This week I submitted the manuscript of volume 2: Moses and the Victory of YHWH. One result of research is that you return to books you have known about with a fresh appreciation and understanding. As I began tidying up my piles of books, I found myself browsing Benjamin Uffenheimer’s Early Prophecy in Israel (1999). It covers far more than the title suggests and is very good. Many of us know how influential Julius Wellhausen has been on modern critical OT study. What is less known is a much more constructive approach to the HB/OT pioneered by Yehezkel Kaufmann. Kaufmann published an 8 volume A History of Israelite Religion. Alas, this is in Hebrew and the whole has not yet been translated. However, there is an abridged one volume in English, The Religion of Israel. Albeit appropriated critically, Kaufmann’s work has been particularly influential in some of the best Jewish scholarship. Uffenheimer’s work is one such example.
This week I also had a delightful zoom with Neal Huddleston about his discourse work on the ANE treaties and Deuteronomy. I highly recommend his work – fascinating and rigorous. Apart from his PhD, which I’m hoping will soon be published, you can find his work on his academia.edu page. You will find some of his work in Block and Schultz, eds., Sepher Torath Mosheh, and important collection of essays on Deuteronomy.
Hopefully my second volume will be out in a year’s time.
