Tale of a Tell | James A. Michener, The Source

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The title of the book is appropriate: It is the name of a certain fictional mound or tell—layers on layers of rubble left by successive inhabitants who clustered near a typical water-source in Palestine. From it the Semitic people who lived there took the name of Makor, meaning a “well-spring” or “source.” The tale of the mound’s excavation forms the narrative framework of the book. Though the tell and its story are fictional, they typify much that is true. The stratified debris and artifacts discovered at the imaginary mound are typical of real archaeological discoveries in that cradle-land which has been the source of many of our concepts, beliefs, principles, practices—and problems! 

The fifteen novelettes about fifteen levels of dwellers at Makor in this rather large volume (909 pages) carry throughout the long spans between cultures one major theme: Judaism, like the layers of strata at Makor, has grown by assimilating both divine and human elements, with periodic accretions and deletions as the times demanded. Delivered now to present Jewry both in the Diaspora and in Israel, this heritage must either be wisely adapted and employed again or ignored at the peril of its heirs.

The long history of Canaan-Israel-Palestine is well characterized, through necessarily selective, and is generally harmonious with biblical and archaeological information. The reader should know, however, that the author’s explanations for certain events are not necessarily the only ones. The identification of the early Hebrews with the Habiru, for example, is not the best attested scientific hypothesis concerning Hebrew beginnings—and certainly is not superior to the biblical explanation. 

Moreover, Michener has not restricted himself, as an historian would, to conservative reconstructions of the life-stories of the peoples who laid down the artifacts. Sometimes fictional pseudo-history is used to typify processes by which known historical phenomena have occurred. The impact of Joktan and his clan of Habiru (with their monotheism and their moral ways) possibly resembles the impact of Abraham upon the Amorite people. The intrusion of “the old man and his God” suggests what the intrusion of Jacob and his extended family would have meant to the Canaanites. A minstrel of David’s time creates songs like some of the Psalms; the prophetess Gomer utters some prophecies like those of Jeremiah and insists upon some principles of behavior like those of Ezra. All of these differ somewhat from their biblical counterparts, but by reconstructing the various conditions out of which such events could have arisen, Michener helps make the real Bible stories come alive. The engineering of Makor’s tunnel to gain access to vital water when under siege plausibly suggests how the siloam tunnel of eighth century Jerusalem (Hezekiah’s time) could have been constructed. Or a certain Makor rebel around 167 B.C. illustrates what the father of the famous Maccabbees could have been like. The long monologue by a fictitious associate of Herod the Great helps explain the fearful tyranny of that historical terror. And the actions of an actual personage, Josephus, at fictional Makor quite satisfactorily characterizes that enigmatic Jewish “patriot” of Roman times. 

These bits and snatches from Jewish history are well selected and well depicted and will be particularly illuminating to non-Jewish readers. Hints as to how the Talmud was compiled will help account for its place in Judaism. The episodes dealing with persecutions by Islam and the Christian Inquisition (although the massacres by Crusaders are somewhat oversimplified) may shed light on some motives and movements of modern Jewry and perhaps even prepare the reader to comprehend the most horrible holocaust of all at Auschwitz. Similarly, the examples of Jewish struggles to live in the Pale and in the Ghetto, the hints about the rise of Zionism, and the excellent characterizations of Israel’s present immigrant populace, assembled by Zion ism and moved by persecutions, all help to clarify the saga of Jewish survival through the centuries, culminating in the rise of modern Israel. 

Michener’s major characters, a Christian, a Moslem, and a Jew, engage in dialogue about the excavation at Makor and interact with others who are involved: a Jewish-American contributor of funds, hard-headed and practical Kibbutzniks, and arrogant Sabras. Protagonists of the “two Israels,” the Ash kenazi and Sephardi Jews, debate their positions. These encounters dramatize the reasons for the tortured British postures during the Mandate period as well as illuminating problems still plaguing Israel today. Michener merits the commendations he has received from Jewish reviewers who feel that he has done better than most Jewish writers on these same themes. 

Mormon readers will be least impressed with his depiction of the rise and development of the Judaeo-Christian religions. The interactions of various religious systems are rather well presented, and the author perceptively speculates on the origins of certain widespread nature myths, fertility cults, and their propitiatory practices. But Michener’s portrayal of the rise of “revealed” religion as seen in the nature and content of the communications of “El” or “El-Shaddai” or “Jahweh” will probably repel those who know of God’s revelations to Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets. The fictitious dialogues between El and Zadock or between Jahweh and Gomer strike one as petty imitations of the revelations recorded in the Law and the Prophets, the Gospels and Epistles, or the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.

Perhaps the most objectionable feature to many intelligent readers will be Michener’s frequent insertion of sexual-sensual scenes, with descriptions in more than sufficient detail. Some of these may be justified as conceptualizations of the fertility-cult rituals of Canaanite times which so sorely tempted, and often attracted, Israelite votaries. Others seem gratuitous and without significance as characterizations of peoples or times, and one suspects that they are supplied simply to satisfy imagined appetites of a segment of the reading public.

Nonetheless, here is an important and intriguing compilation, drawing on science, history, philosophy, and religion. The stories of fifteen people, connected by thin genealogical, biological, and cultural threads, show how human life in the distant past bears significantly in our times.

The Source. By James A. Michener. New York: Random House, 1965. ix + 909 pp. $7.95.