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Select this Book	Ben-Sasson, Haim H., ed. A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press. 1985. ISBN: 0674397312. This work is strongest on the period of the Second Temple (Rabbinic Period) and the period of modern Zionist era through the early 1970s.
Select this Book	Bickerman, Elias. From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees. Schocken. 1987. ISBN: 0805200363. In this basic introduction to post-biblical Jewish history, the author examines the elements that shaped the Jewish people after their return from the Babylonian Exile in 538 B.C.E., and transformed them from an insignificant nation into a religious community and major historical force. The process of growth and development is shown as culminating in one of the great historical events of antiquity: the meeting of Jew and Greek. The confrontation of Mosaic religion and Hellenic culture, the author shows, had begun even before Alexander the Great's conquest of the Orient in 333 B.C.E. While struggling to preserve their spiritual heritage, and even rebelling against Greek political domination, the Jews, unlike other Mediterranian peoples, succeeded in assimilating Greek concepts and methods into their native thought. Out of this prolonged contact a richer and stronger community emerged, one which bore within it the seeds of both rabbinic Judaism and its eventual offspring, Christianity.
Select this Book	Blum, Howard. The Gold of Exodus. Simon and Schuster. 1998. ISBN: 0684809184. When a millionaire adventurer goes in search of the true Mount Sinai, he gets more than he bargained for. Spies, missiles, and secret military installations are just some of the obstacles that Larry Williams and his sidekick Bob Cornuke must confront in their unprecedented journey to find the lost treasures of Moses. In this work award-winning journalist Howard Blum records a page-turning story of an adventure that makes history. While risking their necks by sneaking into the xenophobic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, amateur archaeologists Williams and Cornuke become pawns in a game of international espionage that eventually leads them to the top of the most sacred mountain in the world, and into the hands of shotgun-wielding Bedouins. The Gold of Exodus is a true story that is too unbelievable to be fiction, too suspenseful to be put down, and too significant to soon be forgotten.
Select this Book	Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary. University of Texas Press. 1992. ISBN: 0292707940. Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture whose achievements included the invention of writing and the development of sophisticated urban society. This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 BCE and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilization."
Select this Book	Bratton, Fred Gladstone. Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East. Barnes and Noble. 1993. ISBN: 1566194393. This account of the mythological literature of the ancient Near East includes the Egyptian myth of "The Feud Between Horus & Seth," the Hittite myth of "The Conquest of Baal," the Sumerian myth of "The Odyssey of Gilgamesh," others.
Select this Book	Cohen, Shaye J. D. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Westminster John Knox Press Library of Early Chris. 1988. ISBN: 0664250173. Early in his book, Cohen points out that Christianity is responsible for the use of the term "late Judaism." The term was disparaging and meant to suggest that Second Temple Judaism was in dire need of an infusion, i.e., Christianity. Moreover after Christianity came along, "late Judaism" suggested that Judaism could be altogether ignored despite the fact that Judaism has continued to flourish for the last couple of millenia. Cohen's book wraps around early Christianity in terms of time and thought. There are no set time parameters. Second Temple Judaism was a religion "of the book." No longer did Israel have political independence. Why did God let this happen? Part of the answer may be found in Jeremiah 25; Babylon acts as God's agent. Cohen says that basically Second Temple Judaism accepted its civil rulers. Second Temple Judaism opened its understanding of who could be a Jew. Pre-exilic Judaism recognized only the immutable condition of birth. The author has done an admirable job of introducing much to an audience which does not read this subject matter on a frequent basis
Select this Book	Comfort, Philip Wesley, ed. The Origin of the Bible. Tyndale House Publishers. 1992. ISBN: 0842347356. This collection of articles from scholarly publications of a dozen scholars in the field is a well balanced, concise introduction to the subject: definition, history, theology, and translation of the Bible. Using scholarly essays in plain English, the book is organized into five sections: Authority, Canon, Literature, Manuscripts, and Translation. In almost all the articles, a great deal of attention is given to definitions of Bible study terminology.
