A Biblical History of Israel, 2nd ed.

by Iain W. Provan; V. Philips Long; Tremper Longman III

Publisher:

Westminster John Knox

, 2015

Overview

For over a decade, A Biblical History of Israel has gathered praise and criticism for its unapologetic approach to reconstructing the historical landscape of ancient Israel through a biblical lens. In this much- anticipated second edition, the authors reassert that the Old Testament should be taken seriously as a historical document alongside other literary and archaeological sources.

Significantly revised and updated, A Biblical History of Israel, Second Edition includes the authors' direct response to critics. In part 1, the authors review scholarly approaches to the historiography of ancient Israel and negate arguments against using the Bible as a primary source. In part 2, they outline a history of ancient Israel by integrating both biblical and extrabiblical sources. The second edition includes updated archaeological data and new references. The text also provides seven maps and fourteen tables as useful references for students.

Key Features

• Includes expanded and significantly revised material, taking into account recent scholarship
• Provides extensive maps and tables, illustrating Israel's history
• Integrates both biblical and extrabiblical sources for a clearer picture of the history and culture of Ancient Israel

Contents

• Part I: History, Historiography, and the Bible
  • The Death of Biblical History?
  • Knowing and Believing: Faith in the Past
  • Knowing about the History of Israel
  • Narrative and History: Stories about the Past
  • A Biblical History of Israel
• Part II: A History of Israel from Abraham to the Persian Period
  • Before the Land
  • The Settlement in the Land
  • The Early Monarchy
  • The Later Monarchy: Solomon
  • The Later Monarchy: The Divided Kingdoms
  • Exile and After
  • Concluding Reflections
• Appendix: In Praise of Critical Thought: A Response to Our Critics

Top Highlights

“First, recent work on Hebrew narrative that has tended to emphasize the creative art of the biblical authors and the late dates of their texts has undermined the confidence of some scholars that the narrative world portrayed in the biblical texts has very much to do with the ‘real’ world of the past.” (Page 5)

“Given that Hebrew narrative is artistically constructed and ideologically shaped, is it somehow less worthy of consideration as source material for modern historiographers than other sorts of data from the past?” (Page 7)

“Whitelam’s central contention is that the ancient Israel constructed by biblical scholarship on the basis primarily of the biblical texts is nothing more or less than an invention that has contributed to the silencing of real Palestinian history.” (Page 4)

“A second trend in recent publications has been the tendency to imply or to claim outright that ideology has compromised previous scholarship on the matter of Israel’s history.” (Page 6)

“The history of historiography since the Enlightenment, then—at least as we have told it to this point (and we have more to say in chap. 2)—is the story of a discipline progressively seeking to escape from a dependence upon tradition, under pressure as a result of the perceived success of the natural sciences to justify itself as a proper academic discipline by becoming more ‘scientific’ (whether interpreted in a Rankean-empirical or a positivist-empirical way).” (Page 24)

Endorsements

The history of Israel and the relevance of the biblical testimony to understanding it continue to be contested areas. Building on the work of their previous edition by clarifying points of dispute and updating their discussion, Provan, Long, and Longman offer a thoughtful and well-reasoned argument in favor of giving serious attention to the Bible's own testimony. A crucial element of this must therefore be a careful reading of the text itself, one that takes seriously its own forms and agenda, because only when this is done can the Bible's testimony be evaluated. One of the real strengths of this work is the way in which it integrates careful exegesis with its wider discussion of historiography and history. This discussion is irenic and well-informed, showing that all our sources for Israel's history need to be interrogated for their testimony. The result is a volume that is epistemologically and methodologically sophisticated and yet accessible to a wider readership and which presents a strong case for making use of the Bible in understanding Israel's history. This should be a standard work for years to come.

—David G. Firth, lecturer in Old Testament and Director of Studies, St. John's College in Nottingham, England

A sober, disciplined, well-reasoned response to the so-called minimalists who have dominated recent discussion of the history of ancient Israel. A Biblical History correctly insists that the 'historical reliability' of ancient texts largely depends on which testimonies to trust. The consequence is that the skepticism that has long dominated Old Testament discussion can no longer claim a privileged position—either epistemologically or morally—but in fact is an ideological advocacy. This book will need to be taken seriously and will be welcomed by all those who engage such issues of the historicity of the biblical text.

—Walter Brueggemann, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: A Biblical History of Israel
• Authors: Iain W. Provan, V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman III
• Edition: Second Edition
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2018
• Pages: 514
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. O.T. › Historiography; Bible. O.T. › History of biblical events
• ISBNs: 9780664239138, 0664239137
• Resource ID: LLS:BBLCLHSTSCNDDTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:05:06Z

About the Authors

Iain Provan is the Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

V. Philips Long is professor of Old Testament at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Tremper Longman III is the Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.