585 - The Old Testament World

The Old Testament World
By Martin Noth, translated by Victor I. Gruhn
404 pp. and 10 ill. Philadelphia, The Fortress Press, 1966. $8.00.

It is a difficult thing for a reviewer to present in a fair and adequate way a book which, in several editions, has been the standard work for about a generation in all German speaking countries and for those who have a reading knowledge of German. I shall limit myself therefore to a general description of it.

The present translation, elegantly printed and quite adequately reedited for the English speaking reader (e.g., English translations of German works have been duly introduced into the notes, where available), has been done on the last (4th, 1962) German edition. It fills a long felt gap in the bibliography on the subject and will certainly occupy a place of honor in the syllabus of requested readings for students of Divinity and of Oriental disciplines alike. It is to be hoped that no Minister will lack this work in his private library.

Part 1 deals with the geography of Palestine; part 2 with Archaeology (and here the American reader will have an unique opportunity of studying the thesis of A. Alt, K. Elliger and M. Noth from first hand, without relying on other people's presentations); part 3 deals with "pertinent aspects of ancient Near Eastern history," while part 4 gives us an introduction to the Old Testament text (here, in Ch. III "Methods of textual critical work"). Several maps and illustrations, indexes for reference (an

586 - The Old Testament World

authors' index has been added in the English translation) make this book practical and easy for consultation. Its price ranges about $1.00 above the German edition, which is more than reasonable. The only criticism the present reviewer would like to make is that the numbering of paragraphs is different between the original and the translation, without cogent reasons. It surely makes references more difficult to those who have already worked on the German original.

I enthusiastically recommend this work to all students of the Bible and of the ancient Near East alike, hoping that the publisher's success will encourage other translations of this kind.

J. Alberto Soggin
Facoltà Valdese di Teologia
Rome, Italy