translations from Hebrew and Greek are our own.
As with any such textbook there is always room for improvement. We know that there are multiple ways in which virtually everything that is written here could be footnoted, qualified, and balanced with other perspectives. What this introduction provides is one general outline of a historical approach to the Bible that students can then supplement, correct, and balance in their future studies. We certainly invite all possible suggestions for correction and improvement of future editions of this textbook.
We have been helped by many people in writing this textbook. In particular, a diverse set of colleagues – Charles Carter, Thomas Dozeman, Esther Hamori, Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Benjamin Sommer, Kent Reynolds, Robert Rezetko, Adele Reinhartz, Jerusha Rhodes, William Schniedewind, Mark Smith, and Marvin Sweeney – generously reviewed portions of chapters on the Hebrew Bible and/or offered advice on revisions and corrections for the first edition or this second edition. In addition, students at Union Theological Seminary and Seton Hall University have read chapter drafts and suggested corrections, and we received some further helpful suggestions from anonymous reviewers recruited by Wiley Blackwell. Some students and teaching assistants who have offered a particularly large volume of helpful corrections are Mary Ellen Kris, Candice Olson, Lizzie Berne-DeGear, Laurel Koepf-Taylor, Meagan Manas, and Todd Kennedy. Maia Kotrosits provided timely assistance with the glossary and web materials. Our thanks to all for their generous help in this project.
Finally, with love we dedicate this volume to our parents, James and Patricia Conway, John (now departed) and Adrienne Carr, whose love of teaching and care for their students helped inspire this book.
Colleen M. Conway and David M. Carr
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyrighted material in this book:
| Figure 0.1 | Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, edited by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, Fifth Revised Edition, edited by Adrian Schenker, © 1977 and 1997 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. Used by permission. |
| Figure 0.2 | Israel Talby/Israel images/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 1.1 | FALKENSTEINFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 2.1 | Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 2.3 | bpk/Vorderasiatisches Museum, SMB/Gudrun Stenzel |
| Figure 2.4 | Jürgen Liepe |
| Figure 3.1 | Lloyd K. Townsend |
| Figure 3.2 | William Schniedewind |
| Figure 3.3 | akg-images/Erich Lessing |
| Figure 3.4 | Courtesy of R. E. Tappy and The Zeitah Excavations Photograph by B. Zuckerman and M. Lundberg, overlay by P. K. McCarter, Jr. |
| Figure 3.5 | Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 3.6 | © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved |
| Figure 3.7 | www.BibleLandPictures.com/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 3.8 | Francis G. Mayer/Getty Images |
| Figure 4.1 | Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 4.2 | akg-images/Erich Lessing |
| Figure 4.3 | Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 4.4 | AP Images/NAM Y HUH |
| Figure 4.5 | akg-images/Fototeca Gilardi |
| Figure 4.6 | Stiftung BIBEL+ORIENT |
| Figure 4.7 | Stiftung BIBEL+ORIENT |
| Figure 5.1 | Stiftung BIBEL+ORIENT |
| Figure 6.1 | Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 6.2 | akg-images/Erich Lessing |
| Figure 6.3 | Puddingstone/Natural History Museum, London, UK/Bridgeman Images |
| Figure 7.1 | Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 7.2 | akg-images/Erich Lessing |
| Figure 8.1 | Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem |
| Figure 8.2 | Courtesy of Carta, Jerusalem |
| Figure 9.1 | Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com |
| Figure 9.2 | Bojan Brecelj/Getty Images |
| Figure 9.3 | Berthold Werner, Image taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jerusalem_Modell_BW_2.JPG |
| Figure 9.4 | Hulton Archive/Getty Images |
| Figure 9.5 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sbs-0008_028r_Jesus_macht_die_Tonv%C3%B6gelchen_lebendig.TIF |
| Figure 9.6 | The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo |
| Figure 10.1 | Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com |
| Figure 10.2 | DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images |
| Figure 10.3 | akg-images/Electa |
| Figure 10.4 | DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images |
| Figure 10.5 | Mary Evans Picture Library/Alinari |
| Figure 11.1 | Courtesy of the American Numismatic Society |
| Figure 11.2 | GRANGER COLLECTION (RDA)/Bridgeman Images |
| Figure 11.3 | Courtesy of the Hecht Museum, University of Haifa, Israel |
| Figure 12.2 | Richard Beacham (2005),The Emperor as Impresario: Producing the Pageantry of Power, pp 151-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521807964.008 reproduced by Cambridge University Press |
| Figure 13.1 |
|