In Search of 'Ancient Israel'

Philip R. Davies is Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield, UK. His publications with T&T Clark include The Origins of Biblical Israel (2007) and The Old Testament World (2005).

• Preface to Third EditionPreface to Second EditionAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsReflective IntroductionCh. 1 PreliminariesCh. 2 Searching for 'Ancient Israel'Ch. 3 Defining the Biblical IsraelCh. 4 A Search for Historical IsraelCh. 5 The Social Context of the Biblical IsraelCh. 6 Who Wrote the Biblical Literature, and Where?Ch. 7 How was the Biblical Literature Written, and Why?Ch. 8 From Literature to ScriptureCh. 9 The Emergence of IsraelBibliography of Works CitedIndex of References Index of Authors

Philip Davies has been a key force in resetting the agenda and method for modern historians and biblical scholars. His many studies on the Persian and Hellenistic periods have helped scholars to envision these late centuries as the time when the biblical text was most likely composed. But his monograph In Search of "Ancient Israel" belongs to those tours de force that cut through the complexities of a discipline to make a point that has been at once obvious to many, yet enunciated by few - in this case: "biblical Israel," "historical Israel," and the scholarly construct of "ancient Israel" are distinct entities and should not be facilely confused with each other.