Folk-Lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law was published by Macmillan in 1918 in three volumes (abridged to one volume in 1923). The work applies to the Hebrew Bible the same comparative method Frazer had used in The Golden Bough: taking individual narratives and institutions from the Old Testament and setting them beside similar stories and customs from other cultures to reveal their common origins in universal patterns of human thought.
Frazer’s treatment of the Flood narrative is characteristic: he catalogues flood myths from Mesopotamia, India, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and the Americas, arguing that the Biblical account is one local version of a nearly universal story rather than a unique revelation. Similar treatment is given to the Fall (compared with origin myths worldwide), the mark of Cain (compared with tattoo and scarification customs), the covenant of circumcision (compared with initiation rites), and the story of Jacob and Esau (compared with customs of inheritance and firstborn rights across cultures).
The implications were theologically explosive: if the narratives of Genesis are versions of stories found in every culture, they cannot be unique divine revelations. Frazer was careful to present his findings as purely scholarly — he made no explicit theological arguments — but the implications were clear to every reader, and the book was received with hostility by conservative religious authorities.
Collecting Folk-Lore in the Old Testament
First edition (Macmillan, London, 1918): Three volumes, cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition (3 vols): $200–$600
- Abridged one-volume edition (1923): $30–$80