BOOKS
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myth. Jacobson assumes a covenantal myth which would hardly
qualify as a myth even in Frye's wide-ranging repertoire. He
presents a Jewish nonbeliever's analysis of how the Old Testa–
ment story was first put together. He argues that it was created by
ancient Jews to justify or explain the ancient Israelites' conquest
of Canaan and then, in fuller form, the punishments which
overtook the Jews in biblical days. Actually, the book begins with
the most notable of these punishments-the capture of Jerusalem
by Nebuchadnezzar and the exile into Babylon (586 B.C.)-and
then moves into earlier Hebrew history. The covenant notion, he
believes, is the basis of the whole relationship between the people
and God, and like the Hegelian slave and master relationship, the
Jews are not only dependent on God, but God is also dependent
on the Jews. This myth, with its demand on the Jews and on God,
gave rise to an addendum: a final apocalyptic order with the
coming of a Messiah from the House of David.
Jacobson has some doubts about his own myth and to me, at
least, the most fascinating part of the book and theory is not his
covenant theory-which echoes others-but rather the author's
own doubt about the truth of his story. He is almost a believer
malgre lui-meme.
The impact of this Old Testament myth on the
world is hard to explain by any theory let alone a covenant theory.
One gets the feeling that behind much of this intriguing and
well-written little book is the impact of the twentieth-century his–
tory of the Jews on our author. He may also be thinking of his na–
tive South Africa.
Another way of looking at this book is to see that the myth
behind the Jews is not the covenant myth but the fact that for
most of mankind for several millenia, the Jews themselves are a
mythic people. Every people has myths about themselves; a small
number enter the myths of other countries, but very few, indeed,
become almost world myths. The Jews belong to the last class for
they are part of the myths of many European peoples, of groups
in Asia and in North Africa. And their myth echoes the hatred of
many. Of all the burdens the Jews have had to carry through their
earthly existence, the worst is the gentile mythic one with all its
variations.
Difficulties with Jacobson's theory abound. The impact of
Jacobson's chosen myth on the world and even on the Jews is
hard to explain. How could the Egyptian episode be made up?