Select this Book	Currid, John D. Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. Baker Academic. 1997. ISBN: 0801021375. Currid divides his thirteen chapters between an introduction and various portions of the Old Testament. There are six chapters on the relationships between the Pentateuch and Egypt, two on the historical books, one on wisdom literature, and two on prophecy. Currid is widely read on Egyptology and this comes across in his writing. In his chapter called "The Egyptian Setting of the Serpent Confrontation," Currid shows the breadth and depth of his studies in Egyptology. Numerous Egyptian sources are cited showing the meaning of the serpent in ancient Egypt. Then Currid adds the battle of the biblical writers. Aaron's throwing the rod-snake before Pharaoh was an assault on the latter's authority since the serpent was a symbol of Pharaoh's. The reader might want to have a look at the story in Exodus again for the full impact of this. Currid's book is thought-provoking reading from cover to cover
Select this Book	Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia, Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN: 0192817892. These tales from the ancient civilizations of the "fertile crescent" stand alongside the Odyssey and the Arabian Nights in being popular with an international audience at the dawn of recorded history. Here are myths of the Creation and of the Flood, as well as the fascinating Epic of Gilgamesh, a story of heroic failure in a moment of human weakness.
Select this Book	Dimont, Max. Jews, God and History. NAL/Dutton. 1976. ISBN: 0451207017. Jewish history and Jewish contributions to civilization, past and present, are presented in this comprehensive book.
Select this Book	Finkelstein, Israel and Neil Asher Silberman. David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Free Press. 2006. ISBN: 0743243625. Lacking clear archeological evidence or extrabiblical testimony, biblical scholars are often challenged in persuading a skeptical world that the Bible's characters really existed and that their stories are actual historical records. The task of separating myth from history can be a daunting one. Finkelstein and Silberman, both renowned archaeologists (Finkelstein chairs the archaeology department at Tel Aviv University; Silberman is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine), take a different approach: integrating ancient heroic and warrior archetypes into the lives of the kings of Israel, thus synthesizing history and myth in support of the religious endeavor. The authors are careful to note that the absence of contemporary confirmation outside the Bible is no reason to believe that the characters did not actually exist. Rather, the biblical stories form the basis for a legend tradition in which the Davidic legacy gradually transforms "from a down-to-earth political program into the symbols of a transcendent religious faith that would spread throughout the world." Finkelstein and Silberman, who also had a winner with The Bible Unearthed, tell their story in a clear and easily understood manner, never boring but always challenging.
Select this Book	Finkelstein, Israel and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press. 2001. ISBN: 0684869128. This work is a balanced, thoughtful, bold reconsideration of the historical period that produced the Hebrew Bible. The headline news in this book is easy to pick out: there is no evidence for the existence of Abraham, or any of the Patriarchs; ditto for Moses and the Exodus; and the same goes for the whole period of Judges and the united monarchy of David and Solomon. In fact, the authors argue that it is impossible to say much of anything about ancient Israel until the seventh century B.C.E., around the time of the reign of King Josiah. In that period, "the narrative of the Bible was uniquely suited to further the religious reform and territorial ambitions of Judah." Yet the authors deny that their arguments should be construed as compromising the Bible's power. Only in the 18th century, "when the Hebrew Bible began to be dissected and studied in isolation from its powerful function in community life," did readers begin to view the Bible as a source of empirically verifiable history. For most of its life, the Bible has been what Finkelstein and Silberman reveal it once more to be: an eloquent expression of "the deeply rooted sense of shared origins, experiences, and destiny that every human community needs in order to survive," written in such a way as to encompass "the men, women, and children, the rich, the poor, and the destitute of an entire community."
Select this Book	Foster, Benjamin R. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. CDL Press. 1995. ISBN: 1883053099. Benjamin Foster's book contains many original compositions from the major literary genres of Sumero-Akkadian culture: myths, king epics, omen literature, prayers, lamentations, love lyrics, wisdom literature, magic spells, and even humor. Indeed, although the Epic of Gilgamesh is noticeably absent, "From Distant Days" is one of the most comprehensive Mesopotamian anthologies available for the general reader. Foster's introduction lays down the organization of the book and describes many of the structural markers used in Sumero-Akkadian literature. Each presented composition is also accompanied by an appropriate description that gives context for the modern reader. The translations in this book are very readable, with lacunae and omissions clearly marked. Also, the translations are current as of 1995, and include versions that are considerably more complete in some cases than ones available in other widely available anthologies.
