Bible Background

A number of 'histories of Israel' have been written over the past few decades yet the basic methodological questions are not always addressed: how do we write such a history and how can we know anything about the history of Israel?

Although scholars have for centuries primarily been interested in using the study of ancient Israel to explain, illuminate, and clarify the biblical story, Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle describe how scholars today seek more and more to tell the story of the past on its own terms, drawing from both biblical and extrabiblical sources to illuminate ancient Israel and its neighbors without privileging the biblical perspective. Biblical History and Israel's Past provides a comprehensive survey of how study of the Old Testament and the history of Israel has changed since the middle of the twentieth century.

Places the characters and events of the Old Testament in historical perspective: outlines the political, social, and cultural forces that affected the world of the Old Testament.

This fully illustrated guide aims to restore clarity and vitality to these portions of God's Word in order to help readers grasp the full meaning of Scripture. Understanding manners and customs enriches our experience of reading the Bible--and even helps us correctly interpret it. This colorful guide clearly and succinctly introduces modern readers to daily life in Bible times.

Dever addresses the question that must guide every good historian of ancient Israel: What was life really like in those days? Writing as an expert archaeologist, Dever relies on archaeological data, over and above the Hebrew Bible, for primary source material.

Four respected scholars of the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism provide a clear portrait of the family in ancient Israel. Important theological and ethical implications are made for the family today. The Family, Culture, and Religion series offers informed and responsible analyses of the state of the American family from a religious perspective and provides practical assistance for the family's revitalization.

In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, the authors do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history.

The contemporary church dismisses Christianity's foundational Scriptures at its own peril. However, the teachings of the Old Testament are less and less at the center of congregational preaching and conversation. The early church fathers--visionaries such as Augustine, Origen, and Tertullian--embraced the Hebrew Scriptures, allowing the Old Testament to play a central role in the formation of their beliefs. As today's Christians struggle to relate to concepts such as the Jewish law and the prophets, pastors and laypersons benefit from looking through the lenses of these thoughtful pioneers.

Much of the Old Testament seems strange to contemporary readers. However, as we begin to understand how ancient people viewed the world, the Old Testament becomes more clearly a book that stands within its ancient context as it also speaks against it. John Walton provides here a thoughtful introduction to the conceptual world of the ancient Near East. Walton surveys the literature of the ancient Near East and introduces the reader to a variety of beliefs about God, religion, and the world. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study.

This resource provides an easy to use guide to background that explores cultural elements of Scripture verse-by-verse. It is an excellent starting place for background studies of specific passages.

Archaeology won't prove or disprove the Bible's truth claims. But archaeology, combined with other bodies of evidence like historical geography, extrabiblical texts, anthropological insights, and careful study of the writings of ancient Israel, allow us to reconstruct a reasonable picture of the ancient Israelites: how they lived, what they thought, and what their Scriptures mean. In Studying the Ancient Israelites, a seasoned professor uses accessible writing and an inviting page design to introduce students and serious readers to the foundations of our understanding of the people of the Old Testament.

Focusing on Israelite history from the tribal period through the time of Persian domination, Paula McNutt employs a social-scientific perspective to examine recent reconstructions of the social and cultural contexts that nurtured the literature of the Hebrew Bible. She also offers a helpful overview of the components and dynamics of ancient Israelite society.

This fully illustrated encyclopedic guide to the Bible's manners, customs, and times puts a wealth of information at your fingertips. Forty-six sections cover the people of the Bible and how they lived-from family life to law to transportation. This affordable one-volume resource offers over 6,000 topics and facts, making the wonders of Bible cultures more accessible than ever before.

Histories of ancient Israel have usually focused attention on major figures in powerful positions: kings, prophets, and patriarchs. But what about the larger social patterns that shaped the everyday life of ordinary people? Here Rainer Kessler first introduces the discipline and methods of social history - discussing the history of events and the history of the "long haul"; the representation of social history; and the history of research. He then explores the methods of the social history of Israel in particular, and surveys the epochs of Israel's social history, from their emergence in the hills of Canaan to the Jewish population of Greek city-states in the Hellenistic age.

History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel, and Jesus

This handbook is an introduction to early Judaism, including its history, literature, and religious institutions. It will be useful to every student or scholar who is interested in this period.

In a probing account of the Jewish diaspora in the four centuries from Alexander the Great's conquest of the Near East to the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E., Erich Gruen reaches often surprising conclusions. By the first century of our era, Jews living abroad far outnumbered those living in Palestine and had done so for generations. Substantial Jewish communities were found throughout the Greek mainland and Aegean islands, Asia Minor, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, Egypt, and Italy.

This concise but comprehensive encyclopedia, edited by the veteran archeologist Avraham Negev and revised, expanded, and updated by Shimon Gibson, includes more than 600 entries, accompanied by drawings, plans, photographs, chronological charts, and an index.

This reference work is devoted exclusively to Second Temple Judaism (fourth century b.c.e. through second century c.e.). It contains 13 major essays that attempt to synthesize major aspects of Judaism in the period between Alexander and Hadrian.

The Bible resonates with place names such as Jerusalem and Jericho, Assyria and Babylon, Bethlehem and Nazareth. But it also records numerous, less familiar place names, whose location and history are often difficult to unravel. This book, representing the joint scholarship of more than seventy specialists in Near Eastern studies, ancient history, and biblical studies, is an alphabetically organized encyclopedia that lists and discusses every significant place mentioned in Scripture.

Heralded as the most authoritative and up-to-date atlas of the Bible now available, Biblica: The Bible Atlas goes beyond the more traditional books of its kind. It places the biblical narrative and its peoples in their historical, cultural, social, and geographic contexts, and it makes clear the complex history and cultures of the Bible lands as they relate to the region's modern social and political landscape. But perhaps most important of all, Biblica: The Bible Atlas incorporates the most recent archaeological findings and research, combining scholarly data with engaging discussion of the Bible's immortal stories. In summary, this unusual volume offers readers fresher insights and a deeper appreciation of the biblical narrative than any other reference source of its kind. Biblica: The Bible Atlas is also a visually stunning guide to the Bible and biblical lands, featuring more than 650 full-color paintings, drawings, etchings, and photographs plus 125 full-color maps of the region.

Provides information on 36 key Bible locations.