The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible , 2nd Edition

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Designed for students undertaking their first systematic study of the Hebrew Bible, this text has two goals: to acquaint readers with the content and major themes of the biblical documents, and to introduce them to issues in biblical scholarship. Pedagogically rich and reader-friendly, this text was designed for conventional introductory courses using historical-critical methodology, and will also be useful in courses studying the Bible as literature, or as a reference text in the study of ancient religion.

Part I: The Hebrew Bible: An Overview

1. The Hebrew Bible: A Composite Portrait of God and the Divine-Human Relationship

2. The Process of Formation: The Transmission, Canonization, and Translation of the Hebrew Bible

Part II: The Biblical World: Culture and Religion

3. The Ancient Near East: The Environment that Produced the Bible

4. The Land and Archaeology of Ancient Israel: Historical Origins of the Covenant People

5. The God of Israel: An Evolving Portrait

Part III: The Torah

6. Who Wrote the "Books of Moses"?

7. The Five Books of Torah (Divine Instruction)

8. In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis

9. Freedom and Responsibility: The Book of Exodus

10. Regulating the Divine-Human Bond: The Books of Leviticus and Numbers

11. A Mosaic Legacy: The Book of Deuteronomy

Part IV: The Prophets (Nevi'im) I

12. Introduction to the Deuteronomistic History

13. The Book of Joshua

14. YHWH's Warriors: The Book of Judges

15. The Birth of the Monarchy: The Books of 1 and 2 Samuel

16. Parallel Stories of Israel and Judah: The Books of 1 and 2 Kings

Part V: The Prophets (Nevi'im) II

17. The Nature and Function of Israelite Prophecy: Spokespersons for God

18. Prophets to the Northern Kingdom: The Books of Amos and Hosea

19. The Assyrian Crisis: Isaiah of Jerusalem, Micah, Zephaniah, and Nahum

20. The Babylonian Threat: The Books of Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Obadiah

21. Prophets in Exile: The Book of Ezekiel and Second Isaiah

22. After the Exile: Israel's Last Prophets--Haggai, Zechariah, Third Isaiah, Joel, Malachi, and Jonah

Part VI: The Writings (Kethuvim)

23. Introduction to the Writings: Reevaluating Israel's Life with God

24. The Postexilic Readjustment: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah

25. Worshiping at the Second Temple: Hebrew Poetry and the Book of Psalms

26. Israel's Wisdom Writers: The Books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes

27. Four Books of the Megillot (Festival Scrolls): Ruth, Lamentations, Songs of Songs, and Esther

28. Reinterpreting Israel's History: The Books of 1 and 2 Chronicles

29. Keeping Torah in a Hostile World: The Diaspora, the Maccabean Revolt, Apocalyptism, and the Visions of Daniel

Part VII: Additions to the Hebrew Bible: The Deuterocanonical and Extracanonical Books

30. The "Second Canon": Books of the Apocrypha

31. The Pseudepigrapha: Noncanonical Writings of the Late Biblical Period

32. From the Maccabees to Jesus of Nazareth: Victory, Defeat, and teh Emergence of Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity

Glossary of Major Old Testament Characters, Terms, and Concepts

Selected Bibliography

Credits

Index

About the Author

Stephen Harris

Stephen L. Harris is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento, where he served ten years as department chair. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. A member of the Society of Biblical Literature, his publications include Understanding the Bible (8th edition, 2011); The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with Robert Platzner); Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (with Gloria Platzner); Exploring the Bible; and Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, a survey of volcanic hazards on the U.S. Pacific Coast; and for National Geographic Books, Restless Earth, a study of global earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. He contributed the chapter on “Archaeology and Volcanism” to the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Academic Press, 2000).

Robert Platzner