Select this Book	Friesel, Evyatar. Atlas of Modern Jewish History. Oxford University Press. 1990. ISBN: 0195053931. Contains demographics of the American Jewish population, including employment categories, intermarriage rates, maps, etc.
Select this Book	Gerber, Jane. The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. Free Press. 1992. ISBN: 0029115744. Presents the history of the Sephardic Jews from their origins in Spain up to the present.
Select this Book	Graves, Robert and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths, The Book of Genesis. Greenwich House. 1983. ISBN: 0517413663. This exhaustive exploration of the Hebrew myths and the book of Genesis resulted from a remarkable collaboration between one scholar raised as a strict Protestant and one raised as a strict Jew. It goes beyond Christian biblical and Judaic myth and incorporates midrashes, folk tales, apocryphal texts, and other obscure sources to extend and complete the stories. An intriguing view of the suppressed and censored pre-biblical accounts is the result, along with a rich sense of a culture consisting of oral and literary traditions, where the spiritual is deeply rooted in landscape and history.
Select this Book	Greenberg, Gary. The Moses Mystery: The African Origins of the Jewish People. Carol Publishing Corporation. 1996. ISBN: 1559723718. Despite the misleading subtitle, the principal thesis of this work by Greenberg, a trial attorney and president of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York, is simply that the monotheistic religion of ancient Israel originated in the Aten cult of ancient Egypt. While Yahwism in some ways resembles Atenism, the claim that Yahwism derives directly from it is probably incorrect. For instance, Yahweh is in origin no benevolent sun god like Aten but rather a god of thunder, cataclysm, and war. Greenberg makes other less defensible claims, for instance, that the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are really Egyptian dynastic chronology in disguise. He energetically pursues this very speculative proposal throughout the entire book. One has the feeling, though, that the author decided in advance what his conclusions would be and organized the sketchy archaeological and literary data to prove it. Dense with footnotes and complex in its reasoning, the book presumes a good background in ancient Egyptian history; it is for specialists, not for casual readers.
Select this Book	Grottanelli, Cristiano. Kings and Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership, and Sacred Text in Biblical Narrative. Oxford University Press, USA. 1999. ISBN: 0195071964. This collection of essays examines the respective religious and social functions of kings and prophets as they are presented in the biblical narratives. Biblical kingship is easily shown to be a specific instance of an ancient and widespread institution--sacred monarchy--that was the pivot of most state organizations throughout antiquity; prophetic authority is described as a typical institution of ancient Hebrew society. The difference between monarchy and prophecy is radical, because the former implies a hereditary power and is upheld by its subjects who feed their kings with taxes, while the latter derives its authority from allegedly direct divine inspiration, and though it is also economically dependent it is not explicitly presented as being based upon systematic exploitation. Cristiano Grottanelli interprets the rise of prophecy as a consequence of a crisis of monarchical structures at the beginning of the Iron Age, and connects it to similar phenomena attested in ancient Greek texts derived from a similar crisis. Though monarchy finally won the day in the Ancient Mediterranean in a new imperial form, the new literatures in Greek and Hebrew consonantic and alphabetic scripts shaped nonmonarchic figures to which they attributed some of the functions previously pertaining to monarchy. These new literatures, produced by two cultures that were both highly literate and organized according to nonmonarchical principles, diverged radically in their development and final outcomes. In the Hebrew tradition, monolatry and an official canon of sacred writings were the final result; the prophetic principle was thus overcome by a new ideological construction, centered upon inspired scriptures rather than upon the impromptu performances of inspired persons. In using the prophetic principle against the monarchic, the canonical texts paradoxically shaped their own authority above that of living prophets.
