This volume brings together essays by leading scholars from North America, Europe, and Israel who have drawn on literary analysis of the biblical text as well as archaeology, anthropology, and sociology to make significant contributions to our understanding of the history and religion of ancient Israel. An introduction by the editors summarizes issues that have emerged over the past generation, including competing positions as to the reliability of the biblical accounts and the relevance of archaeological evidence; it also places the essays that are reproduced in the following pages into this larger context. The first section of essays then offers several that present different views as to the methodology for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel. Subsequent sections examine issues pertaining to what the Bible depicts as the patriarchal period, the exodus from Egypt and occupation of the Promised Land, the united monarchy and its subsequent division, and the Babylonian exile and return. The final section includes essays that explore Israelite religion, focusing on fundamental beliefs and practices as well as relationships to the religions of neighboring cultures.

Patrick Miller is widely known as an educator, editor, President of the Society of Biblical Literature, and academic who is concerned to ensure that academics and the life of the church are not torn asunder in this era of fragmentation. As the editors note, “The depths of Miller’s contributions to church and academy are reflected in the depth of his relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.” This volume honors him for his life’s work, presenting 24 essays by students and colleagues on themes dear to Miller: (1) the Psalms and God’s nearness to his people, and (2) Torah (Deuteronomy, in particular) and God’s connection with his people in their lives together. A bibliography of Miller’s writings is also included.

The scholarly study of the Old Testament is now marked by a rich diversity of approaches and concerns. In the last two decades, an interest in the text and the implications for its interpretation is no longer the preserve of a single scholarly community, while the reconstruction of the history of the people from whom it derived has been transformed by new methods. This new book published under the auspices of the Society for Old Testament Study reflects these new approaches anddevelopments, and has a particular concentration on literary and historical study. Thus, it not only clearly recognizes the diversity now inherent in 'Old Testament study', but also welcomes the integration into its field of the wide range of approaches available in current literary and historicalinvestigation.The study of the biblical text and how it is received and interpreted by its various readerships has a certain logical priority over the study of its historical background and authorship. Yet an ongoing investigation of issues relating to the latter cannot await definitive conclusions on the former. So, essays on the text and its reception discuss primary issues which arise in Old Testament study, while those on background and authorship reflect the continued vitality of, and the freshperspective possible in, more traditional scholarly concerns.