Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (1973)

Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (1973)

8년만에 다시 읽는 책, 완전 새롭게 보이고, 이제 조금이나마 크로스가 의도했던바를 알것만 같다. 대가일수록 그들의 '서문'이 핵심이란 것을 나중에서야 깨닫는다. 이 책이 번역된다면, 한국신학은 몇단계 점프할텐데...

"Characteristic of the religion of Israel is a perennial and unrelaxed tension between the mythic and the historical. ... Israel's religion emerged from a mythopoeic past under the impact of certain historical experiences which stimulated the creation of an epic cycle and its associated covenant rites of the early time. This epic, rather than the Canaanite cosmogonic myth, was featured in the ritual drama of the old Israelite cultus. At the same time the epic events and their interpretation were shaped strongly by inherited mythic patterns and language, so that they gained a vertical dimension in addition to their horizontal, historical stance. In this tension between mythic and historical elements the meaning of Israel's history became transparent. ... Epic was, of course, a well-known literary genre in ancient Canaanite (Ugaritic) religious literature albeit of marginal interest as compared with the Canaanite mythic cycle which provided the libretto to primary rites of the cult. Israel's choice of the epic form to express religious reality, and the elevation of this form to centrality in their cultic drama, illustrates both the linkage of the religion of Israel to its Canaanite past and the appearance of novelty in Israel's peculiar religious concern with the 'historical.' " (viii-ix)

이부분은 역시 최고의 통찰이다. 8년전엔 당연히 몰랐었다: "The sucession to David's throne by Solomon whom David appointed king in his last days also was marked by fratricidal conflict and harem intrigue. This is the pattern of life of men ad gods who live in the extended families of patriarchal society." (42)