History and the Hebrew Bible
Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography
by Hans M. Barstad
In this collection of essays, Hans M. Barstad deals thoroughly with the recent history debate, and demonstrates its relevancy for the study of ancient Israelite history and historiography. He takes an independent stand in the heated maximalist/minimalist debate on the historicity of the Hebrew Bible. Vital to his understanding is the necessity to realize the narrative nature of the ancient Hebrew and of the Near Eastern sources. Equally important is his claim that stories, too, may convey positivistic historical facts. The other major topic he deals with in the book is the actual history of ancient Judah in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. Here, the author makes extensive use of extant ancient Near Eastern sources, both textual and archaeological, and he puts much weight on economic aspects. He shows that the key to understanding the role of Judah in the 1st millennium lays in the proper evaluation of Judah and its neighbouring city states within their respective imperial contexts. A proper understanding of the history of Judah during the 6th century BCE, consequently, can only be obtained when Judah is studied as a part of the much wider Neo-Babylonian imperial policy.
Hans M. Barstad, Born 1947; 1982 Dr. theol. University of Oslo; 1983 Fellow Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; 1986-2005 Professor of Old Testament, University of Oslo; 1998-2000 Secretary General of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters; since 2006 Professor of Hebrew Bible and Old Testament Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
- By (author) Hans M Barstad
Other Titles in this Series
Grundfragen der historischen Exegese
Methodologische, philologische und hermeneutische Beitrage zum Alten Testament
Volume 95
Schriftgelehrte Traditionsliteratur
Fallstudien zur innerbiblischen Schriftauslegung im Alten Testament
Volume 77
Elephantine in Context
Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt
Volume 155
Rhetoric and Hermeneutics
Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature
Volume 130
Die Bedingungen des Bundes
Studien zur konditionalen Struktur alttestamentlicher Bundeskonzeptionen
Volume 140
Reading Prophetic Books
Form, Intertextuality, and Reception in Prophetic and Post-Biblical Literature
Volume 89
From the Reed Sea to Kadesh
A Redactional and Socio-Historical Study of the Pentateuchal Wilderness Narrative
Volume 159
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