Select this Book	Gruen, Erich S. Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition. University of California Press. 1998. ISBN: 0520210522. The interaction of Jew and Greek in antiquity intrigues the imagination. Both civilizations boasted great traditions, their roots stretching back to legendary ancestors and divine sanction. In the wake of Alexander the Great's triumphant successes, Greeks and Macedonians came as conquerors and settled as ruling classes in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Hellenic culture, the culture of the ascendant classes in many of the cities of the Near East, held widespread attraction and appeal. Jews were certainly not immune. In this thoroughly researched, lucidly written work, Erich Gruen draws on a wide variety of literary and historical texts of the period to explore a central question: How did the Jews accommodate themselves to the larger cultural world of the Mediterranean while at the same time reasserting the character of their own heritage within it? Erich Gruen's work highlights Jewish creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness, as the Jews engaged actively with the traditions of Hellas, adapting genres and transforming legends to articulate their own legacy in modes congenial to a Hellenistic setting. Drawing on a diverse array of texts composed in Greek by Jews over a broad period of time, Gruen explores works by Jewish historians, epic poets, tragic dramatists, writers of romance and novels, exegetes, philosophers, apocalyptic visionaries, and composers of fanciful fables--not to mention pseudonymous forgers and fabricators. In these works, Jewish writers reinvented their own past, offering us the best insights into Jewish self-perception in that era.
Select this Book	Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis. University of Chicago Press. 1994. ISBN: 0226323994. The book is not intended for students of Akkadian as there is no cuneiform or transcripted Akkadian. Everything is in translation. The book centers around the Enuma Elish (the major creation account), but has many other smaller creation legends. There is a synopsis of the Elish as well as various theories about its dating, composition, etc. There is also a lengthy (58 page) article showing parallels to the Old Testament creation account. The author does a good job of being objective, but leans toward showing the uniqueness of the Genesis account and contrasts it quite a bit against the remaining semitic literature.
Select this Book	Heidel, Alexander. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. University of Chicago Press. 1993. ISBN: 0226323986. There are some very good things about this book which make it worthwhile. Heidel does an excellent job of informing the reader of what the source is for each part of the translation, as well as for the related material that he presents. His sections on "Death and the Afterlife" and "The Story Of The Flood" where he compares the Mesopotamian works with those of the Bible are much better than the discussion given with another contemporary translation. In addition, Rivkah Scharf Kluger uses Heidel's translation for most of her work presented in "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh," which give those interested in a large amount of discussion all based on the same translation.
Select this Book	Herzog, Chaim and Mordechai Gichon. Battles of the Bible. Greenhill Books. 2002. ISBN: 185367477X. This work presents a comprehensive survey of the wars of ancient Israel. The Bible's military accounts, told in vivid detail, cover the period from the invasion of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua's command, through the conquest of the kingdom by David and Solomon and the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, to the Maccabees' successful rebellion against Seleucid domination. The reliability of these accounts is supported by their technical accuracy and by descriptions of topographic conditions peculiar to specific battlefields. The authors make comparisons between the tactics and strategy of the biblical battles with military campaigns well after the biblical era, and provide strategic and tactical lessons of value even today. The book is a fascinating and valuable work, not only for its exacting scrutiny of biblical accounts, but also for its insight into their wider and continuing relevance. This work is an important contribution to biblical studies, biblical archaeology, and military history.
Select this Book	Hess, Richard S. and David T. Tsumura, eds. I Studied Inscriptions From Before the Flood. Eisenbrauns. 1994. ISBN: 0931464889. An anthology of collected scholarly articles from scattered journals bearing on Genesis' backgrounds.
Select this Book	Holmgren, Fredrick Carlson. Israel Alive Again: A Commentary on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1987. ISBN: 0802802591. When the Jews returned to Israel from captivity in Babylon in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E. they faced many hardships. Despite these struggles, their leaders Ezra and Nehemiah believed that God was working with them to accomplish his purpose, which was to restore a faithful community. This work interprets the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the context of the Bible, exploring the theological meanings of these often slighted books, and emphasizing their relevance for religion today. This work will be useful for the layperson, student, and clergy. Its theological exposition makes it valuable to scholars as well.
