This collection of essays examines the relationship of prophecy to the Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy–2 Kings), including the historical reality of prophecy that stands behind the text and the portrayal of prophecy within the literature itself. The contributors use a number of perspectives to explore the varieties of intermediation and the cultic setting of prophecy in the ancient Near East; the portrayal of prophecy in pentateuchal traditions, pre-Deuteronomistic sources, and other Near Eastern literature; the diverse perspectives reflected within the Deuteronomistic History; and the possible Persian period setting for the final form of the Deuteronomistic History. Together the collection represents the current state of an important, ongoing discussion. The contributors are Ehud Ben Zvi, Diana Edelman, Mignon R. Jacobs, Mark Leuchter, Martti Nissinen, Mark O’Brien, Raymond F. Person Jr., Thomas C. Römer, Marvin A. Sweeney, and Rannfrid Thelle.

In the politico-religious history of the Deuteronomists, past, present and future mingle in an often inextricable way. Long obsolete traditions, which had been unacceptable to the Davidic dynasty, were rediscovered and adapted to the aims of the Deuteronomists. Personages of the past were condemned and blackened in the light of the new ideology, whereas others were glorified and embellished as heroes of faith because their ideas suited the historians. This inevitably raises the question whether the Bible can be trusted as a source book for writing a history of Israel. Apparently not, say scholars like T.L. Thompson, P.R. Davies and N.P. Lemche. In this volume a number of authors take up this challenge, stating that the radical rejection of the biblical testimony in favour of a history based mainly on archaeology is ill-advised. Several contributions to this volume draw instructive parallels between the process of re-writing the history of South Africa and the work of the Deuteronomists.

A thorough and detailed analysis of the Deuternomistic History and its influence on the Second Temple period.

"The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible offers 36 essays on the so-called "Historical Books": Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, and 1-2 Chronicles. The essays are organized around four nodes: contexts, content, approaches, and reception. Each essay takes up two questions: (1) what does the topic/area/issue have to do with the Historical Books?" and (2) how does this topic/area/issue help readers better interpret the Historical Books?" The essays engage traditional theories and newer updates to the same, and also engage the textual traditions themselves which are what give rise to compositional analyses. Many essays model approaches that move in entirely different ways altogether, however, whether those are by attending to synchronic, literary, theoretical, or reception aspects of the texts at hand. The contributions range from text-critical issues to ancient historiography, state formation and development, ancient Near Eastern contexts, society and economy, political theory, violence studies, orality, feminism, postcolonialism, and trauma theory-among others. Taken together, these essays well represent the variety of options available when it comes to gathering, assessing, and interpreting these particular biblical books"--

In this groundbreaking work that sets apart fact and legend, authors Finkelstein and Silberman use significant archeological discoveries to provide historical information about biblical Israel and its neighbors. In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible—the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire—reflect the world of the later authors rather than actual historical facts. Challenging the fundamentalist readings of the scriptures and marshaling the latest archaeological evidence to support its new vision of ancient Israel, The Bible Unearthed offers a fascinating and controversial perspective on when and why the Bible was written and why it possesses such great spiritual and emotional power today.

This book, an expanded translation of the Hebrew original, is a penetrating study of early Hebrew prophecy as portrayed in the Old Testament. Professor Uffenheimer discusses the historical, theological and social aspects of this unique phenomenon, from its beginnings to the emergence of classical prophecy in the 8th century BCE ? a period stretching from the prophetic leadership of Moses and the charismatic savior-judges, through the court prophets of the United Monarchy, to the militant prophets of the Northern Kingdom, culminating in the internal crisis under Jehu that led to the evolution of classical prophecy. The author draws, on the one hand, upon extra-biblical, Near Eastern material (the Mari documents, Hittie vassal treaties, etc.); on the other, he relies upon inner literary analysis of the biblical sources themselves. Among other things, he contests some of the innovative theories that have been proposed to account for biblical prophecy.

"The title of this volume is, of course, taken from 2 Kgs 6:1, where the prophetic group about Elisha point out that their accomodation is too cramped. It seemed an apt comment on the capacity of any proposed volume to house and adequate representation of the work that has recently been done on Israelite prophecy. To this I now have to add the all-too-ironic confession that the so-called pre-classical prophets (including Elisha and his colleagues) could not be accomodated in the present volume. Let no one complain about being misled by the subtitle when the title is so honest ... there are thirty-six items of varying legnth, and they divide almost equally between journal articles and excerpts from volumes (some of thes of composite authorship). Naturally, they represent one individual's selection from within his personal reading, and this itself accounts for only a fraction of the vast scholarly output on the prophets, whether since 1875 or since 1975 ... It will be apparent at several places in the volume that I take with great seriousness the study of Near Eastern (non-Israelite) prophecy as background to the Israelite phenomenon, so that the first short section (The Near Eastern Background") was unavoidable."--Editor's preface.

Rodney Hutton begins this book by asking five basic questions about Israelite prophecy and the prophetic books. Do the prophetic books witness to a real phenomenon of "prophecy" in Israel? What is the relationship of the "classical" or "writing" prophets to the "pre-classical prophets"? Where do we look for the origins of Israelite prophecy? How do the prophets relate to their culture and society? How does the prophetic collection of writings relate to the legal and historical traditions of Israel? Through literary, social, and theological analysis, the author then introduces the most noted of the Hebrew prophets, including Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, with special attention to Jeremiah. --From publisher's description.