Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (Second and Third Series)
Overview
The outstanding nineteenth-century biblical scholar and Semitist William Robertson Smith gave three courses of Burnett Lectures on the Religion of the Semites at Aberdeen just over a century ago. The first series, published in 1889 (2nd edition, 1894), has long been a classic work. The second and third series were never published, owing to the author's ill health; however, the manuscript of them still exists in the Cambridge University Library and was recently discovered by John Day, who has produced this edited version of the work to commemorate the centenary of Smith's death. The lectures, which constitute a work of considerable Semitic and Classical learning, are on the following subjects: Feasts, Priests and the Priestly Oracle, Prophecy and Divination, Semitic Polytheism and Cosmogony. Dr. Day has written an Introduction, which evaluates the work and includes nineteenth-century press reports of the Lectures.
- Bibliography
- Indexes
Top Highlights
“The heathen Semites did not deny that the gods of other nations were real gods and powerful on their proper ground; but they had no occasion to worship them, for their native gods were sufficient masters in their own country and they had no reason to think that their homage would reach the ear of gods that dwelt far off, or that if it did reach them it would find acceptance with the hereditary deities of foreigners and enemies.” (Page 76)
“absent at another sanctuary if he had more altars than one” (Page 73)
- Title: Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (Second and Third Series)
- Author: William Robertson Smith
- Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
- Publication Date: 2009
- Pages: 148
William Robertson Smith was an important scholar of the Old Testament and professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge. He died in 1894.