Select this Book	Howe, Irving. The World of Our Fathers: The Journey of Eastern European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. Simon & Schuster. 1994. ISBN: 0883658828. Using newspaper reports, memoirs and photos, the author recreates the life of the Jews on New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the century.
Select this Book	Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness, A History of Mesopotamian Religion. Yale University Press. 1976. ISBN: 0300018444. This is a text of history of Mesopotamia in its own right. By the time history gets back this far, the lines become very blurred, rather like parallel lines intersecting on the horizon. Literature, religion, archaeology, sociology, psychology -- all of these disciplines become intertwined in Jacobsen's text as he looks at Sumerian society. The book is organized with an introduction, then according to time divisions of fourth, third, and second millennia, then concludes with an epilogue into the first millennium, during which the Bible as we know it (and most ancient history such as is commonly known occurred) came to be.
Select this Book	Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. HarperCollins. 1988. ISBN: 0060915331. Emphasizing the interaction between Jewish history and the impact of surrounding communities in the diaspora, this volume covers the 4,000 years of Jewish history.
Select this Book	Karp, Abraham J., ed. The Jews in America. Hugh Lauter Levin Assoc. 1994. ISBN: 1568219598. This large-format book spans more than three centuries of Jewish art and literary contributions to America.
Select this Book	Kirsch, Jonathan. King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel. Ballantine Books. 2000. ISBN: 0345432754. The difficulty of bringing into perspective figures that are larger than life is well known to Jonathan Kirsch, the author of Moses: A Life and of the provocative biblical study The Harlot by the Side of the Road. In this well researched narrative he attempts the same for King David, arguably the most important figure in the entire Jewish Bible and covers Israel's first monarchic period, from 1025 to 925 BCE. Arguing that the Bible may have originated as David's royal biography, Kirsch cites dozens of Bible scholars in his attempt to separate history from myth. The two myths he examines most closely are those cultivated by a "Court Historian" who embellished David's exploits to make him seem more kingly than he was, and those written by the "Deuteronomistic Historian," who revised the ancient texts about David to downplay his bad behavior and emphasize the sovereignty of Yahweh. In pursuing this portrait of David, Kirsch eschews many complicated questions the text poses in the service of accessibility, and for that he can be forgiven, since secular books about the Bible are often inaccessible to all but a handful of scholars. This book, on the other hand, welcomes a wide audience to a scandalous, violent and surprisingly familiar ancient Israel, and both educates and entertains. In all, Hirsch wants to remind his readers that David is not myth but flesh and blood, a very real man, a charismatic leader who, as one historian puts it, "played exquisitely, fought heroically, and loved titanically," and is, astonishingly, presented this way in the biblical texts themselves. He is real, human, both heroic and flawed.
Select this Book	Klinghoffer, David. The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism. Doubleday. 2003. ISBN: 0385499736. A convert to Orthodox Judaism, Klinghoffer finds the key to his acquired faith in the story of its ancient founder, the patriarch Abraham. Skeptical of the skeptics who treat Abraham's story as a pious myth, Klinghoffer recognizes in Abraham a real historical figure who effected a revolution in the world's religious beliefs. To make his case, Klinghoffer supplements the scriptural account of Abraham's life with centuries of Talmudic commentary. Readers who know Abraham only from the Bible will find many surprises in these ancient commentaries, including the fact that Abram received the new name of Abraham to annul the divine punishment apportioned to a sinner. Because he writes as a well-versed amateur, Klinghoffer well anticipates the interests of general readers, although he avoids a simple-minded literalism that would deny the ambiguities surrounding Abraham's life--ambiguities that have long alienated Christian from Jew and Jew from Muslim, despite their shared allegiance to Abraham as the Father of the Faithful. Hope that the adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths will ever resolve their differences grows stronger with a book like this--lucid, profound, reflective.
