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Summary
Summary
Traversing river valleys, steppes, deserts, rain-fed forests, farmlands, and seacoasts, the early Israelites experienced all the contrasting ecological domains of the ancient Near East. As they grew from a nomadic clan to become a nation-state in Canaan, they interacted with indigenous societies of the region, absorbed selective elements of their cultures, and integrated them into a radically new culture of their own. Daniel Hillel reveals the interplay between the culture of the Israelites and the environments within which it evolved. More than just affecting their material existence, the region's ecology influenced their views of creation and the creator, their conception of humanity's role on Earth, their own distinctive identity and destiny, and their ethics.
In The Natural History of the Bible , Hillel shows how the eclectic experiences of the Israelites shaped their perception of the overarching unity governing nature's varied manifestations. Where other societies idolized disparate and capricious forces of nature, the Israelites discerned essential harmony and higher moral purpose. Inspired by visionary prophets, they looked to a singular, omnipresent, omnipotent force of nature mandating justice and compassion in human affairs. Monotheism was promoted as state policy and centralized in the Temple of Jerusalem. After it was destroyed and the people were exiled, a collection of scrolls distilling the nation's memories and spiritual quest served as the focus of faith in its stead.
A prominent environmental scientist who surveyed Israel's land and water resources and has worked on agricultural development projects throughout the region, Daniel Hillel is a uniquely qualified expert on the natural history of the lands of the Bible. Combining his scientific work with a passionate, life-long study of the Bible, Hillel offers new perspectives on biblical views of the environment and the origin of ethical monotheism as an outgrowth of the Israelites' internalized experiences.
Author Notes
Daniel Hillel is professor emeritus of environmental studies, University of Massachusetts, and senior research scientist, Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Negev: Land, Water, and Life in a Desert Enviornment ; Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil ; and Rivers of Eden: The Struggle for Water and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East . He is the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
That environmental factors affect our daily lives is disputed by no one. But can environment, climate and topology play a part in the development of a religious community? Hillel, professor emeritus of environmental studies at the University of Massachusetts and senior research scientist at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, says yes. He comes to the subject immersed in the lore of ancient Israel, from his grandfather's instruction to his own years living in modern Israel. He sees the Jewish belief system as an amalgam of ideas emerging from an interplay of human beings with both the land and its peoples, "absorb[ing] all the cultural strands... from all the ecological domains of the ancient Near East... and assimilat[ing] them into their own culture." He divides sacred history into seven "domains," dispensations based not on some theological construct but rather on the terrain in which the Israelites lived. What emerges is a largely naturalistic explanation of Israel's beliefs and laws, with a strong emphasis on the impact of culture and environment on the evolving Jewish religion. Hillel recounts, in a richly detailed and beautifully told manner, the origins of the Hebrew Bible in a new and satisfying way. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
With all the commentaries and books on the Hebrew Scriptures that have appeared over the years, it would seem nearly impossible to write something unique and illuminating. Yet this is precisely what Hillel (environmental studies, emeritus, Univ. of Massachusetts; Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil) has done by providing an environmental and ecological analysis of the text. As he shows through this study, the historical experiences of the Hebrew people are intimately connected with their environmental situation. Following their experiences as recorded in the Scriptures, the text examines the influence of several principal ecological domains: the first riverine domain (Mesopotamia), the pastoral domain (Patriarchs), the second riverine domain (Egypt), the desert domain (wilderness wanderings), the rain-fed domain (Canaan), the maritime domain (interaction with Philistines and Phoenicians), the urban domain (monarchy), and the exile domain. While Hillel is a scientist and not a biblical specialist, he shows familiarity with scholarly criticism of all aspects of the Hebrew Scriptures. Recommended for all academic libraries.-John Jaeger, Dallas Baptist Univ. Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1, "ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE" One small tribe, the Israelites, evidently deviated from the established pattern of the region's main societies. Early in their tumultuous history, the Israelites migrated from domain to domain before and even after their effort to settle permanently in Canaan. Having traversed and sojourned in all the region's disparate ecological habitats, they absorbed selective elements of diverse cultures and, by so doing, synthesized a new culture and a new faith. The multiple variants of polytheism, each of which was believed to be applicable in its particular domain, no longer provided a plausible explanation for the larger reality that the Israelites had observed in the different domains they had experienced. Consequently, they could begin to perceive the overarching unity of all creation. Their inclusive ecological experience thus conditioned them, mentally and spiritually, to combine the separate deified "forces of nature" into an overall "Force of Nature" and thus to coalesce the multiple gods of polytheism into a single God. That signal, stunning departure from the long-entrenched perceptions and practices of polytheism did not occur in one step. Rather, it apparently progressed through several tentative stages, leading from polytheism (belief in many contending gods, each with its own realm or function) through henotheism (belief in a principal god, with other gods playing minor or subservient roles) and monolatry (exclusive worship of one god among the various other gods) to tribal monotheism (belief in one God, associated