Teaching an introductory course on Jewish mysticism, over several years and at various institutions, led Marvin A. Sweeney to recognize the need for a textbook that goes beyond Gershom Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Introductory textbooks in this area are scarce, Scholem’s work is now 80 years old, and Scholem begins in late antiquity, bypassing the Hebrew Bible and other pertinent texts, such as ancient West Asian visionary and dream texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Jewish apocalyptic. Sweeney seeks to address these shortcomings in his new book.
Chapter 1 surveys visionary descriptions of the gods in Canaanite, Egyptian, and Ancient Mesopotamian religion, beginning first with a brief account of Israel’s origins. Calling attention to archaeological data such as the Merneptah Stele and the Amarna Letters, as well as Israel’s linguistic ties to Canaan, Sweeney describes Israel as emerging from Canaan during the late Bronze Age (pp. 10–14)....
