Customer Reviews

The Oxford History of the Biblical World

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If I ever had to teach a course in Biblical history, this would be the required text. I would also assign Coogan's excellent "The Oxford Companion to the Bible" (B. Metzger & M. Coogan, eds.; Oxford UP: 1993) as supplemental reading. While "The Oxford Companion" is a one volume encyclopedia of general historical and theological Biblical topics, the "Oxford History" affords the most detailed and systematic (and illustrated) treatment of Biblical history and archaeology of the two. The two works complement each other very well.

"The Oxford History of the Biblical World" is a single volume work of outstanding scholarship and clarity. Thirteen chapters comprise the text (the prologue and epilogue are just as informative as the substantive chapters), each written by prominent experts in ancient Near-Eastern history. There is a consistent unity throughout the chapters despite their disparate authorships. Each chapter is thoroughly steeped in the history, geography, economics, culture and religion of the period. Lavish attention is given to the most current archaeological and etymological findings. There are also copious references to and excerpts of the most important secular texts of the period.

This solid foundation of scholarship gives the work a first-class objectivity. Both traditional and modern conclusions are explored in depth. While certain facts may give rise to multiple conclusions, the authors invariably make plain all available evidence for the reader.

The volume is richly illustrated. Most pictures are in black and white, but with excellent resolution. The 26 beautiful color plates are in the middle of the book. Among the illustrations are diagrams and photos of current archaeological excavations, excellent maps of varying themes and useful tables and charts. Font size is 11 point and 1.5 spaced.

The editors and contributors make Biblical history extremely accessible to the lay reader. This volume, however, does not have footnotes. It does have a select bibliography at the end of each chapter. The text flow is smooth and easy to follow.

No Bible historian should be without it!

This truly is an excellent resource, as discussed by other reviewers. Unfortunately, though, the paperback version is not just a reprint of the hardback in floppy covers. Instead, many of the visual features that contribute so much to the appeal of the hardback edition have been removed. Admittedly several remain, including a section of color plates in the middle of the book, but one who is familiar with the hardback likely will be disappointed by the paperback.

Archaeology, for much of the past few centuries, has set out to 'prove' the Bible. More recently the pendulum has swung the other way, in which some scholars have attempted to 'disprove' the Bible. Much archaeology and historical research is still biased, but fortunately it has become scholarly practice to at least admit one's biases as a prelude to making assertions and posing theories. Also, a greater objectivity in many regards has been infused into historical research, so that those texts that seem to be predominantly slanted in one direction or the other tend to be given less credibility (particularly as, for instance, if someone sets out 'to prove' the Bible, what they are usually doing is attempting to do is to prove their interpretation or specific reading of the Bible, rather than the Bible itself).

All of this is preamble to my review of this latest work. Volumes can be (and have been) written in discussion of the effect of biased research on scholarship. This is discussed in the preface. `Within the last decade, some scholars have adopted what has come to be called a minimalist approach to ancient Israel. In its most extreme form, this approach discounts the Bible as a credible witness because of the ideological bias of its historical narratives and because they were written centuries after the times they purport to describe.'

Michael Coogan, editor of this volume, disapproves of the dominance of extreme minimalism, and strives with his contributors to take account carefully and critically the Biblical accounts along with all other data.

This is a well-researched book. The contributors include Wayne Pitard, Carol Redmount, Lawrence Stager, Jo Ann Hackett, Carol Meyers, Edward Campbell, Jr., Mordechai Cogan, Mary Joan Winn Leith, Leonard Greenspoon, Amy-Jill Levine, Daniel Schowalter, and Barbara Geller. As Coogan says in his introduction,

Coogan's analysis begins with the pre-history of the Syro-Palestinian region (something often neglected in such studies); from there, it expands to include Egypt and the fertile crescent. The historic timeline includes the pre-history, Bronze Age, Egyptian influences, the eras of Judges and early monarchy, the divided kingdoms, the conquest and exile, the Persian period, the Hellenistic period, the time of the Roman occupation, and finally the emergence of Christianity and the differing trajectories of Christianity and Judaism in the Roman Empire.

