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Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 131 Reviews The general usefulness of the Festschrift is enhanced by the presence of a bibliography of Talmon's writings, English abstracts of the Hebrew articles , and a substantial index of references. Talmon has, of course, made distinguished contributions to all the fields represented here, and the list of authors invited to present papers is truly impressive. But it is a little surprising to see that the number of essays under the biblical headings (28 of the 49) is by far the largest, whereas so much of the honoree's work has dealt with Qumran and its significance for the Bible. It is also strange to find no articles on the calendars of Ancient Judaism-a topic which has figured so strongly in Talmon's work. James C. VanderKam University of NOIre Dame Notre Dame. IN 46556 ERZAHLER UND PROPHETEN 1M ALTEN TESTAMENT: GESCHICHTE DER ISRAELITISCHEN UND FRUHJUDISCHEN LITERATUR. By Georg Fohrer. Pp. 331. Heidelberg: QueUe & Meyer. 1988. Cloth, DM 39.80. The author sees this book as a "handbook" that distills some of his more lengthy books for theological students. Georg Fohrer has been a creative and productive scholar throughout his career. He produced this book while retired in Jerusalem. A compendium of his views on the literary heritage of ancient Israel and early Judaism should be welcomed by his intended audience who cannot always work through his more substantial books. The problem that Fohrer's readers will face comes from the fonnat of the book. Fohrer begins well enough with an initial chapter that deals with the ancient Near Eastern setting of Israelite literature. While his treatment of the topic is brief, given the nature of the book. it covers all important matters. The problem begins when the author turns to ancient Israel's literature. The fonnat the author chose to use is to divide Israel's history into eight periods from the early period (fifteenth-eleventh centuries B.C.) to the Hellenistic-Roman period (from 200 B.C. on). He then considers the traditions and literature that he sees as crystallizing during each period. This Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 132 Reviews causes problems when he considers books that have a complex literary history. For example, the reader has to consult thirteen separate sections of the book to study the Pentateuch or the Book of Isaiah. This lessens the value of the volume as a "handbook." Fohrer summarizes positions that he has taken elsewhere. Again, the nature of the work does not demand innovative theories. For example, while his treatment of the Pentateuch follows the shape of the conventional documentary hypothesis, the author mentions his own theory of a fifth document, his "nomadic" source, another old source besides the Yahwist. He provides a more complete treatment of his N-source in his 0 Id Testament Introduction (Nashville: Abingdon, 1965, pp. 159-165). One of the best features of this book is that Fohrer does not limit his attention to books in the Hebrew Bible. He introduces his readers not only to the apocrypha but also to other Jewish literature produced before the beginning of the Common Era. His treatment of these works, however, is limited by the scope of the book. For example, Sirach merits just a single page-even less space than the author devotes to the Letter of Aristeas. He can allot only seven pages to all of the Qumran material. Still, the result of his approach is to view the Old Testament from the perspective of early Judaism rather than early Christianity. The book concludes with a glossary of genres that appear in Israelite and early Jewish literature. There is no bibliography, but the author provides lengthy bibliographical endnotes that the interested reader can use to do additional reading. Fahrer favors German language material, though he does cite works in English when necessary. He offers a sketchy topical index and a more complete index of biblical references. For some reason, he does not provide an index of non-biblical texts that he discusses. There is a surfeit of books available in English that roughly correspond to what Fahrer had in mind when he wrote this book. This means that this book will...

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