Publisher Description: In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, Provan, Long, and Longman do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history. In Part 1, the authors set the volume in context and review past and current scholarly debate about learning Israel's history, negating arguments against using the Bible as the central source. In Part 2, they seek to retell the history itself with an eye to all the factors explored in Part 1.

About the Author: Iain Provan is the Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. V. Philips Long is Professor of Old Testament at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. Tremper Longman III is the Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California.