Israel and the Nations by F.F. Bruce, David F. Payne

[gilda_elise]

The story of Israel is one of the outstanding tales of human history. Israel, occupying a narrow strip of land between sea and desert, was positioned on an international highway of commerce and warfare. This was a people whose future would be intertwined with the stories of nations great and small. F. F. Bruce shapes the daunting complexities of this history, nearly fourteen hundred years from the exodus to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, into straight prose that sparkles with clarity. More than half of the book is devoted to the post-exilic history of Israel, the "inter-testamental" period and the first-century history that forms the backdrop of the New Testament. First published in 1963, Israel and the Nations has achieved wide recognition as an excellent introduction to the history of Israel. This new edition, carefully revised by David F. Payne, includes some new material and a revised bibliography.

I don’t see this as an introduction, as there is too much history brought up, often with no deeper explanation, and with information left out that one would need in order to understand what is being said. Names are dropped in, with no previous introduction, and then never heard from again. When Rome’s participation in the Middle East can be summed up in ten pages, you know you’re in trouble. You can’t possibly get a very nuanced telling of that history in so short a time.

But at least Rome’s participation, as well as that of Greece, is followed up with actual contemporary accounts. Too often, biblical accounts are taken as fact. That’s not at all what I was looking for. What I was looking for, what I’m still looking for, is a history of the area where facts have as much weight as fiction. Where the archaeological data is part of the story. And where, while this is a history of Israel, they’re not always automatically right, and everyone else automatically wrong.




Mount TBR 2016 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. Alexander's Lovers
2. The Border
3. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
4. Green Darkness
5. The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone
6. Rise to Rebellion
7. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah
8. Through a Glass Darkly
9. Lisey's Story
10. The Man He Became
11. The Handmaid's Tale
12. The Great Warming
13. Sacrament
14. The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country
15. The Front Runner
16. The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III’s Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds
17. Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire
18. Under an English Heaven
19. A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
20. Washington Square
21. The Passing Bells
22. The Touch
23. Changeling
24. The Select
25. Cradle of Saturn
26. Killing Time
27. Israel and the Nations: The History of Israel from the Exodus to the Fall of the Second Temple

Comments

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

I would like a book like you mentioned too.

But I gave up after most books on Israel take holy scripture as truth and everyone is portrayed as evil and against them. The one time I dared ask for an impartial book on the history of Israel, the bookshop staff looked ready to accuse me of anti-Semitism^^ I gave up afterwards.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

That's really too bad, because the story would be so interesting! I was really thinking that this one would show Israel's interaction with the other nations, and how it fit, historically and archaeologically, with everything else.

I have to say, there were a couple of times where he's willing to say that, yes, they were wrong to do such a thing, but that pretty much the party line, anyway. But to excuse the slaughter of innocence, just because their god told them to, is disingenuous at best. No one else would be excused something like that.

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

There's a certain amount of defensiveness involved and heightened sensitivity so it's difficult to broach the subject or ask for information.

If you find a book like you mentioned, please post about it! I would love to read it.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I will most certainly do that. I'm not giving up the search, not yet, anyway. I even bought one of those "then and now" map books of the area so that I could better understand exactly where they're talking about at any given time.

[fansee.livejournal.com]

I wish I had a good history of Israel to recommend! Sounds as though Mr. Payne didn't revise Mr. Bruce's book enough. FanSee

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

There's got to be a good book of Israel's history out there somewhere! I've just got to find it.

I'm not sure where the two authors' writings divide, but, no, the revisions did nothing to make the book more relevant.