Understanding the Old Testament /
Bernhard W. Anderson.
- Abridged 5th ed.
- Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson Prentice Hall, c2007.
- xviii, 653 p. : col. ill., maps 23 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 605-642) and index.
Introduction: the Old Testament as the story of a people -- The sense of tradition -- The story of the Bible -- The creation of a people -- The beginnings of Israel -- The nature of the tradition -- The oral tradition -- The prologue to the Exodus -- Population unrest in the fertile crescent -- The God of Israel's ancestors -- The descent into Egypt -- The oppression in Egypt -- Liberation from bondage -- The role of Moses -- The disclosure of God's name -- The contest with Pharaoh -- The victory at the sea -- Covenant in the wilderness -- Guidance in the wilderness -- The covenant at Sinai -- Covenant and law -- The breaking of the covenant -- The mosaic faith -- The Promised land -- A land flowing with milk and honey -- Years of wandering -- Detour via TransJordan -- The invasion of Canaan -- Israel's conquest of Canaan : the Deuteronomistic view -- An alternative view of the conquest in Joshua and Judges -- The nature of the Israelite occupation -- The formation of the tribal confederacy -- The formation of an all-Israelite epic -- From tradition to literature -- The scope of the old epic narrative -- Overview of Israel's epic narrative -- The primeval history -- The ancestral history -- The people's history -- The struggle between faith and culture -- Temptations of Canaanite culture -- Leaders in crisis -- The decline of the confederacy -- The last judge of Israel -- Israel becomes like the nations -- The throne of David -- A time of international favor -- Israel's rustic king -- David, architect of the Israelite state -- Solomon in all his glory -- New horizons of faith -- Prophetic troublers of Israel -- The background of prophecy -- A historian's view of the times -- The divided kingdom -- Prophet against four hundred -- Elijah, the Tishbite -- Elisha and the closing years of the Omri Dynasty -- Fallen is the virgin Israel -- The revolution of Jehu -- The age of Jeroboam -- The herdsman from Tekoa -- The prophecy of Hosea -- The fall of Samaria -- Judah's covenant with death -- The reign of Uzziah -- The book of Isaiah.