The living world of the Old Testament/
Bernhard W. Anderson
- 4thed.
- Singapore: Longman, 1988.
- xvii, 685p.: ill.; 24cm.
Table of contents
Introduction: The old Testament as the story of people 1 PART 1 THE CREATION OF PEOPLE 17 1 THE BEGINNINGS OF ISREAL 18 The nature of the tradition19 The oral tradition 23 The prologue to the exodus 27 Population unrest in the fertile crescent 30 The God of Israel’s ancestors 41 The descent into Egypt 45 The oppressing in Egypt 48 2 LIBERATION FROM BODAGE 53 The role of Moses 55 The disclosure of God’s name 60 The contest with pharaoh 66 The victory at the sea 75 3 COVENANT IN THE WILDERNESS 84 Guidance in the wilderness 85 The covenant and the law 95 The breaking of the covenant 103 The mosaic faith 106 4 THE PROMISED LAND 110 A land flowing with milk and honey 111 Forty years of wandering 113 Detour via Transjordan 119 The invasion of Canaan 122 Israel’s conquest of Canaan: The Deuteronomist view 131 An alternative view of the conquest in Joshua and Judges I 134 The nature of the Israelite occupation 137 The formation of the tribal confederacy 142 5 THE FORMATION OF AN ALL-ISRAELITE EPIC 151 From tradition to literature 153 The scope of the old Epic narrative 156 Overview of Israel’s Epic narrative 158 The primeval history 159 The ancestral history 167 The people’s history 177 6 THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN FAITH AND CULTURE 181 Temptations of Canaanite culture 182 Leaders in crises 193 The decline of the confederacy 201 The last judge of Israel 206
PART II ISRAEL BECOMES LIKE THE NATIONS 211 7 THE THRONE OF DAVID 212 A time of international favor 213 Israel’s Rustic king 214 David architect of the Israelite state 221 Solomon in all his glory 243 New horizons of faith 243 8 PROPHETIC TROUBLERS OF ISRAEL 247 The background of prophecy 249 A historian’s view of the times 253 The divided kingdom 256 One prophet against four hundred 268 Elijah, the Tishbite 271 Elisha and the closing years of the Omri dynasty 278 9 FALLEN IS THE VIRGIN ISRAEL 280 The revolution of Jehu 281 The Age of Jeroboam II 286 The herdsman from Tekoa 291 The prophecy of Hosea 301 The fall of Samaria 315 10 JUDA’S COVENANT WITH DEATH 317 The reign of uzziah 318 The book of Isaiah 321 Micah, Rural prophet 337 Isaiah’s later career 341 11 THE REDISCOVERY OF MOSAIC TORAH 356 Differing views of thwe covenant 357 Manasseh, the villain of Judah 358 New Deuteronomic reformation 373 The book of Deuteronomy 376 The renewal of the Covenant 379 Inadequacies of the reform 384 Habakkuk’s watchtower of faith 388 Faith and nationalism 390 12 THE DOOOM OF NATION 391 The suffering prophet 392 The book of Jeremiah 392 In the reign of Jehoiakim 396 Jeremiah’s confessions 405 In the reign of Zedekiah 410 Beyond the day of doom 419 PART III THE COVENANT COMMUNITY IS RENEWED 425 13 BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON 427 The Jewish dispersion 428 Ezekiel the priest 428 Lamentation, Mourning and woe 435 The promise of a new beginning 442 Life under captivity 446 Preservation of the tradition 449 The priestly point of view 454 14 THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE 467 New world horizons 467 The poems of second Isaiah 472 A herald of good tidings 475 The creator and redeemer 479 A light to the nations 485 The servant of Yaweh 488 Victory through suffering 495 The servant and the Messiah 500 The continuing Isaiah tradition 502 The book of Isaiah as a whole 504 15 A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS 507 Cyrus’ edict of liberation 508 The work of the chronicler 510 Zerubbabel, the branch 515 Reconstruction and reform 521 Ezra, the architect of Judaism 527 Nehemiah’s terms as governor 531 The law and the prophets 533 16 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL 540 The book of Palms 541 Israel at worship 547 Israel’s pilgrimage festivals 558 Meditating on the Torah 566 17 THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM 568 The wisdom of the east 568 Israel’s wisdom literature 570 An anthology of proverbs 575 The skepticism of Ecclesiates 582 The book of Job 588 From despair to faith 594 Later reflections on wisdom 602 18 THE UNFLFILLED DRAMA 604 Tensions within Judaism 605 The Hellenistic Ezra 610 The apocalypse of Daniel 618 The Kingdom that is God’s 622 Beyond the old Testament 633 Israel’s pilgrimage 643
Comprehensive Chronological chart 646-651 Selected bibliography 652 Author index 677 Subject index 680