BOOK REVIEWS THE NEW BIBLE DICTIONARY. Edited by J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1962. Pp. xvi + 1375. $12.95. The authors of this dictionary are British, except for a few Americans and a scattering of authors from other countries. The list of authors attracts attention because of some notable absences; and this of itself is a clue to the character of the work. The book is attractive: it is well printed and gener­ ously illustrated. Most of the articles have a large bibliographical note with recent references. The listings are numerous and the articles are spacious. As a whole, the dictionary takes positions on OT history and criticism which are extremely conservative. In some instances—as in the articles on Aaron and Abraham—the existence of historical problems is simply ignored. In the article on Acts and related articles no notice is taken of the serious problems concerning Acts, Galatians, and the Council of Jerusalem. Chronicles is treated as equally historical with Kings. Daniel is attributed entirely to Daniel himself in the sixth century B.C. The five separate articles on the books of the Pentateuch maintain the authorship of these books by Moses; it is somewhat surprising to find that the article on Penta­ teuch is much more moderate. Esther is interpreted as strictly historical. A rigidly literal Messianic interpretation of the name Immanuel (Is 7:14) is presented. A strictly verbal theory of biblical inspiration is defended. The entire book of Isaiah is attributed either to Isaiah himself or to a nucleus developed by disciples. An early date for Joel (contemporary with Amos or earlier) is proposed. The historical character of Jonah is defended. The article on Leviticus denies the existence of the Holiness Code as a separate literary unity. The chronology of Judges (in opposition to the article on chronology) places the period of the judges between 1374 and 1063. The life of Moses is understood in strictly historical terms. The Table of Nations is interpreted so that it can be understood as written by Moses in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The article on priests and Lévites places the entire priestly hierarchy in the Mosaic period. The literary unity of the Deluge account is defended. These samples are sufficient to illustrate the surprising archaism of the critical views proposed in the dictionary. It is perhaps no less surprising that the NT articles are more advanced. A two-document hypothesis is suggested for the Synoptic Gospels, and the Pauline authorship of all fourteen epistles is not defended. A number of the articles on theological topics are full and, where critical opinions are not involved, satisfactory. The articles on ancient Near Eastern history, most of which are written by D. J. Wiseman, are full 121 122 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES and up-to-date; but even in the article on Egypt (by K. A. Kitchen) some unnecessary and scarcely defensible fulminations against literary criticism are delivered. The theological articles not infrequently exhibit a homiletic tone not expected in a dictionary, and are also not infrequently polemic in favor of evangelical theology. Polemic writing is quite acceptable in its place, but one wonders whether a dictionary of the Bible is its place. Loyola University, Chicago JOHN L. MCKENZIE, S.J. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE JUDAEAN STATE: A POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE SECOND COMMONWEALTH. VOLUME ONE: 332-37 B.C.E. By Solomon Zeitlin. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1962. Pp. xxi + 528. $7.50. Prof. Zeitlin, the well-known savant of Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning and editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review, begins with this volume what appears to be a major effort to synthesize much of his life's work. A second volume is to carry the history of the Second Common­ wealth from the reign of Herod through the collapse of the revolt of Bar Kokhba in 135 A.D., and "will contain excursuses evaluating the sources, including the reasons why the Dead Sea Scrolls cannot be considered a source for the history of the Second Commonwealth" (p. viii). If the reviewer follows the interchange of the terms "work" and "volume" correctly, we may expect a third volume which "will be devoted to the history and develop­ ment of the halakhot, while still another will deal with the history of the Hebrew literature" (p. xix). In any case, the first two volumes are surely to be something of a unit, since a selected bibliography and a more elaborate index (in Vol. 1 we have a twelve-page "Index of Persons and Places") are promised for the second volume. In deference to Z.'s repeated plea that the critical reader "be patient and await the forthcoming volumes wherein I shall substantiate my theories" (p. xix), the