In the book, Social World of Ancient Israel, Victor H. Matthews and Don C. Benjamin bring together both anthropological and biblical studies and gives insight to aspects of the social world of ancient Israel. In every chapter the authors discuss how a particular social functioned in the ancient Near East and then examines biblical texts of the social world. The author Victor H. Matthews obtained his PH.D at Brandeis University. He is a Dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs, and a professor of religious studies in Missouri State University. Author Don C. Benjamin has a PH.D in Religion from the Claremont Graduate University, a M.A. in Semitic Languages from the Catholic University of America, and a B.A. from St. Bonaventure University.
Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley are the authors of The Sacred Land Bridge, which is an Atlas of the biblical world and includes maps, pictures, and historical cementation as to the significance of this region. The biblical world that this atlas focuses on is defined as the eastern Mediterranean littoral, or more commonly called the Levant in modern archeological discussions. In my critique of this book I will be focusing on pages 30-34 which will define the boundaries and explain the importance of the Levant.
Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon. "Jewish Traditions." World religions: western traditions. 1996. Reprint. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2011. 127-157. Print.
Maxwell, . "The Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic Period." A Jewish Synagogue. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar 2011. .
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
The growth of religious ideas is environed with such intrinsic difficulties that it may never receive a perfectly satisfactory exposition. Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such an certain elements of knowledge, the all primitive religions are grotesque to some extent unintelligible. (1877:5)
The. 1987 Lopez, Kathryn Muller. Read Daniel: Negotiating The Classic Issues Of The Book. Review & Expositor 109.4 (2012): 521-530. ATLASerials, a Religion Collection.
Oswalt, in his book The Bible Among the Myths, provides the reader with a brief, yet comprehensive view of the differences and similarities between the Old Testament and Ancient Near East religions. In the introduction, he provides a brief overview of scholarly thought regarding the Old Testament literature and Ancient Near East literature and how perspectives have changed in nearly 50 years. Oswalt states at the time he was introduced to the subject, scholars believed the Old Testament and its theology stood alone from other Ancient Near East religions. He now contends that present day scholars believe the Old Testament is just one of many Ancient Near East
Noss, David S., and John B. Noss. The World's Religions. New York: Macmilllan College Publishing Company 1994.
One contributing factor for the exile’s choice to remain in Babylon was the quality and level of social life that they experienced while in Babylon. Many of them maintained their identity and status within the Babylonian settlements. This suggests a well-developed social structure among the Hebrew exiles (Blenkinsopp 152). They also had the benefit of personal freedom and the ability to manage their own community life. An example of this are the “elders of the diaspora”, who aided the leader of the exiles, ex-king Jehoiachin, in conducting community affairs. The presence of elders among the Hebrew exiles suggests that the settlements within Babylon governed themselves similarly to pre-exilic urban existence, even to the point of maintaining gatherings for decisions and the hearing of prophets (Smith 97). The exiles were also allowed to live according to their own customs, were able to purchase property, and could even own slaves (Hayes 483). Some of the exiles may have actually had other Hebrews as slaves since the their laws allowed them to...
Some difficulties were encountered associated with returning to this material after a twelve year hiatus and doing so without the benefit (I now recognize) of lectures. I found myself continually backpedaling from the ambitions of my initial outline - which were largely inspired by the introductions which called for careful inspection of the structure of the arguments and attention to the seeming parallels and repetitions both within and between the texts in question. This, it turned out, was somewhat beyond my abilities. Be that as it may I settled on the text the Book of Religion and did what I could.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Kohn, Risa Levitt, and Rebecca Moore. A Portable God: The Origin of Judaism and Christianity. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.
Dirks, Jerald. The Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam : similarities & contrasts. Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 2004.
· Patricia Hayward, and Jonathan Noble Macquarie HSC Studies of Religion. Macmillan publishing, 2003 Pg 104.