. At times, Lemche oversimplifies stances on various issues and sometimes fails to describe his lines of argumentation in full, making his points hard to follow for the novice or the veteran, but, generally, the book requires little effort to peruse and is interesting reading. There is a short guide to relevant literature in the appendix to steer a beginning reader to more recent works in general areas, but it does not try to include the seminal discussions of all viewpoints on issues raised. Because of the original intended readership, Lemche has not deemed it important to indicate where he is presenting new ideas or where he is joining an existing minority or majority position. which some will undoubtedly find annoying; the book could be subtitled "Israelite History and Religion according to Lemche.”