By academic standards, this text is generous with photographs, drawings, and maps (but it is by no means the high-gloss, coffee-table sort of book).
This is an important recent contribution to the important task of providing context for the Bible and the development of the three great Middle Eastern religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. `The Bible is one of the foundational texts of our culture of of the three major monotheistic traditions... It is a complex document--a set of anthologies, in fact. Thus, to fully understand the Bible requires a knowledge of the contexts in which it was produced, the many cultures of the ancient Near East and the ancient Mediterranean--the biblical world.'

The scope is vast and wide-ranging, covering thousands of years and a wide geographical area, incorporating several different cultures and languages. Each chapter in this volume can be read as a stand-alone article, but each is best served in relation to the others. Each also contains a selected bibliography for further reading and research. In addition to covering more traditional topics of historical and archaeological interest, articles address social concerns, the role of women, urban/rural tensions, and incorporate many of the latest discoveries.

Worthy of the Oxford Press.

As a textbook on introductory biblical studies or as a personal resource, this volume is a winner. With its maps, diagrams, photographs and insightful writing, this volume is indispensable for those who want to understand where biblical-historical research is going these days. The Bible did not develop in a vacuum, and this fine volume will offer the necessary insights for understanding those forces and situations that shaped the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The chronological appendix is especially helpful as it divides the cited historical developments into multiple regions. More than a dozen experts combined their insights to produce this volume and it is perfectly suited as an introductory or mid-level college text.

As a student of Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, this book has become one of my most used reference. Each chapter is written by archaeologists and biblical historians that are renowned for their work. It covers the Biblical lands from their early beginnings, into the Bronze and Iron Ages, and ends with the Roman Period. The most attention is paid to the Hebrew Bible sections, specifically Bronze and Iron Age. I found the references to Philistines, and ancient Israelite women particularly helpful in my research.

While this book has an incredible amount of information in it, the writing style makes it pretty slow and difficult reading. The fact that each chapter is written by a different author means there's a lot of overlap between chapters, especially in the introductory part of each chapter. (I assume they did this so each chapter could be read independently.) Also, the language is strickly academic: always use the most technical term, never use one word when four or five can be used.

A very valuable resource, but not meant to be read from cover to cover as I tried to do.

This book has proved more and more valuable over time. As a pastor and seminary student, it helps to place Biblical events in the proper context. As an aspiring Ancient historian, the clear, concise text and apt photos and illustrations make sense of some pretty dense reading in other texts. It's even a fun read for enjoyment!

Note: I admittedly read the earlier edition of this work, in hardcover. I believe the paperback is shorter, but uses smaller text and fewer pictures.

This collaborative project covers the history of Syria-Palestine, and to some extent, its Near Eastern neighbors, from the Paeleolithic to the end of Antiquity. It is incredibly extensive, and offers a variety of writing styles from several different professors. It contains about ten essays, each 50 pages or so, with frequent pictures to supplement reading.

The quality of the essays varied from decent to excellent. None of them were incredible stand-outs, really. However, the information presented is certainly comprehensive. The work considers Jews and Christians during the development of the Bible, both its historical contents and the book itself--Old and New Testaments. There were a few issues with collaboration. For instance, two different authors both spoke to the differences between Pharisees, Sadducees and Essences; this was an unnecessary repetition.

If you're the sort of person who wants to buy one history for biblical studies. this should satisfy.

I must admit of all the books I have read about Biblical history, this one stands at the top. I have never read a book of such a high scholarship like The Oxford History of the Biblical World.I would highly recommend it to every single student, minister, preacher, teacher interested in the study of the Old and New Testament. High academic vocabulary is used, and the sequence of historic events described in a timely manner is impressive in each chapter.Each essay is written in a very profound way, enriched with internal and external sources that challenge the critical thinking of the reader.I made this book my main source of biblical history and events and plan on reading it over and over again.

Buyer beware. The chapter on the time of Jesus reads like an op-ed piece, not a history book. The author of it is Amy-Jill Levine, who describes herself on her website as a "Yankee Jewish feminist . . . with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies." If you are a Christian looking for a neutral, scholarly source of information, keep looking.