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Book Review: Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey

mistic History serves a didactic purpose (by memorizing history and teaching ways to avoid repeating the past) as well as a liturgical purpose (by providing another means to worship Yahweh without sacrifice). The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are situated between judgment and hope in so far as their editors adapted the message to the new situation. The turn to hope for a divine reversal of fate is attested by the message of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa 40-55) and by Ezek 40-48, both of which creatively draw on traditions of myth and divine election. The prophecies of Haggai and Zech 1-8 as well as the Holiness Code (Lev 16-26) formulate a human response to divine salvation and encourage the construction of the Second Temple. Instead of focusing solely on the perspective of exile and homecoming, Middlemas persuasively provides a more comprehensive assessment of this formative period of biblical history and literature. Since the book poignantly summarizes the current state of research on the history and the literary production of the sixth century B.C.E. and suggests further readings for each chapter's topics, I highly recommend it both to students of the HB and to teachers in pastoral or ministry settings. While the term "templeless age" accurately signifies the situation in Jerusalem, it is possible that temples of YHWH existed at Elephantine in Egypt or at Bethel, in which case the term may be misleading.