Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History by Megan Bishop Moore (PDF)

Description

Although scholars have for centuries primarily been interested in using the study of ancient Israel to explain, illuminate, and clarify the biblical story, Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle describe how scholars today seek more and more to tell the story of the past on its own terms, drawing from both biblical and extrabiblical sources to illuminate ancient Israel and its neighbors without privileging the biblical perspective. Biblical History and Israel’s Past provides a comprehensive survey of how study of the Old Testament and the history of Israel has changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Moore and Kelle discuss significant trends in scholarship, trace the development of ideas since the 1970s, and summarize major scholars, viewpoints, issues, and developments.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Pedantic, repetitive, and yes, repetitive. The blurb for the book makes it sounds like it’s written for the armchair historian but it’s written like a dissertation. They go over the exact same arguments over and over again. They could have accomplished their goal so much less painfully had they organized differently. I’m not saying g there isn’t value here because there is. But I would not have spent $33 on this book had I known it would be so very boring.

⭐For the interested amateur Bible student like me, this is very useful, broad-ranging survery of Biblical scholarship. I probably won’t ever get around to reading Martin Noth (for example) in the original, so this book let me put him, and all the other scholars discussed, in perspective. The authors seem to know their material; I was confident I was reading an informed view reflecting current academic scholarship. The book gives a very balanced view of the “Minimalist vs Maximalist” debate; letting the reader decide for themselves.As other reviews note, the BIG shortcoming of this book is its writing style: very long-winded, repetitive and often tedious. The language is quite accessible and clear – there’s so damn much of it! A good editor would have shunk the text down to at least half its current length. Despite that, I am glad I bought the book; I learnt a lot from it. Just be prepared to scan quickly through paragraphs and pages of filler, looking for the good bits.

⭐Simply a great survey, easy to read even by those (like me) who are new to the field.I’m an interested amateur researching the topic towards making a teaching resource chart of Old Testament history. When doing such research, a major problem an ingenue such as myself encounters is sorting out the nutters; or, if you like, weighing the various factions. For example, I had earlier read Israel Finkelstein’s

⭐but I had no idea if he was a reputable scholar, or just some nutcase with an interesting-but-easily-refuted-idea, like David Rohl (

⭐).The archaeology of ancient Palestine/Israel is a subject riven by political and religious agendas. What, exactly, is the current state of the field?This book is an easy-to-read survey of the archaeology and historiography of ancient Palestine/Israel, from the early 20th century to date. It makes no claims to original research, and uses no technical verbiage. It shows how all the major archaeologists in the field fit into the grand picture, and how interpretations of Israel/Palestine’s past have changed in the light of new evidence over the past 50 years. It clearly identifies the various factions. This is invaluable for further reading. This survey clearly locates Finkelstein, for example, in scholarship.What surprised me most was how rapidly scholarship has moved in the past few decades. In 1980, the Old Testament was taken to be a reliable historical source by everyone in the field, and the whole purpose of Middle Eastern archaeology was to find the evidence for specific events in the OT; such as the Exodus, Joshua’s destruction of Jericho, or Solomon’s temple. By 1990 that was being questioned, and by 2000, all that had gone. Archaeology had moved from justifying a specific text to standing on its own two feet, with an independent agenda.I was also surprised to read how recently modern techniques haven been deployed in the field, such as radiocarbon dating, a technology available for 60 years. The authors tippy-toe around the core issue, but the brute fact is that until about 1990 it was nigh on politically impossible for archaeologists and other researchers to even question the narratives in the Old Testament. Techniques such as radiocarbon dating were avoided lest they question the historicity of this narrative.The book is long-winded, repetitive, and ungracefully written: you will quote it for its facts, but never for its turn of phrase. If you are reading other books on the subject, this one will help you locate that author in the field of biblical studies. It is a treasure-trove of information, though. I recommend it to any interested layperson, and were I teaching this subject, I would make it a mandatory text for entry-level graduates.

⭐Outstanding review and summary of the history of the Eastern Mediterranean and the light it sheds on the historicity (or lack of it) of the Old Testament.

⭐Fantastic piece; as someone who has read many, many of the original sources with which Moore and Kelle work, this book brings everything together well. A must have for seminary and divinity students, pastors, and aspiring biblical scholars.

⭐The information in the book is sufficient…however it is printed partly front to back and the other part of the book is printed upside down from back to front print order. I ordered the book for a class that started 39 days after the date of purchase therefore I was not allowed to return the product. For text books I think the return policy should extend 45 days reason being, when students order books early (like myself) to make sure we get the required books we have no recourse but to keep the defective product. n

⭐This book is really quite stunning both in breadth of content and in accessibility to an informed general reader. Moore and Kelle not only provide an up-to-date survey of current understandings of various periods of Israel’s history and pre-history, they also quite succinctly describe the changing ways that the tradition of biblical interpretation has interacted with that history. For those just coming to a serious study of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, upon finishing this book you’ll feel like an expert, and for those who may think they’ve lost interest in the topic after having plowed the same ground repetitively, this book will reawaken your curiosity in this endlessly fascinating subject of study.

⭐The authors make it the point of this unfortunate book to demean any idea that does not fit their minimalist position. They frequently put quotation marks around ideas they disagree with. Sometimes it is not too bad; for example, p. 4: in many places the Bible itself can be called “history…” This “study” should not be purchased-you might just encourage them to do it again in another work.

⭐If you want a summation of the approaches taken to the history of ancient Israel, itself a contentious term, its history and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as history and the history of HB/OT then this is it. I think my only criticism would be the lack of attention paid to the idea that the HB/OT is of the Hellenistic period.

Keywords

Free Download Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History in PDF format
Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History PDF Free Download
Download Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History 2011 PDF Free
Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History 2011 PDF Free Download
Download Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History PDF
Free Download Ebook Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History