Books in Brief

Survey History

A History of Ancient Israel and Judah

J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986) 523 pp., $27.95

This new volume appears at a time of explosive activity in the study of ancient Israelite history. Indeed, it is only the latest of at least a dozen histories of ancient Israel that have been published within the last six years. Some of them, like the third edition of John Bright’s A History of Israel (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981), are updatings of earlier works. Others are entirely new productions: J. Alberto Soggin’s A History of Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985) and Henk Jagersma’s two volumes, A History of Israel in the Old Testament Period and A History of Israel from Alexander the Great to Bar Kochba (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983, 1986).