with one nation). Only after much time and tribulation did the Israelites' faith attain its highest expression in the principles of ethical monotheism, identifying God with the abstract concepts of universal morality and justice. Thus the peripatetic mode of life of the Israelites (or Hebrews) -- first a clan, then a tribe, then a loose assemblage of tribes, and ultimately a coherent nation -- during the formative stages of their cultural development, as they roamed from domain to domain in search of a land of their own and as they interacted with the indigenous cultures of each domain, constituted the seminal factor that led them to perceive the interconnectedness of all the phenomena of nature and hence the existence of a unifying supreme deity, as the first step in a process that led gradually toward pure monotheism. Initially, the supreme god was likened to a father ruling over his (occasionally wayward) brood of lesser gods. In time, however, that supreme god became the Israelites' only God, not confined to one domain or function, but present everywhere as the creator and ruler of the entire universe and the supervisor of all human affairs. And as God's original entourage of subordinate deities faded away into irrelevance, it was replaced by the Israelites themselves, who viewed their nation as God's chosen servant and as exemplar and messenger to all other nations. Thus was born the notion of particular monotheism, a God initially associated with one special nation, chosen to serve as the harbinger to all humanity. In the future, their prophets predicted, all the other nations of the world would come to acknowledge and worship the same one-and-only true God. The ecological influences on the life and lore of the Hebrews did not end when their early period of wandering culminated in their settlement in Canaan. Even there, security and stability eluded them. They had to cope with the adversity of the rugged hills and erodible soils of Canaan, the barrenness of the deserts of the Negev and Judea, the prolonged droughts alternating with capricious flash floods that occasionally inundated the valleys and lowlands, the violent westerly rainstorms that lashed the land in winter and the searing easterly winds that desiccated the land in summer, the occasional earthquakes that emanated from the numerous geologic faults, and the proximity of the storm-prone Mediterranean Sea. Theirs was a strip of land that, notwithstanding its small size, exhibited great contrasts of terrain, climate, and vegetation. The climatic instability of that semiarid country, as well as its extraordinarily sensitive geographic situation as a narrow corridor between Mesopotamia and Egypt (the two diametrically opposite centers of ancient civilization) made the Israelites especially vulnerable to repeated episodes of either famine or invasion, or both. A natural human tendency is to seek a reason for every phenomenon. In recent centuries, we have come to rely on science to define the causes and consequences of physical and biological processes. The ancients, lacking our scientific knowledge (which is ever incomplete, to be sure), sought etiological explanations in the realm of theology. They attributed quite a different significance to observed phenomena. If beneficial, they were taken to signify God's gift, expressing his approval. Otherwise, they were taken to signify God's punishment, expressing his disapproval. The purely abstract notion of Yahweh as a formless spirit pervading the entire universe, which established itself ultimately as the distilled essence of divinity, in fact rested on a primal substratum of earlier inchoate perceptions, sensing the presence of supernatural powers in nature. Early Israelite religion, as reflected in many passages of the Bible, retained a primitive belief in numinous forces that imbued sacred stones (Genesis 28:11-19), sacred animals such as snakes (Numbers 21:9; 2 Kings 18:4), sacred trees or groves (Genesis 2:17, 3:3-7, 22, 12:6-7, 21:33, 35:4; Exodus 3:2-5), sacred springs and wells (Numbers 21:17-18), sacred caves (1 Kings 19:9-13), and mountains (Sinai and Horeb, Carmel, Ebal and Grizim, Moriah and Zion), as well as in lurking demons (Exodus 4:24-26). Being a small nation in a precarious location, the Israelites had no one to whom they could appeal in times of dire need but their mysterious God. Their vulnerability and insecurity became ingrained in their collective perception and drove them constantly to seek ways to "find favor in the eyes of" their single, all-powerful, all-knowing, and just God, who alone could save them from ever-threatening destruction. Their special relationship to God, as they came to believe, was evidently conditional. It demanded that they strive ever more diligently to understand and obey his commandments, for otherwise he might turn against them and withhold the life-giving rains, afflict them with disease, blight their crops, or send one or another of their many potential enemies to subjugate and scourge them. The belief in a single God seems to have offered something of a practical advantage. It promised freedom from the burdensome requirement to placate many gods of uncertain power and efficacy. It gave assurance that the acts of worshiping and praying to the one Almighty God were correctly addressed. And it offered hope, if not certainty, that he might respond, provided only that the believers truly adhere to his wishes and commandments. Psychologically, at least, the belief in the one just God provided a measure of confidence in an otherwise chaotic world. ... COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Published by Columbia University Press and copyrighted © 2006 Daniel Hillel. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher, except for reading and browsing via the World Wide Web. Users are not permitted to mount this file on any network servers. For more information, please e-mail or visit the permissions page on this Web site. Excerpted from The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures by Daniel Hillel All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
Acknowledgments |
A Note on Translation Chronology Prologue |
1 Environment and Culture |
2 The Ecological Context |
3 The First Riverine Domain |
4 The Pastoral Domain |
5 The Second Riverine Domain |
6 The Desert Domain |
7 The Rainfed Domain |
8 The Maritime Domain |
9 The Urban Domain |
10 The Exile Domain |
11 The Overarching Unity Epilogue Appendixes |
1 On the Historical Validity of the Bible |
2 Perceptions of Humanity's Role on God's Earth |
3 Selected Passages Regarding the Seven Domains Notes Bibliography |
Index |