The Nations That Knew Thee Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes Toward Other Religions (review)

Book Reviews 159 and lore as well as its rigidity. In doing this he has provided any student ofTanach with rich resources that lead to richer understanding. This is an impressive work. I look forward to the future follow-up texts discussed by the author in his introduction. Samuel M. Edelman Coordinator of Modern Jewish and Israel Studies California State University at Chico The Nations That Knew Thee Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes Toward Other Religions, by Robert Goldenberg. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 214 pp. $37.50. This book addresses the question, "What did ancient Jews think of other religions?" One would assume that ancient religions were uniformly seen by classical Jews as illegitimate world views that should be eradicated from the face ofthe earth at the first possible opportunity. Robert Goldenberg demonstrates well that Jewish attitudes were more complex and variegated, and are ultimately impossible to reduce to one simple formula. Goldenberg walks his readers through a rich variety of ancient Jewish texts from the Bible and the Apocrypha to Hellenistic texts and rabbinic literature dealing with polytheistic religion(s). Alongside the standard, well-known negative approaches are some striking examples of tolerance. For example, a number of Hellenistic Jews, like Philo, argued passionately that it was forbidden for Jews to speak ill of any other religion. They based their view on Exodus 22:27 ('e/ohim /0' teqallel) in the Septuagint 's reading of"Do not revile any gods." Goldenberg also argues-following a standard approach ofbiblical scholarshipthat in the Bible itselfone finds two different kinds oftruth claims: that gods other than YHVH do not exist, and that gods other than YHVH are relatively inconsequential, unworthy ofworship by Israelites. The implication ofthat second position would be that Jews accorded some grudging legitimacy to non-Jews' worshipping other gods. The book is well written, interesting, and very well researched. The copious notes indicate that almost all the book's assertions are based on common-consensus scholarship. I was puzzled by the attribution of various Hellenistic works to Jewish authors on what appears to me to be flimsy evidence. But here, too, it would seem that Goldenberg follows the standard scholarly literature. What is innovative and impressive in the book is Goldenberg's ability to maintain a congruent discussion of one theme over a period of more than a thousand years of Jewish literature. 160 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, No.2 In the introduction, the author explains that he does not intend to divide various Jewish approaches into the categories of "fringe" and "mainstream." He argues that such a division is almost always promoted by someone who wishes to argue that a specific contemporary viewpoint is the correct approach, because that viewpoint was the dominant one in antiquity. Yet I cannot help wonder whether Goldenberg's own approach-ofpresenting a variety ofopinions and saying that Judaism has always had more than one attitude on this issue-might not also be meant to legitimate a certain type of contemporary Jewish world view. Goldenberg has appended a fascinating "unscientific" epilogue. There he explains that one of his motivations for writing this book was to counter contemporary, politically correct scholarship that defines intolerance as a necessary, even logical outgrowth of monotheism. The research, Goldenberg says, shows that while many ancient monotheists were intolerant, not all were. Accordingly the claim that monotheism always leads to intolerance is disproved. I found this idea-introduced in the last paragraph of the book-fascinating, and I only wish that the author had developed it more. I recommend this book highly as a useful resource for the serious scholar. Some of the chapters could also be used by instructors of university courses. I suggest that anyone who reads the book bear in mind the political and ideological climates not only of the ancient world, but also ofthe 1990s. Martin Lockshin Centre for Jewish Studies York University The Book ofthe Giants from Qumran, by Loren T. Stuckenbruck. TUbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997. 289 pp. DM 198. Loren Stuckenbruck has written ajoumeyman work ofphilology. In it, he reconstructs a lost book, known from Manichaean sources as "The Book ofthe Giants." In doing so, he madvertently illustrates what has...