Bible Handbook, vol. 2, The World of the Old Testament.

• Author: Lutz, R. Theodore

Volume one of the Bible Handbook, The World of the Bible (1986), provided an admirable overview of, and introduction to, the whole of the ancient Near East. This volume focuses on the history and literature of one small but important area of the fertile crescent, the nation Israel.

As was its companion, volume 2 was originally written in Dutch (1982) but has been translated for the benefit of the larger English-speaking audience. Given that seven scholars, all Dutch, contributed to this volume, Woudstra's translation is remarkably smooth, easily readable, and free of woodenly literal renderings.

The book is intended to serve as an introduction to the Hebrew Bible. It is divided into three major sections: The History of Israel; The Literature of the Old Testament; and The Books of the Old Testament. This results in a certain amount of overlap between, for example, the history and the historical books and between the description of prophetic literature and the prophetic books. This is to be expected, however, with multiple authorship and the kind of division the editor chose for the book. More serious are the discrepancies among the various authors. On p. 45, for example, the end of Solomon's reign is given as 930 B.C., on p. 72 as 927/926 B.C., and on p. 75 (by implication from the dating of Shoshenq's campaign to 927), as 932 B.C.! Similarly, the date of King Uzziah's death is "ca. 738 B.C." on p. 154, but "during the reign of Jotham (746-743 B.C.)" on p. 229. This presents no major problem for the Bible scholar or non-discerning reader, but for the serious beginner it can be a frustrating waste of time. A preface by the editor pointing out the existence of inconsistencies between authors would have been helpful.

The book begins with a chapter on the history of Israel to the time of the Babylonian captivity, by M. J. Mulder. A. S. van der Woude continues the history to the rise of Alexander the Great. Each scholar has a healthy, but critical, respect for the text of the Bible and is fully conversant with the major archaeological evidence and scholarly hypotheses concerning such thorny issues as the origin of Israel and the priority of Ezra or Nehemiah. Their stance tends to be one of cautious appraisal of newer theories rather than conservative clinging to traditional views.

Part two, written by H. A. Brongers, discusses the literature of the Old Testament in terms of literary genre...