© Columbia University Press
The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures
Paper, 376 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13363-0
$24.50
/ £14.50
January, 2006
Cloth, 376 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13362-3
$75.00
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EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1, "ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE"
One small tribe, the Israelites, evidently deviated from the established pattern of the region's main societies. Early in their tumultuous history, the Israelites migrated from domain to domain before and even after their effort to settle permanently in Canaan. Having traversed and sojourned in all the region's disparate ecological habitats, they absorbed selective elements of diverse cultures and, by so doing, synthesized a new culture and a new faith. The multiple variants of polytheism, each of which was believed to be applicable in its particular domain, no longer provided a plausible explanation for the larger reality that the Israelites had observed in the different domains they had experienced. Consequently, they could begin to perceive the overarching unity of all creation. Their inclusive ecological experience thus conditioned them, mentally and spiritually, to combine the separate deified "forces of nature" into an overall "Force of Nature" and thus to coalesce the multiple gods of polytheism into a single God. That signal, stunning departure from the long-entrenched perceptions and practices of polytheism did not occur in one step. Rather, it apparently progressed through several tentative stages, leading from polytheism (belief in many contending gods, each with its own realm or function) through henotheism (belief in a principal god, with other gods playing minor or subservient roles) and monolatry (exclusive worship of one god among the various other gods) to tribal monotheism (belief in one God, associated with one nation). Only after much time and tribulation did the Israelites' faith attain its highest expression in the principles of ethical monotheism, identifying God with the abstract concepts of universal morality and justice.
Thus the peripatetic mode of life of the Israelites (or Hebrews)—first a clan, then a tribe, then a loose assemblage of tribes, and ultimately a coherent nation—during the formative stages of their cultural development, as they roamed from domain to domain in search of a land of their own and as they interacted with the indigenous cultures of each domain, constituted the seminal factor that led them to perceive the interconnectedness of all the phenomena of nature and hence the existence of a unifying supreme deity, as the first step in a process that led gradually toward pure monotheism. Initially, the supreme god was likened to a father ruling over his (occasionally wayward) brood of lesser gods. In time, however, that supreme god became the Israelites' only God, not confined to one domain or function, but present everywhere as the creator and ruler of the entire universe and the supervisor of all human affairs. And as God's original entourage of subordinate deities faded away into irrelevance, it was replaced by the Israelites themselves, who viewed their nation as God's chosen servant and as exemplar and messenger to all other nations. Thus was born the notion of particular monotheism, a God initially associated with one special nation, chosen to serve as the harbinger to all humanity. In the future, their prophets predicted, all the other nations of the world would come to acknowledge and worship the same one-and-only true God.
The ecological influences on the life and lore of the Hebrews did not end when their early period of wandering culminated in their settlement in Canaan. Even there, security and stability eluded them. They had to cope with the adversity of the rugged hills and erodible soils of Canaan, the barrenness of the deserts of the Negev and Judea, the prolonged droughts alternating with capricious flash floods that occasionally inundated the valleys and lowlands, the violent westerly rainstorms that lashed the land in winter and the searing easterly winds that desiccated the land in summer, the occasional earthquakes that emanated from the numerous geologic faults, and the proximity of the storm-prone Mediterranean Sea. Theirs was a strip of land that, notwithstanding its small size, exhibited great contrasts of terrain, climate, and vegetation. The climatic instability of that semiarid country, as well as its extraordinarily sensitive geographic situation as a narrow corridor between Mesopotamia and Egypt (the two diametrically opposite centers of ancient civilization) made the Israelites especially vulnerable to repeated episodes of either famine or invasion, or both.
A natural human tendency is to seek a reason for every phenomenon. In recent centuries, we have come to rely on science to define the causes and consequences of physical and biological processes. The ancients, lacking our scientific knowledge (which is ever incomplete, to be sure), sought etiological explanations in the realm of theology. They attributed quite a different significance to observed phenomena. If beneficial, they were taken to signify God's gift, expressing his approval. Otherwise, they were taken to signify God's punishment, expressing his disapproval.
The purely abstract notion of Yahweh as a formless spirit pervading the entire universe, which established itself ultimately as the distilled essence of divinity, in fact rested on a primal substratum of earlier inchoate perceptions, sensing the presence of supernatural powers in nature. Early Israelite religion, as reflected in many passages of the Bible, retained a primitive belief in numinous forces that imbued sacred stones (Genesis 28:11-19), sacred animals such as snakes (Numbers 21:9; 2 Kings 18:4), sacred trees or groves (Genesis 2:17, 3:3-7, 22, 12:6-7, 21:33, 35:4; Exodus 3:2-5), sacred springs and wells (Numbers 21:17-18), sacred caves (1 Kings 19:9-13), and mountains (Sinai and Horeb, Carmel, Ebal and Grizim, Moriah and Zion), as well as in lurking demons (Exodus 4:24-26).
Being a small nation in a precarious location, the Israelites had no one to whom they could appeal in times of dire need but their mysterious God. Their vulnerability and insecurity became ingrained in their collective perception and drove them constantly to seek ways to "find favor in the eyes of" their single, all-powerful, all-knowing, and just God, who alone could save them from ever-threatening destruction. Their special relationship to God, as they came to believe, was evidently conditional. It demanded that they strive ever more diligently to understand and obey his commandments, for otherwise he might turn against them and withhold the life-giving rains, afflict them with disease, blight their crops, or send one or another of their many potential enemies to subjugate and scourge them.
The belief in a single God seems to have offered something of a practical advantage. It promised freedom from the burdensome requirement to placate many gods of uncertain power and efficacy. It gave assurance that the acts of worshiping and praying to the one Almighty God were correctly addressed. And it offered hope, if not certainty, that he might respond, provided only that the believers truly adhere to his wishes and commandments. Psychologically, at least, the belief in the one just God provided a measure of confidence in an otherwise chaotic world.
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