Introduction
There are at least two ways to read the Old Testament: in the
past tense or in the present tense. Read in the past tense， the
centuries from which the religious heritage of the Western world
derives begin to come alive， particularly the nineteenth to the
second centuries B.c. Shifting political dominance in the lands
bordering the Mediterranean， the rise and fall of empires in the
Tigris-Euphrates and Nile valleys--spreading out into areas in
northern Africa， southern Europe and western Asia--all become
the scene of absorbing action. And the people caught in the action
are not only empire makers; they are the progenitors of our lin-
gulstle development， the parents of our culture， the founders of
our law， definitely the instigators of our religious cults and cus-
toms. We begin to care about their vicissitudes and marvel at
their insights. But however expansive the effect of reading the
Old Testament in the past tense， the ancients remain the ancients
while we are the moderns.
Reading the Old Testament in the present tense is a more dis-
turbing， even disruptive， experience. We start with a feeling of
identification. After all， what was all that different about the
Hebrews leaving Egypt for the sake of religious liberty ，and our
own great-grandparents leaving England and other restrictive
parts of Europe? The Canaanites seemed no fiercer to the ad-
vancing Hebrews than lhe Indians to the American colonists; and
neither Hebrews nor colonials paid any attention to the fact that
the land they pre-empted belonged to already established land-
needy groups.
In the pages of this library of thirty- ulne slender books bound
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