Table of Contents

Introduction
Part A. The History of Israel and Judah
I. The Premises
1. The Beginning and End
2. The Sources
3. The Setting
4. The Origins of Israel
II. The Two Kingdoms
1. Transition to the Monarchy
2. Saul, David, and Solomon
3. The Kingdom of Israel
4. The Kingdom of Judah
III. The Two Provinces
1. Samaria, Judah, and the Diaspora
2. The Hasmonean Kingdom
3. The Herodian Kingdom
IV. An Outline of Religious History
1. The Religion of Israel and Judah
2. The Biblical Tradition
3. The Jewish Religion
Part B. The Biblical Tradition
I. The Premises
1. Scribal Culture and Biblical Tradition
2. Scribes and Scribal Schools
3. Writing and Writing Media
4. Pre-Biblical Written Sources
II. Transformation into Biblical Tradition
1. From Weal to Woe: The Prophetic Tradition
2. From People of State to People of God: The Narrative Tradition
3. From Justice to Law: The Legislative Tradition
4. From Divine Kingship to Kingdom of God: The Psalmic Tradition
5. From Sages to Pious: The Sapiential Tradition
III. The Books of the Hebrew Bible
1. The Law (Torah)
2. The Prophets (Nevi'im)
3. The Writings (Ketuvim)
4. Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
IV. A Sketch of Literary History
1. Historical and Biblical Israel
2. The Era of the Two Kingdoms
3. The End of Israel
4. The End of Judah
5. The Era of the Two Provinces
6. A View of the Para-Biblical Tradition
Part C. Jewish Archives
I. The Locations of Literature
II. Between Elephantine and Qumran
1. Elephantine
Excursus: Al-Yahudu in Babylonia
2. Qumran
3. Gerizim
4. Jerusalem
5. Alexandria
III. Israel and Judaism
1. Non-Biblical and Biblical Judaism
2. History and Tradition
List of Kings and High Priests
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Reinhard G. Kratz is Professor of Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament at the University of Göttingen.; Paul Michael Kurtz is Research Associate at the Institute of Hebrew Bible, University of Göttingen.

Reviews

[T]he volume presents a complex, but well-documented and argued historical-critical view of how biblical Judaism, a movement that initially was one sect among many theologically and politically diverse 'non-biblical' Jewish groups, somehow came to dominance.
*Jeffrey P. Hudon, Reading Religion*