Full Description
Engaging and accessible to students from all backgrounds, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context, Third Edition, is an updated and concise version of Michael D. Coogan's best-selling The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, Third Edition (OUP, 2013). Coogan works primarily from a historical and critical methodology but also introduces students to literary analysis and
other interpretive strategies.
Providing a nondenominational and nondoctrinal treatment, this text offers a unique and captivating introduction to the Hebrew scriptures themselves and to how they have been—and can be—interpreted.
PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES
* Chapter introductions connecting each chapter to the preceding material and previewing the material to come
* Chapter summaries that highlight key points and link each chapter to the rest of the book
* Important terms, boldfaced at their first appearance and defined in the glossary
* Numerous strategically placed text boxes that offer interesting and useful supplementary information
* Timelines, photos, illustrations, maps, and a four-color insert on Jerusalem in biblical times
* Review questions, suggestions for further reading, a general bibliography, and annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter
* A FREE 6-month subscription to Oxford Biblical Studies Online (www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com)—a $180 value—with the purchase of every new copy of this text.
Contents
*=NEW TO THIS EDITION; PART ONE. INTRODUCTORY; 1. WHAT IS THE OLD TESTAMENT?; 2. THE PROMISED LAND: GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND IMPORTANCE; PART TWO. COSMIC ORIGINS; 3. CREATIONS GENESIS 1-3; 4. THE FORMATION OF THE PENTATEUCH AND THE PRIMEVAL HISTORY GENESIS 4-11; PART THREE. NATIONAL ORIGINS; 5. THE ANCESTORS OF ISRAEL GENESIS 12-50; 6. ESCAPE FROM EGYPT EXODUS 1-15; 7. FROM EGYPT TO SINAI EXODUS 16-24; 8. LAW, RITUAL, AND HOLINESS EXODUS 20.22-23.33 AND 25-40 AND LEVITICUS; 9. IN THE WILDERNESS NUMBERS; 10. THE END OF THE JOURNEY TO THE PROMISED LAND DEUTERONOMY; 11. JOSHUA AND THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND OF CANAAN JOSHUA; 12. THE EMERGENCE OF ISRAEL IN THE LAND OF CANAAN JUDGES; PART FOUR. KINGS AND PROPHETS; 13. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY 1 SAMUEL; 14. THE REIGN OF DAVID 2 SAMUEL, 1 KINGS 1-2; 15. THE REIGN OF SOLOMON 1 KINGS 1-11 AND PSALM 89; 16. THE DIVIDED KINGDOMS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH FROM THE LATE TENTH TO THE EARLY EIGHTH CENTURIES BCE 1 KINGS 12-2 KINGS 14 WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO PROPHECY; 17. THE NORTHERN KINGDOM OF ISRAEL IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY BCE 2 KINGS 14-17, AMOS, AND HOSEA; 18. THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH IN THE EIGHTH AND EARLY SEVENTH CENTURIES BCE 2 KINGS 15-20, 2 CHRONICLES 29-32, ISAIAH 1-39, AND MICAH; 19. JUDAH IN THE SEVENTH AND EARLY SIXTH CENTURIES BCE: THE END OF ASSYRIAN DOMINATION AND THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 2 KINGS 21-25, 2 CHRONICLES 33-36, ZEPHANIAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, AND JEREMIAH; PART FIVE. EXILE AND RETURN; 20. AFTER THE FALL: JEWS IN JUDAH AND BABYLON LAMENTATIONS, PSALM 137, OBADIAH, AND EZEKIEL; 21. RETURN FROM EXILE EZRA 1-2 AND ISAIAH 34-35 AND 40-55; PART SIX. RECONSTRUCTION, CONSOLIDATION, AND CHALLENGE; 22. THE RESTORATION: JUDAH IN THE LATE SIXTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES BCE EZRA 3-10, NEHEMIAH, HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, ISAIAH 24-27 AND 56-66, JOEL, AND MALACHI; 23. RETELLING THE STORY 1-2 CHRONICLES, PSALMS, AND PROVERBS; 24. THE WISDOM OF THE SAGES: PRESERVATION AND CHALLENGE PROVERBS, JOB, ECCLESIASTES, AND THE SONG OF SOLOMON WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO WISDOM LITERATURE; 25. HEROES IN FOREIGN LANDS: POSTEXILIC LITERATURE AND DIASPORIC IDENTITY (RUTH, JONAH, ESTHER, AND DANIEL); APPENDIX: THE APOCRYPHAL/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS