Brian examines a variety of factors that suggest that ancestor veneration or worship was not practiced in Levantine countries before Hellenistic times. Brian proposed instead that these rites assured heirs of their imminent succession and they also secured the predecessor's enduring legacy, even his immortality in the minds of the living, through their multi-generational acts of commemoration. In the course of his investigation, Brian provides a sustained analysis of the textual remains from ancient Syria-Palestine pertaining to these questions.

Brian B. Schmidt, Israel's Beneficent: Dead Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 11.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994. XV, 400 Pages. ISBN 978-3-16-146221-4 or eBook PDF.

Brian B. Schmidt, Israel's Beneficent: Dead Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns publishers, 1996. 416 Pages. Revised paperback edition ISBN: 978-1-57506-008-8.