An informative guide to the religion of the Semitic peoples reveals both their religious practice and the place it occupied in their civilisation.Have we any right to speak of the religion of ancient Israel? Are there connections between the religion of the patriarchs, that of the tribes who remained in Canaan and that of the Israelites who took part in the exodus and who experienced the period of wandering in the wilderness? To such questions Vriezen provides answers, based on textual, literary and archaeological evidence. Through church and synagogue the Old Testament has influenced western Christendom. But it is also separated from us by a great gulf of time, space, culture, thinking and belief. Vriezen provides a valuable guide to the Ancient Near East and to Semitic civilisation and religion, explaining the background to many disputive questions relating to Old Testament scholarship.

An informative guide to the religion of the Semitic peoples reveals both their religious practice and the place it occupied in their civilisation.Have we any right to speak of the religion of ancient Israel? Are there connections between the religion of the patriarchs, that of the tribes who remained in Canaan and that of the Israelites who took part in the exodus and who experienced the period of wandering in the wilderness? To such questions Vriezen provides answers, based on textual, literary and archaeological evidence. Through church and synagogue the Old Testament has influenced western Christendom. But it is also separated from us by a great gulf of time, space, culture, thinking and belief. Vriezen provides a valuable guide to the Ancient Near East and to Semitic civilisation and religion, explaining the background to many disputive questions relating to Old Testament scholarship.