Select this Book	Kugel, James L. The Bible As It Was. Belknap Press. 1997. ISBN: 0674069404. This work is an eye-opening study of early scriptural interpretation. Kugel focuses on readings of the Torah from 100-300 C.E., particularly on the Jewish tradition of midrash, a practice of filling in the narrative gaps where biblical stories are ambiguous or unclear. Kugel's interest in midrash is more than academic, however. He wants readers to consider the ways these early readings of the Bible affect today's popular understandings of scriptural texts (such as the sacrifice of Isaac or the creation in Genesis); and he provides a convincing description of the richness and complexity that informs what seem to many like simple, common-sense readings of scripture.
Select this Book	Leick, Gwendolyn. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. Routledge Ltd. 1998. ISBN: 0415198119. Covers sources from Mesopotamia, Syro-Palestine and Anatolia, from around 2800 to 300 BCE. Contains entries on gods and goddesses, giving evidence of their worship in temples, describing their "character" as documented by the texts, and defining their roles within the body of mythological narratives; synoptic entries on myths, giving the place of origin of main texts and a brief history of their transmission through the ages; and entries explaining the use of specialist terminology.
Select this Book	Matthews, Victor. A Brief History of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. 2002. ISBN: 0664224369. Grounded in the latest archaeological developments, this work presents a concise history of Israel covering the ancestral period, conquest and settlement, the monarchy, and both the exilic and postexilic periods. Using supplemental figures and insets, the author concentrates on providing a cogent and condensed discussion of events. He examines historical geography, archaeological data, and, where relevant, comparative cultural materials from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations. With an accessible yet high-quality introduction, this work will be of immense value to both students of the Old Testament and the scholars who teach them.
Select this Book	Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. Anchor Bible. 1992. ISBN: 0385425902. Mazar's work is noteworthy for its breath rather than its depth. He reviews a huge period of history, breaking it down into several eras and further dividing the analysis based on several categories. In each subject Mazar examines the relevant material and the prevalent theories that surround it. While the author's point of view on many of these theories is made clear in the book itself, enough information is given so that any reader can research these questions for themselves. While it is true that any of Mazar's subtopics of a particular period could be a book in itself, none are given short shrift. Enough detail is given to give the reader a basic understanding. What makes the book exceptional is how these pieces fit together, giving the reader an understanding of the broader whole. If you are interested in this subject, this work is an excellent place to start.
Select this Book	McNutt, Paula M. Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. 1999. ISBN: 066422265X. In this volume Paula McNutt provides a synthesis of recent research on the nature and development of the society of ancient Israel. Focusing on Israelite history from the tribal period through the time of Persian domination, 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. By investigating the intricate social processes that sustained the society of ancient Israel, McNutt enables the reader to discern the forces at work during key periods of transition and transformation in early Israelite history.
Select this Book	Neusner, Jacob. Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity. Augsburg Fortress Publishers. 1984. ISBN: 0800617509. In this clearly written book, Jacob Neusner answers the central questions about the world of Judaism in which Christianity was born. He gives an overview of the history and religion of Israel and an analysis of the Judaic legacy as it endured among those who did not become Christians. He also discusses the troubling issue of the Pharisees and investigates the identity of the "historical Hillel." This accessible book aims to speak directly to every student who is concerned with both the early and contemporary meanings of the Jewish and Christian faiths.
Select this Book	Niditch, Susan. Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature. Westminster John Knox Press. 1996. ISBN: 0664219462. This work examines the nature of literacy in the very ancient world, to distinguish it from modern notions of literacy, and to consider how the interplay of oral culture and writing exhibits itself in the Bible. While Niditch does not pretend to have comprehensive knowledge of the process of compiling the Bible, she does raise a number of practical questions about applications of the Documentary Hypothesis that authors of purely literary theories have not seemed to consider. This book is worth reading.
