This insightful work examines the variety of ways that collective memory, oral tradition, history, and history writing intersect. Integral to all this are the ways in which ancient Israel was shaped by the monarchy, the Babylonian exile, and the dispersions of Judeans and the ways in which Israel conceptualized and interacted with the divine-Yahweh as well as other deities.

Mark S. Smith is Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary and Skirball Professor Emeritus of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He is the author of over 120 articles, 17 books, and 5 co-authored books: most recently, Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World (2016) and The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible (2019).