The essays in this volume address key aspects of Israelite religious development. Frank Moore Cross traces the continuities between early Israelite religion and the Canaanite culture from which it emerged; explores the tension between the mythic and the historical in Israel’s religious expression; and examines the reemergence of Canaanite mythic material in the apocalypticism of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• Contents 
• Abbreviations
• I 
• The Religion of Canaan and the God of Israel
• 1 
• The God of the Fathers
• 2 
• ’Ēl and the God of the Fathers
• ’Ēl in the Ugaritic Pantheon
• The Epithets of ’Ēl
• ’Ēl in the Canaanite Myth
• ’Ēl and Ba’l Hamōn
• The Abode of ’Ēl
• ’Ēl the Divine Patriarch
• 3 
• Yahweh and ’Ēl
• ’Ēl in the Bible
• ’Ēl Epithets in Patriarchal Narratives
• The Name Yahweh
• II 
• The Cultus of the Israelite League
• 4 
• Prolegomena
• The Myth and Ritual School
• The History-of-Redemption School
• 5 
• The Divine Warrior
• Psalm 24 and the Warrior-King
• The “Ritual Conquest”
• Transformations of the “Ritual Conquest”
• 6 
• The Song of the Sea and Canaanite Myth
• The Mythic Cycle of Ba‘l and ‘Anat
• The Song of the Sea
• III 
• League and Kingdom
• 7 
• Yahweh and Ba‘l
• The Theophany of Ba‘l
• The Storm Theophany in the Bible
• The Revelation at Sinai
• History of the Tradition of the Storm Theophany
• ’Ēl's Modes of Revelation
• Yahweh and the Council of the Gods
• Ba‘l versus Yahweh
• 8 
• The Priestly Houses of Early Israel
• The Classical View of Israel's Early Priesthood
• The Function of the Stories of Conflict
• The Priestly Genealogies
• The Priests of David's National Shrine
• IV 
• Kings and Prophets
• 9 
• The Ideologies of Kingship in the Era of the Empire: Conditional Covenant and Eternal Decree
• The Limited Monarchy of Saul and Monarchy in the Northern Kingdom
• Davidic Kingship
• The Imperial Rule of Solomon
• The Judaean Royal Theology
• The Typology of the Royal Ideology
• A Brief Excursus on běrīt, “Covenant”
• 10 
• The Themes of the Book of Kings and the Structure of the Deuteronomistic History
• The Contemporary Discussion of the Structure of the Deuteronomistic History
• The Two Themes of the First Edition of the Deuteronomistic History (Dtr1)
• The Theme of the Exilic Edition of the History (Dtr2)
• The Two Editions of the Deuteronomistic History
• V 
• Exile and Apocalyptic
• 11 
• The Priestly Work
• The So-Called P-Source of the Pentateuch
• The P System of Covenants
• Is P a Narrative Source?
• Documents Used by P
• Archaizing Language in P
• The Date of P
• The Composition of the Priestly Work
• 12 
• The Early History of the Apocalyptic Community at Qumrân
• The Archaeological Context of the Qumrân
• Qumrân and the Essenes
• The Essenes: Priestly Apocalyptists
• Essene Origins
• A Note on the Study of Apocalyptic Origins
• Index of Biblical Citations
• Index of Ugaritic Citations
• Index of Technical Terms
• Index of Authors
• General Index