Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-388) and indexes.

Pt. 1. History, historiography, and the Bible -- pt. 2. History of Israel from Abraham ti the Persian period.

pt. 1. History, historiography, and the Bible -- The death of biblical history? -- Knowing and believing: faith in the past -- Knowing about the history of Israel -- Narrative and history: stories about the past -- A biblical history of Israel -- pt. 2. A history of Israel from Abraham to the Persian period -- Before the Land -- The settlement in the Land -- The early Monarchy -- The later Monarchy: Solomon -- The later Monarchy: the divided kingdoms -- Exile and after.

In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, the authors do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history. In Part One, the authors set the volume in context and review past and current scholarly debate about learning Israel's history, negating arguments against using the Bible as the central source. In Part Two, they seek to retell the history itself with an eye to all the factors explored in Part One.