SACRED HISTORY (The People of the Bible)

This is a work of great scholarship by one of France's outstanding writers, and its narration of the history of Israel in contact and conflict with the great ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece (to name only a few) will make an appeal to all students and scholars. M. Daniel-Rops traces the destiny of Israel, the thread of significance which made a small nomad olan the instrument of a metaphysical mission -- the idea of monotheism in a polytheistic world. One sees the federating genius of Moses with his religious code, the purity of the prophetic emphasis on morals and the obstinate intention of the Jews to write and to spread abroad this unique story of their religion and their civilization. All readers will be deeply stirred, we think, that this book, begun in 1940 (as HISTOIRE SAINTE) was by intention to show the real character of the German persecution of the Jews. The original was published in 1943 and within three weeks the Gestapo appeared at the publishers, and broke the plates. Not until after the liberation was the book reset and reissued in Paris.