The Oxford History of the Biblical World

by Coogan, Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780195087079
• ISBN10: 0195087070
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Here, in one impressively illustrated volume, leading scholars offer compelling glimpses into the biblical world, the world in which prophets, poets, sages, and historians created one of our most important texts--the Bible. For more than a century, archeologists have been unearthing the tombs, temples, texts, and artifacts of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world. Using new approaches, contemporary scholars have begun to synthesize this material with the biblical traditions. The Oxford History of theBiblical World incorporates the best of this scholarship, and in chronologically ordered chapters presents the reader with a readable and integrated study of the history, art, architecture, languages, literatures, and religion of biblical Israel and early Judaism and Christianity in their largercultural contexts. The authors also examine such issues as the roles of women, the tensions between urban and rural settings, royal and kinship social structures, and official and popular religions of the region. Readers will find that 200 photographs, line drawings, and maps as well as an insertcontaining 25 color photographs vividly illustrate the history discussed. Understanding the biblical world is a vital part of understanding the Bible. Broad, authoritative, and visually engaging, The Oxford History of the Biblical World will illuminate for any reader the ancient world from which the Bible emerged.

Author Biography

Michael D. Coogan received a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and literatures from Harvard University. He has excavated in Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and Egypt. The coeditor ofThe Oxford Companion to the Bible and author of many other books and publications, he is currently director of publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum and professor of religious studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	vii
Preface	ix
Prologue In the Beginning: The Earliest History	3	(22)
Michael D. Coogan
Before Israel: Syria-Palestine in the Bronze Age	25	(33)
Wayne T. Pitard
Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt	58	(32)
Carol A. Redmount
Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel	90	(42)
Lawrence E. Stager
``There Was No King in Israel'': The Era of the Judges	132	(33)
Jo Ann Hackett
Kinship and Kingship: The Early Monarchy	165	(41)
Carol Meyers
A Land Divided: Judah and Israel from the Death of Solomon to the Fall of Samaria	206	(36)
Edward F. Campbell Jr.
Into Exile: From the Assyrian Conquest of Israel to the Fall of Babylon	242	(34)
Mordechai Cogan
Israel among the Nations: The Persian Period	276	(41)
Mary Joan Winn Leith
Between Alexandria and Antioch: Jews and Judaism in the Hellenistic Period	317	(35)
Leonard J. Greenspoon
Visions of Kingdoms: From Pompey to the First Jewish Revolt	352	(36)
Amy-Jill Levine
Churches in Context: The Jesus Movement in the Roman World	388	(32)
Daniel N. Schowalter
Epilogue Transitions and Trajectories: Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire	420	(27)
Barbara Geller
Chronology	447	(6)
General Bibliography	453	(3)
Contributors	456	(3)
Index	459