I’m reading Peter Hayman’s “Monotheism—A Misused Word in Jewish Studies?” from JJS 42, and I came across a quote that makes me feel much better about my multifarious research interests:
There are rich, as yet unexplored, pickings in rabbinic midrash for scholars interested in the Canaanite background to Israelite religion. This is one area where our specialization into Ugaritic scholars, Old Testament scholars, and Judaists, really lets us down. To appreciate the continuity one needs to be all three.
Every day I’m more and more happy to be working heavily with all three of those areas (and a few others).
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October 26th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Hayman is a very good resource; I knew him at Edinburgh. Keep up the work with Ugaritic — it won’t get you a job, but it has made my life a lot of fun!
October 26th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for the comment, Steve. I didn’t know Hayman before I found this article, but I like his style. I haven’t been able to do much with Ugaritic yet here at Oxford, but I’m planning on getting back into it, and even Akkadian, after the masters. If I get into Johns Hopkins then I’ll probably be doing a lot of both.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I first read this article from Nick Norelli’s resources on monotheism. I found it a fascinating article, but I am interested in anything that has to do with the “Two Powers” and early christology.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Have you read James McGrath’s new book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context? I haven’t gotten to it yet, and I don’t know how deep he delves into the “Two Powers” idea, but it would seem to me to be a logical issue to address.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Yes, I had read the book and reviewed it on my blog. It is an excellent contribution to the discussion.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am
I must have missed that. I’ll have to go check it out.