Select this Book	Pelikan, Jaroslav. Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages. Viking Adult. 2005. ISBN: 0670033855. As the sacred text of Jews and Christians alike, the Bible has never lacked for claimants. Beginning with the ancient oral traditions surrounding Abraham and Moses, Pelikan recounts how the early Israelites finally recorded their beliefs in a Hebrew text. Continuous addition of historical and prophetic texts, the growth of rabbinic commentaries, and the translation of the text into Greek made construing scripture a complex task even before adherents to a new scriptural faith reinterpreted the entire Hebrew Bible as an Old Testament important chiefly for prophecies fulfilled in a radical New Testament. The writing of this Christian New Testament itself sparked controversies among divergent branches of Christianity, but it is the endless battles between Jews and Christians that Pelikan takes as his primary focus. In the surprisingly parallel strategies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Jewish and Christian leaders defending scripture against rationalism, Pelikan sees a tragically missed opportunity to heal the religious breach. Hoping the twenty-first century brings something better, Pelikan concludes with an appeal for an interfaith understanding of the Bible that will sweep away centuries of antipathy.
Select this Book	Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton Univ Press. 1992. ISBN: 0691036063. Redford presents a study of the political, cultural, and religious relationships among the peoples of Egypt, Assyria, and the Levant during the 3000 years from the Paleolithic period to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. What distinguishes this study is the perspective of an Egyptologist who approaches the subject of ancient Egypt and Israel without the usual preconceptions and emphases found in the studies emanating from biblical studies scholars. Further, Redford highlights the dissimilarities and long-lasting distinctions between the disparate cultures which bordered the Sinaitic frontier rather than stressing Egyptian origins of segments of Israelite culture frequently advanced by other Egyptologists. Highly recommended for research collections and for students and scholars of Near Eastern history and archaeology, ancient Egypt, and biblical studies.
Select this Book	Rosenberg, David. Abraham: The First Historical Biography. Basic Books. 2006. ISBN: 0465070949. Despite the subtitle, much of Rosenberg's fascinating and sometimes frustrating presentation of the biblical Abraham's life, while based on archeological evidence, is highly speculative. What Rosenberg does establish is a cultural context for Judaism's founder. Abraham, he says, would have been steeped in the sophisticated culture of his native Sumer, with its emphasis on history and continuity. The earliest of the biblical authors, called J (who was a woman, as Rosenberg postulated, with Harold Bloom, in The Book of J) would have known that culture, and Rosenberg analyzes how it informs her narrative. Abraham's new God, Yahweh, according to Rosenberg, was a blend of his old Sumerian household god and the creator god he found in Canaan; with Yahweh, Abraham created a new "cosmic theater" to replace the one Sumerians had enacted with their idols. Rosenberg's discussion can be dense and confusing as he switches over to considering the artistic and historical motives of J and two other biblical authors, known as E and P. But the book opens up into a compelling and moving interpretation that ponders the significance, for Abraham and his descendants, of his journey from Ur to Canaan, fraught with uncertainty for a man-expatriate, aging, childless-hanging between a lost past and a still unmapped future.
Select this Book	Ryan, William and Walter Pitman. Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History. Simon & Schuster. 1999. ISBN: 0684810522. Archeologists have long sought to prove that the great flood described in Genesis and in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh was a historic event. Columbia University geologists Ryan and Pitman weigh in with a highly conjectural theory that seems as good as any other, if no better. Around 5600 B.C.E., they maintain, Noah's flood occurred when rising Mediterranean waters roared through the narrow Bosporus Strait, transforming the Black Sea, then a freshwater lake, into a bloated saltwater body. Taking a cue from Australian prehistorian Gordon Childe, who posited that Europe's first farmers came from Asia, the authors contend that the Black Sea at the time of the alleged flood was a fertile oasis, a cultural magnet where diverse peoples--farmers, animal breeders, artisans--exchanged techniques and possibly genes. They point to the sudden appearance in Europe, shortly after 5600 B.C.E., of "outsider" tribes, advanced farmers who, the theory goes, were fleeing the flooded Black Sea region. Other flood refugees, in this scenario, migrated to Russia's steppes, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Middle East, preserving memory of the catastrophe in mythic and oral traditions later enshrined on clay tablets and ultimately in the Bible. Ryan and Pitman base their theory partly on radiocarbon dating of marine sediments that they collected in 1993 during a Black Sea expedition and partly on Ice-Age climatic patterns, modern linguists' quest for a proto-Indo-European mother tongue and genetic studies of population migrations over the millennia. Their complicated detective tale is intriguing, but much more solid evidence would be required to convince skeptics.
