However, I did want to share with you a review I just read covering Margaret Barker’s excellent work, The Hidden Tradition of the Kingdom of God. The review, by Benedict Thomas Viviano, O.P.,  was done for the Society of Biblical Literature’s Review of Biblical Literature. The review is well done, but I heartily disagree with most of what Fr. Viviano has to say.

It’s been a little while now since I had the pleasure of reading Mrs. Barker’s brilliant treatment of the Kingdom of Heaven. However, I remember it being one of her most powerful works — inspirational and enlightening — and I could accept and agree with most everything she said. She had some amazing insights into what happened to the ancient temple tradition and priesthood, including some great ideas concerning the Melchizedek Priesthood.  The Kingdom of Heaven that Christ so often mentioned was, according to Barker, a reference to the Holy of Holies of the ancient temple.

I think most of this, however, is lost on Fr. Viviano, who sees all of this as fanciful and certainly inaccurate. He attributes Barker’s conclusions not to a brilliant mind and ability to see the big picture, but to her “eccentricity.” If I had more time, I would love to pick apart his review for you, but I’ll just give you the link and see what you think. If any of you have read this book, please let me know how you feel about the review.  In Viviano’s defense, he comes from a completely different school of scriptural exegesis — I really wouldn’t expect him to understand someone as innovative (some might say “radical”) as Margaret Barker — she goes against everything he has ever learned.

You can read the review here: http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6764

If you haven’t read The Hidden Tradition of the Kingdom of God, I couldn’t recommend it more highly, despite this review.

While not altogether positive, Tiemeyer’s review summarizes Cho’s major points and points out its many strengths.  I happen to own this book and think it is a wonderful resource.  In this book, Cho analyzes the classes of “lesser deities” found in the Ugaritic (Canaanite) texts and then attempts to find parallels in the heavenly beings found in the Hebrew Bible.  In the Ugaritic texts, these lesser deities are members of the divine council who serve the principal gods in the functions of messenger, mediator, warrior, guardian, etc.  Cho postulates that these deities show up in the Hebrew Bible as the elohim (plural) and the b’nei elohim (sons of God) who form the heavenly assembly–also known as the angels or heavenly hosts. They become the servant deities of Yahweh.  Cho points out that in both sets of texts, the lesser deities are considered to be the sons and daughters of the greater deity.  He theorizes that as monotheism took hold in the Jewish religion, the more “polytheistic” nature of the earlier beliefs became obscured.

While I don’t agree fully with the reviewer’s perspective, I recommend taking a look at the review–if only to get a better idea of what Cho has to say about these “lesser deities.” I also highly recommend the book itself, although it is rather pricey (as so many academic publications are these days).