{"product_id":"the-wiley-blackwell-companion-to-ancient-israel-isbn-9780470656778","title":"The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel","description":"The \u003ci\u003eCompanion to Ancient Israel \u003c\/i\u003eoffers an innovative overview of ancient Israelite culture and history, richly informed by a variety of approaches and fields. Distinguished scholars provide original contributions that explore the tradition in all its complexity, multiplicity and diversity.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eA methodologically sophisticated overview of ancient Israelite culture that provides insights into  political and social history, culture, and methodology\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eExplores what we can say about the cultures and history of the people of Israel and Judah, but also investigates how we know what we know\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003ePresents fresh insights, richly informed by a variety of approaches and fields\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eDelves into ‘religion as lived,’ an approach that asks about the everyday lives of ordinary people and the material cultures that they construct and experience\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eEach essay is an original contribution to the subject\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes on Contributors ix\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments xv\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEditor’s Introduction 1\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart I Methodology: Questions, Concepts, Approaches, and Tools 9\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Contextualizing Israelite Culture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 Archaeology: What It Can Teach Us 13\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eElizabeth Bloch-Smith\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 Israel in Its Neighboring Context 28\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSong-Mi Suzie Park\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 Ancient Egypt and Israel: History, Culture, and the Biblical Text 47\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJohn R. Huddlestun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 Text and Context in Biblical Studies: A Brief History of a Troubled Relationship 67\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSteven Weitzman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eB Hebrew Bible and Tracking Israelite History and Culture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Folklore and Israelite Tradition: Appreciation and Application 87\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSusan Niditch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: Sources, Compositional Layers, and Other Revisions 103\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDavid M. Carr\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Linguistics and the Dating of Biblical Literature 118\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eOhad Cohen\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 Epigraphy: Writing Culture in the Iron Age Levant 131\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChristopher A. Rollston\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart II Political History 151\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Origins\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 The Emergence of Israel and Theories of Ethnogenesis 155\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAvraham Faust\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eB Monarchic Period\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e10 The Early Monarchy and the Stories of Saul, David, and Solomon 177\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBrad E. Kelle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e11 The Divided Monarchy 197\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJ. J. M. Roberts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eC Postmonarchic Period: In the Land and Diaspora\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e12 (Re)Defining “Israel”: The Legacy of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods 215\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCharles E. Carter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e13 The Hellenistic Period 241\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMatthew J. Goff\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart III Themes in Israelite Culture 257\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA God and Gods\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e14 The Gods of Israel in Comparative Ancient Near Eastern Context 261\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNeal Walls\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e15 Monotheism and the Redefinition of Divinity in Ancient Israel 278\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMark S. Smith\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eB Mediation: Gods and Humans\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e16 Priests and Ritual 297\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eS. A. Geller\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e17 Prophecy 317\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eRobert R. Wilson\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e18 Apocalypticism 333\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJohn J. Collins\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eC Social Interaction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e19 Religion at Home: The Materiality of Practice 347\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eFrancesca Stavrakopoulou\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e20 Education and the Transmission of Tradition 366\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eRaymond F. Person, Jr\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e21 Kinship, Community, and Society 379\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eT. M. Lemos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e22 Law and Legal Literature 396\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBernard M. Levinson and Tina M. Sherman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e23 Women’s Lives 415\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCarol Meyers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e24 Economy and Society in Iron Age Israel and Judah: An Archaeological Perspective 433\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJ. David Schloen\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eD Artistic Expression\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e25 Verbal Art and Literary Sensibilities in Ancient Near Eastern Context 457\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eEdward L. Greenstein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e26 The Flowering of Literature in the Persian Period: The Writings\/Ketuvim 476\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTamara Cohn Eskenazi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e27 Hellenistic Period Literature in the Land of Israel 493\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBenjamin G. Wright III\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e28 Art and Iconography: Representing Yahwistic Divinity 510\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTheodore J. Lewis\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 535\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\"I would, however, recommend this book to university libraries catering for courses in ancient history, historical theology, archaeology or Middle Eastern studies, as a balanced and scholarly guide to the current state of knowledge.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cstrong\u003eMartin Guha, \u003cem\u003eReference Reviews,\u003c\/em\u003e Volume 30, Number 7, 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cb\u003eSusan Niditch\u003c\/b\u003e is Samuel Green Professor of Religion at Amherst College. Her research and teaching interests include the study of ancient Israelite literature from the perspectives of the comparative and interdisciplinary fields of folklore and oral studies; biblical ethics with special interests in war, gender, and the body; the reception history of the Bible; and study of the rich symbolic media of biblical ritual texts. Recent publications include \u003ci\u003eJudges: A Commentary\u003c\/i\u003e (2008)and \u003ci\u003eMy Brother Esau Is a Hairy Man: Hair and Identity in Ancient Israel \u003c\/i\u003e(2008). Her current project deals with personal religion and late biblical literature. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eCompanion to Ancient Israel \u003c\/i\u003eoffers an unparalleled exploration of the political, social and cultural world of ancient Israel. Methodologically sophisticated, it provides an overview of ancient Israelite culture, richly informed by a variety of approaches and fields. These include the history of religion with its interests in worldviews, symbol systems, paradigms, and the benefits of comparative, cross-cultural study; the study of ‘religion as lived,’ an approach that examines the everyday lives of ordinary people and the material cultures that they construct and experience; and cultural studies with its interdisciplinary emphases and methodological questions about the academic assumptions that scholars make. \u003c\/p\u003e The Companion has been divided into three sections, throughout which a distinguished and international group of scholars have delivered a series of fresh contributions: the first section deals in innovative ways with the methodological assumptions and techniques that allow for the study of ancient Israel; the second provides an overview of social and political history, and the third section focuses on critical aspects of culture. The essays not only explore what we can say about the cultures and history of the people of Israel and Judah but also asks how we know what we know, in a style that is makes it of real interest to scholars but also fully accessible to non-experts. \u003cp\u003eThis is a tremendous collection of essays that will serve as an updated handbook for students and scholars alike who wish to gain entry into a particular aspect or period of ancient Israelite history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCindy Chapman, Oberlin College\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI had begun to think that there were already too many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias of the biblical world on the market for yet another one. But reading through this new volume, superbly planned and organized by Susan Niditch, showed me how wrong I was. There is frankly nothing quite like it. In an exceptionally comprehensive way, it explores what ancient Israel was all about: the varied aspects of its culture and society, the multiple historical contexts in which it existed, and the range of perspectives, literary, archaeological, religious, social scientific, from which modern interpreters must understand it. The volume, thus, is not only a survey of the facts and features of Israel's history and culture, as is typical of many handbooks. Even more, it is a searching inquiry into how we know what we know or think we know: what are the major issues of interpretation and how to evaluate them. Editor Niditch has not been afraid to encourage differing points of view on these issues and the evidence for them from her contributors, which her cross-referencing throughout helps the reader to appreciate. And the contributors - a well-respected international group from junior to senior scholars - have not been afraid to be provocative in what they have to say. Unquestionably, this volume will become a cornerstone for all future work on the study of ancient Israel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Machinist, Harvard University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47990366863589,"sku":"NP9780470656778","price":218.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780470656778.jpg?v=1761787535","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-wiley-blackwell-companion-to-ancient-israel-isbn-9780470656778","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}