Select this Book	Sachar, Howard. The Course of Modern Jewish History. Vintage Press. 1990. ISBN: 0679727469. In this classic work, the author illuminates the milestones of the Jewish saga from the 18th century to the close of the 20th.
Select this Book	Schultz, Samuel J. The Old Testament Speaks: A Complete Survey of Old Testament History and Literature. HarperSanFrancisco. 1990. ISBN: 0062507672. This work is a theologically accurate and clear picture of the archaeological, geographical, historical, and linguistic dimensions of God's covenant with his people. It includes major discussions op the poetical and prophetical books and contains bibliographies at the end of each chapter.
Select this Book	Stern, Ephraim. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods (732-332 B.C.E.), Vol. 2. Anchor Bible. 2001. ISBN: 0385424507. Every year thousands of enthusiasts, both amateur and professional, spend the summer months digging in the sands of Israel hoping to find items that relate in some way to the places or events depicted in the Bible. Thousands more view artifacts in museums and long to know the full stories behind them. In Ephraim Stern's sequel to Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, Volume I by Amihai Mazar, this world-renowned archaeologist who has directed excavations in the Holy Land for many years offers a dramatic look at how archaeological research contributes to our understanding of the connections between history and the stories recounted in the Bible. Stern writes about various artifacts unearthed in recent years and relates them to the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian periods in the Bible. Accompanied by photographs and illustrations of rare ancient relics ranging from household pottery to beautifully crafted jewelry and sculpture. His discussions bring the biblical world to life.
Select this Book	Sturgis, Matthew. It Ain't Necessarily So. Headline. 2001. ISBN: 0747245061. This easy-to-read (though somewhat wordy) book collects the evidence that there are no archeological remains of the great cities and temples of the Bible (or else a few remains at very wrong places and with very wrong carbon-14 dating). Excellent records were kept by Egyptians, Romans, Assyrians, etc., but none show anything about biblical people or events before King Josiah, hundreds of years after Moses, David, Solomon, etc. Therefore Josiah probably commissioned Hebrew scribes (who were truly writers of genius!) to make up all the great stories. The book is fascinating and important, although millions of people are trying hard to ignore it.
Select this Book	Thompson, Thomas L. The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel. Basic Books. 1999. ISBN: 0465006221. It is most appropriate that Thompson takes up the metaphor of Lego blocks to describe a narrative strategy common to the variety of texts that make up biblical literature: a tiny collection of simple shapes imaginatively combined to create an explosion of possible worlds. Thompson writes passionately, persuasively and provocatively, as, for example, when he notes that "it is only as history that the Bible does not make sense." He notes that history demands evidence, not plausibility. It is, in fact, fiction that demands plausibility and this is the basis for Thompson's eloquent argument on behalf of a literary approach to biblical material. One thing the Bible does not claim to be, he maintains, is history. To read it as such is to distort it, and to inform archeological and historical research with such a reading compounds the distortion. In Thompson's words, "the misappropriation of ancient texts for purposes contrary to the tradition's intentions, which two generations of theological use of the Bible have now encouraged, is one of those common abuses of intellect" that "contributes to the pollution of the ocean of our language." Thompson's book is sure to generate significant discussion, and it should be of interest not only to students of biblical literature but to general readers fascinated both by "how stories talk about the past" and by how they form our present.
Select this Book	Winsten, Joseph. Moses Meets Israel: The Origins of One God. Rumford Inc. 1999. ISBN: 0966340604. This work explores the origins of monotheism and the early history of Moses. It looks at the Bible as a living record of history and examines the sources of faith. The ancient scribes provided the raw material of the Bible by faithfully recording all the peoples' traditions despite inherent ambiguities and contradictions. To this, author Winsten applies text criticism, contemporary scientific data, and rational analysis, all of which yield a more coherent picture of early Israel.

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