Cretinist

I picked up Raymond Brown's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385247672/internetinfidelsA/" target="_blank">An Introduction to the New Testament</a> because it is highly acclaimed here and elsewhere, by both theists and atheists. Is there something similarly scholarly and accessible like this for the OT?

Thanks in advance.

Apikorus

There is no magesterial tome treating the entire Hebrew Bible to compare with Brown on the NT. The reason for this is that the Hebrew Bible is vast and presents a far more complex and problematic composition and transmission history. Whereas the NT was written over a period of perhaps two centuries by about ten authors, the composition of the Hebrew Bible spans eight centuries and about 40 authors. The earliest material is likely based on oral traditions which extend back further still, into the Late Bronze Age.

On a literary level, the Hebrew Bible is also vastly more complex than the NT, containing as it does historical narrative, polemic, civic law, cultic law, prophecy, mythology, legend, wisdom, political commentary, etc.

That being said, I would cautiously recommend the following:

• N. Gottwald, "The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction" - Gottwald and Mendenhall were the principal exponents of the social history method.
• H. Shanks (ed.), "Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple" (2nd ed.) - Not a text on the Bible per se but a set of history sketches by experts spanning the period of the Hebrew Bible. An outstanding volume.
• B. W. Anderson and K. P. Darr, "Understanding the Old Testament" - A bit simplistic in its presentation but useful nonetheless.
• G. Larue, "Old Testament Life and Literature" - Out of print, but available online here at II! A very solid, though dated, introduction.
  

With the exception of the book by Shanks, all these are steeped in the standard Graf-Wellhausen analysis of the Pentateuch. GW has been attacked from all sides, and has been bent but not quite broken.

[ November 08, 2002: Message edited by: Apikorus ]</p>

Toto

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/080061853X/internetinfidelsA/" target="_blank">The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction</a>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0130853631/internetinfidelsA/" target="_blank">Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple (2nd Edition)</a>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0139483993/internetinfidelsA" target="_blank">Understanding the Old Testament (Abridged 4th Edition)</a> - find this in your library

<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/index.shtml" target="_blank">LaRue: Old Testament Life and Literature</a> on line in the II library

I assume that Herschel Shanks is the editor of Biblical Archeology Review. I have been unimpressed with his recent activities on the ossuary, but I shouldn't hold that against the book.

Secular Pinoy

I'm not well-read in biblical matters, but I find <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/051734582X/internetinfidelsA/" target="_blank">Asimov's Guide to the Bible</a> to be a good place to start, both OT and NT. Probably not an accurate book, though.

Toto

Why do you think it would not be accurate? It is dated, and I wouldn't take it as a final authority, but there is a lot of information in it, and I am not aware of any pervasive flaws. It is not part of Asimov's science fiction works.