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

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