Theology

Hans M. Barstad

History and the Hebrew Bible

Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography

[Die Geschichte und die hebräische Bibel. Studien zur Geschichtsschreibung des alten Israels und des Alten Orients.]

2008. XIV, 223 pages.

Forschungen zum Alten Testament 61

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ISBN 978-3-16-151102-8
DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-151102-8
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Published in English.
Hans M. Barstad discusses the history of ancient Israel in relation to the recent (post-modern) history debate. In addition, he deals with the history of ancient Israel in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. Combining theoretical and methodological discussions with case studies, Hans M. Barstad shows how theory and practice can work together in a prolific way.
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.
Authors/Editors

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.

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Actualidad Bibliografica — 92 (2009), S. 187–188 (V. Fabrega)
In: Journal of Ancient Judaism — 1 (2010), S. 247
In: Rivista Biblica — 58 (2010), S. 390–393 (Gian Luigi Prato)
In: Revue d'histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses — 90 (2010), S. 381–382 (R. Hunziker-Rodewald)
In: Review of Biblical Literature — http://bookreviews.org/pdf/7224_7864.pdf (04/2010) (Jeremy Hutton)
In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung — 105 (2010), S. 500–505 (Stefan Timm)
In: The Polish Journal of Bibl. Research — 9 (2010), S. 180–181 (Zdzislaw J. Kapera)
In: Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) — 122 (2010), S. 127–128 (A.C. Hagedorn)
In: Theological Book Review — 21 (2009), Heft 2, S. 134–135 (David Lincicum)
In: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament — 33.5 (2009), S. 38 (J. Day)
In: Svensk Exegetisk Arsbok — 75 (2010), S. 159–162 (Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer)
In: Theologische Literaturzeitung — 135 (2010), S. 161–163 (Sebastian Grätz)
In: Mayeutica — 34 (2008), S. 415–416 (Enrique Eguiarte)
In: Old Testament Abstracts — 32 (2009), S. 400 (C.T. Begg)
In: Journal of Hebrew Scriptures — http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/reviews_new/review418.htm (12/2009) (Dan Pioske)
In: Currents in Theology and Mission — 38 (2011), S. 215 (Ralph W. Klein)
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