Bernhard Lang, The Hebrew God: Portrait of an Ancient Deity - Book Review

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Winter, 2002 by Robert Gnuse

New Haven, CT/London, UK: Yale University Press, 2002. Pp. x 246. Cloth, $59.95.

We have come to anticipate significant critical and creative insights from Bernhard Lang over the years; his contributions to our understandings of religious development in ancient Israel have been seminal. Relying upon the work of Georges Dumezil, a renown scholar in the history of religions, Lang classifies the different ways in which the First Testament portrays Yahweh. Dumezil suggests that among polytheists deities who be arranged in three levels: wise deities who rule (First Function), warrior deities (Second Function), and fertility deities (Third Function), which correspond to the three classes of human society--teachers (rulers), warriors, and peasants.

Lang uses these three types to describe the portrayals of Yahweh, as well as the various gods of ancient Palestine absorbed by Yahweh. He organizes his discussion into five parts: (1) Lord of Wisdom (First Function--sovereignty or dominion), (2) Lord of War (Second Function--victory), (3) Lord of Animals, (4) Lord of the Individual, and (5) Lord of Harvest. The last three constitute the tripartite division of Dumezil's Third Function of fertility, wherein fertility gods often come in triads with diverse but complementary roles. Lang's most significant observation throughout is that during and after the Babylonian Exile (586-539 BCE) Jews emphasized the Third Function of fertility (harvest blessing and an individual's piety) over against the Second Function of war (national state) in their perception of Yahweh.

Lang discovers this tripartite characterization in various biblical texts also. In 1 Kings 3 Solomon receives the three blessings of wisdom, stable rule, and wealth, which correspond to the three functions. In Isaiah 9 the royal titles are "Wonderful" and "Counsel" (wisdom and rule), "Mighty God" (war), and "Everlasting Father" and "Prince of Peace" (fertility). The cycles of biblical tradition about the patriarchs (fertility), exodus and conquest (war), and Sinai (wisdom and rule), as well as the biblical personages of Abraham (fertility), Joshua (war), and Moses (wisdom and rule) may be equated loosely. The three temptations of Jesus are bread (fertility), rescue from danger (war), and lordship over kingdoms (wisdom and rule). He might be stretching his thesis a little on these observations!

In his discussion of the First Function, Lang points that early kings engaged in symbolic rituals enabling them to ascend into the heavenly realm to receive divine wisdom and power and then to descend to earth to rule. Jews replaced these symbols with the image of Moses who ascended Sinai but once in order to descend back to earth with the eternal Torah (which made royal rituals obsolete). Correspondingly Yahweh was portrayed as creator and source of wisdom early in Israel, but increasingly portrayed later as the giver of Law and covenant partner. (Covenant imagery emerged with Josiah in the late 7th century BCE).

Israelites inherited language of divine warfare from Mesopotamians and Syrians and used it to describe not only Yahweh's ongoing battle with the forces of chaos but also events in the human realm, such as the Exodus. (Lang believes that Exodus 15 recalls the historical experience of horse transport ships sinking on their way to Palestine in the time of Pharaoh Merneptah, 1200 BCE.) Inspired by the teachings of Zoroaster (whom Lang dates very early to 1400 to 1200 BCE), Jews finally used the divine war imagery to describe the apocalyptic judgment day.

Early onward Yahweh probably absorbed fertility deities, as Israelites portrayed Yahweh as one who cared for animals, brought peace between animals, controlled the weather, owned the land, gave land to the people, and brought fertility (all of which were functions of ancient Near Eastern deities). This Third Function (fertility) became increasingly important for Jews in post-exilic years as they replaced their historical and political vision of existence with a nature and harvest oriented vision. This is evidenced in literature such as Genesis 1-11 and the book of Job, which may be a parable on the transition from historical existence (Job's losses) to natural existence (divine speeches). During the exile Jews equated Yahweh with the Mesopotamian deity Ea or Enki (god of the fresh waters) to produce an image of Yahweh as bringer of fertility. Lang suggests that only after the exile did Jews actually view agriculture as a meaningful task for human beings; prior to that time only viticulture was viewed positively. The concept of divine ownership of the land developed after 700 BCE out of Assyrian concepts of a god (Ashur) who ruled a territorial state.

In this Third Function of divine imagery, the later piety of the Jews drew heavily upon Egyptian and Mesopotamian piety (both discussed in detail) about the individual's relationship to a personal deity. Whereas in the ancient world the personal deity was separate from the high gods, from the exile onward prophets like Second Isaiah elevated the personal deity to be the only god.