critical examination of his work may be postponed until the publication of the second volume, at which time readers will be in a better position to apply the author's own yardstick to his work: "historians must be well versed in the sources and documents, and record all historical facts, evaluating them without favor or prejudice" (p. xvii). Persons having even a modest acquaintance with Z.'s other writings will not be led by these words to fear that he is about to revert to the absolute objectivity which was the will-o'-the-wisp of nineteenth-century historicism. A summary of the Table of Contents will afford an over-all view of the BOOK REVIEWS 123 volume in hand. After an Introduction (pp. xiii-xxi) which touches on various matters, including the use of the divine Name (Yahweh is ethnic God; Adonai, universal God) and the necessary shortcomings of other, especially Christian, histories of the Judaeans, Z. in his Prolegomena (pp. 1-33) presents a quick sketch of developments from the Edict of Cyrus (538 B.C.) to the rise of Alexander the Great (333 B.C.). He does well to include this section, since some of the institutions, sects, and revolutionary changes which he treats in the body of the work have their roots in the pre- Hellenistic period. To this we may add that the section lays the groundwork for a number of Z.'s later positions. In Part 1, "Judaism Meets Hellenism," we read of Alexander and his successors, and of the course of events in Judaea through the Maccabean Revolt to Jonathan the Hasmonean (pp. 37-131). Part 2, "Judaea as an Independent State," treats Jonathan as a statesman, Simon, and John Hyrcanus (pp. 135-72). Part 3 interrupts the narrative of events to present the "Social and Religious Developments in the Third and Second Centuries B.C.E." Under this heading are treated (1) Religious Divisions, (2) The Bet Din, (3) The Calendar, (4) Festivals and Holy Days, (5) The Temple, (6) Religious Faith and Practice, (7) The Literature: (a) The Biblical Books, (b) The Apocryphal Books, (8) Judaean Society and Economy (pp. 175-313). Part 4, "The Last Hasmoneans," discusses Salome and Jannaeus Alexander, the end of the Hasmonean Dynasty, Antipater, Herod, and the social and religious conditions of the period (pp. 317-444). A Chronological Appendix, sixty-eight pages of footnotes, gathered by parts and chapters, and the mentioned Index complete the volume, which has as end papers a map of Palestine in the Hasmonean period. Readers will follow with interest Z.'s development of his theory of the origin of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It seems that during the building of the "House of Yahweh" under Zerubbabel and Joshua two groups emerged, ideologically opposed to each other. The one group "maintained that the new community should be secular and the authority vested in a man de­ scended from the family of King David; its leader was Zerubbabel, grandson of King Jehoiachin. The other group, whose leader was Joshua, grandson of the High Priest Seriah, maintained that the reconstructed community should be organized on a religious basis, meaning that the leadership of the people should rest on the high priest. Zerubbabel had strong support from those Judaeans who believed in the universality of God as opposed to the belief in an ethnic god" (pp. 7 f.). "The followers of Joshua, the high priest, looked with scorn upon those who opposed the leadership of the family of Zadok and who maintained that Yahweh was a universal God. They nicknamed 124 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES those who believed thus Perushim, Pharisees, Separatists, who separated themselves from the worship of Yahweh, the God of the Judaeans. They regarded the universaliste as heretics..." (p. 10). Ilxis position, among others, will doubtless stimulate considerable dis­ cussion, particularly once the author has had a chance to make his case. In the meantime readers will be able to make their own way through this first serious attempt by a Jewish scholar since Klausner to write a systematic history of the Second Commonwealth. West Baden College JOSEPH J. DE VAULT, S.J. MACHT UND HERRSCHAFT GOTTES: EINE BIBELTHEOLOGISCHE STUDIE. By Thomas Blatter. Studia Fribwgensia, N.F. 29. Fribourg: Editions Univeraitaires, 1962. Pp. χ + 148. 15 fr. God's power and dominion is a fundamental, comprehensive, and central theme of the Bible, both OT and NT. Israel came to know Yahweh not through philosophical speculation but through His powerful intervention in her history, which revealed Him as just, gracious, and loving Lord. Every­ thing that God does serves the establishment of His kingdom, through which He reveals His power and dominion. The originality of the biblical teaching on God's power and dominion consists in the following doctrines: (1) God is one (monotheism), the only Lord and sovereign of heaven and earth.