Customer Reviews

A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age Through the Jewish Wars

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This work by Walter C. Kaiser Jr. offers a persuasive Evangelical view of Israelite history during the Old Testament. With a meaningful blend of archaelogical and biblical data, Kaiser presents students of the Bible with relevant information concerning the events and people that most shaped the Old Testament stories. Written in a clear and concise manner, this work also serves as an excellent resource to those searching for an introductory work on the background of the nation Israel during this period in Old Testament history.

I agree with a previous reviewer about the number of typographical errors in the book and I even saw a number of run on sentences, more so than I am used to in a work from a major scholar. And the first 35 pages of the book constitutes some of the most turgid and boring prose I have ever read. But once the story enters the last two millenia of the BC era, the book picks up steam rapidly. It becomes a very engaging whirlwind trip through the Old Testament, with Kaiser stopping along the way to make some salient points anbout the historicity of particular passages. He discusses the date of the Exodus,, the historicity of the conquest of Israel, David's kingdom, and Josiah's discovery of the Book of the Law in the Temple. He also defends the early date for the book of Deuteronomy.

Kaiser is definitely swimming upstream in this book, as he is constantly dialoging with scholars who take less conservative positions on these matters, and he is virtually alone in the early dating of the Exodus. But he does an admirable job, and if you can make it past page 35, the book becomes very rich indeed.

Kaiser's work is a useful tool for anyone who wants to study the Old Testament seriously, whether they are a layperson or someone who is doing so for a living. It is well written and easy to understand, yet has enough meat in it to keep those satisfied who think they know the first two-thirds of the Bible by heart. While it is an enjoyable and good resource, I wouldn't use it on its own, simply because having more sources to corellate facts is good (it also fosters positively critical thinking). If you use this book, don't forget to have another one like Eugene Merill's "Kingdom of Priests" along with it.

First the good: Kaiser is obviously quite knowledgeable, and is not a mere Bible thumper in my opinion, as some of the reviewers seem to think.

The bad: This work should be MUCH longer to adequately deal with the material. I am left with many questions. Second, it is clumsily written. Third, I have no objection to the very conservative viewpoint, but I do not think that he ably argues that position at every turn--though he does much of the time. Lastly, some passages are incorrectly referenced. I agree with the reader who thought this work read like a rush job.

Dr. Kasier should return to the data and literature, and re-write this work from the ground up, doublling its length.

I would place this book alongside John Bright's _A History of Israel_, as one of the top two books on the subject.

Liberal scholars will find it annoying because Kaiser begins from a different premise than do they. However, for those who consider the Bible a reliable historical document, this represents perhaps the most cogent defense of a conservative approach to historiography currently in print.

I would highly recommend it, and while I might write to the publisher and encourage them to revise the work for editing issues. I barely notice the typographical issues due to the clarity of the information and reasoning.

Currently my favorite biblical history reading material...and has been for some time.

Walter Kaiser has written a summary of Israelite history that is long on substance and short on style. His work makes for difficult reading. Overall, it is horribly edited and seems as though it were rushed to press. Spelling mistakes abound; typographical errors mark many a page. On page 280, Kaiser writes, "Submerged just outside the harbor are the remains of two artificially built dolphins; these are mooring piers where ships coming from the open sea could fasten on the dolphin (12) while waiting to enter the harbor to unload their cargo." Reading footnote #12, one finds, "This is a sailing term for mooring piers just outside the harbor where ships coming from the open sea could 'fasten on the dolphin' while waiting to enter the harbor to unload their cargo." With footnotes like these, who needs footnotes? You get the picture. Kaiser's work presents a solidly evangelical view of Israelite history--but a decidedly dry one at that. Don't read this one when you're trying to cram at 3 a.m. for an Old Testament test--you'll fall asleep faster than you can say "Ramathaim Zuphim."

The bible fundamentalists should choose someone else than
Mr Kaiser Jr. to defend the idea of the litteral interpretation of the Bible. Mr Kaiser's reasonings are infantile and do very little to support his extremely conservative view. For instance the primacy he claims for textual material (the Bible) over acheological finding ignores the fact that archeology gives information on what happened at the time it happened whereas the biblible is an oral and then written tradition whose earliest exponents are at least one thousand years later than the events they describe.

Mi suggestion is not to buy this book