Eretz Israel: History, Archaeology, Religious and Cultural Settings
An Annotated Bibliography
B. Kvasnica
An * denotes an especially good book/resource with the guide in mind. It focuses almost exclusively on English works. I’ve tried to annotate most entries to give a better sense of its usefulness.
Bible/Reference:
* תנ”ך סימנים. Great for proper pronunciation. Subject headings. Based upon Aleppo text.
• Brown II, A. Philip, and Bryan W. Smith, [eafl id=”827″ name=”A Reader’s Hebrew Bible” text=”A Reader’s Hebrew Bible”]. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Doesn’t have parahsiot but helpful for faster reading because super-short definitions for words at bottom of page.
• The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1999). Regular and “pocket” edition.
• Download Hebrew Bible in Unicode Word Doc, a very helpful download for placing nice looking text (try Narkism, Ezra SIL Unicode font) into a word-processor.
* Hebrew Bible in MP3 format. Free. Chapters.
* Evan-Shoshan, A. A New Concordance to the Tanakh. (Tel Aviv: Milon HeHadash, 2005). The best concordance.
* The Voice of the Tanach (קול התנ”ך) Mp3 version of entire Tanakh read by Dan Kaner (דן כנר). Clear and beautiful recording
• Hebrew Bible with definitions and searches from the Bible Society in Israel – new free resource
Atlases
* Aharoni, Y., M. Avi-Yonah, A. Rainey, Z. Safrai, and R.S. Notley, The Carta Bible Atlas, 5th edition. Jerusalem: Carta, 2012. The best basic one volume atlas on market. Interacts with just about every Bible passage; very extensive. No frills, but very comprehensive. 5th edition adds about 40+ maps.
● Bimson, John J. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Places. Leicester, England: InterVarsity, 1995. Not an atlas, but site-based with photos and drawings. Useful for quick overview of site.
● Blake, Gerald, John Dewney, and Jonathan Mitchell. The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
● Cleaves, Richard. The Holy Land Atlas, 2 Vols. (Nicosia, Cyprus: Rohr Productions, 2000). Incredible satellite photos and amazing aerials (vol 2).
* Elitzur, Yehuda and Yehuda Kiel. Atlas Daat Mikra, Mosad Harav Kook. Jerusalem, 1998. (In Hebrew.) Wonderful chapters on different aspects of Eretz Israel.
● Pritchard, James B. ed., The Harper Atlas of the Bible. (New York: Harpercollins, 1987). Extensive, scholarly.
● Rainey, A. and R.S Notley, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World. Jerusalem: Carta, 2006). The scholar’s atlas. Most academic and attuned to historical geography to date.
* Rainey, A. and R.S Notley, Carta’s New Century Biblical Atlas. (Jerusalem: Carta, 2007). A scaled down and more accessible version of The Sacred Bridge.
● Wright, Paul H. Greatness, Grace, and Glory: Carta’s Atlas of Biblical Biography. Jerusalem: Carta, 2008. Unique presentation oriented around a person and incorporating historical geography aspects.
● Lange, Nicholas de. Cultural Atlas of the Jewish World. Oxford and New York: Equinox Books and Facts on File, 1985. Reference and compendium of Jewish history (Part One) and Culture (Part Two) with description of Jewish World Today (Part Three).
History of Biblical and Ancient Israel
• Avi-Yonah. The Jews Under Roman and Byzantine Rule: A Political History of Palestine from the Bar Kokhba War to the Arab Conquest. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1984.
* Bickerman, Elias J. From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees: Foundations of Postbiblical Judaism. New York: Schocken, 1962. Short and broad history of Second Temple period Judaism.
• Bright, John. A History of Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000, 4th ed. A solid history of ancient Israel.
* Eshel, Hanan. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2008. Connects peopled in the ancient literature with folks in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Important for Hasmonean period. Technical.
• Isserlin, B. S. J. The Israelites. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001). Broad.
• Provan, Iain W., V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman. A Biblical History of Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003. Technical. Ancient Period.
* Shanks, Hershel. Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple, (Third Edition). Washington DC: Biblical Archaeological Society, 2010, 3rd ed. Popular with chapters written by expert in the field.
Second Temple Period Judaism References
• Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha: • H. F. E. Sparks, ed. The Apocryphal Old Testament New York: Clarendon, 1984; • R. H. Charles, ed. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1913. • Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983, 1985.
• Dead Sea Scrolls: * Abegg M., P. Flint, and E. Ulrich. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. (San Fransico: Harper, 1999). • Wise, Jr. Michael, M. Abegg, and E. Cook. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2005). • VanderKam, James, and Peter Flint. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus and Christianity. SanFrancisco: Harper, 2002. • D. L. Washburn, A Catalog of Biblical Passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002. * Vanderkam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 2nd edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010. • Abegg, M., P. Flint, and E. Ulrich, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. San Fransico: Harper, 1999. • Schiffman, Lawernce H. and James C. VanderKam, eds. Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Oxford, 2001. * Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran. Yale University Press, 1995.
• Josephus: William Whiston, The Works of Josephus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. • Gaalya Cornfeld, B. Mazar, and Paul L. Maier, eds. Josephus: The Jewish War. Jerusalem-Grand Rapids, Mich.: Massada-Zondervan, 1982. * Williamson, G. A. (trans.), Josephus: The Jewish War. London-New York: Penguin Books, 1981 (revised with notes by E. Mary Smallwood). This last version is the best with the notes, etc. Also, small; travels well.
The Land of Israel – Ancient Period
• Alon, Gedaliah. The Jews in their Land in the Talmudic Age (70-640 C.E.). Translated by Gershon Levi. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1996. [Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1980,1984, in two volumes]. A few of the articles are more important than all of them.
* Avi-Yonah, Michael, ed. A History Of Israel And The Holy Land. New York and Jerusalem: Continuum and Jerusalem Publishing House, 2001.
• Faust, Avraham. “On the Uses of ‘Land of Israel’, ‘Palestine’ and other terms in the study of ‘Western Asia’: A Comment on C. Dauphin’s Review.” Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 23 (2005): 177-83.
• Gafni, Isaiah. Land, Center and Diaspora: Jewish Constructs in Late Antiquity. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997.
• Hoffman, Lawrence A., ed. The Land of Israel: Jewish Perspectives. University of Notre Dame, 1986.
* Netzer, Ehud. The Palaces of the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2001.
• Safrai, S. and M. Stern, eds. The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions, 2 volumes CRINT. Assen, Netherlands and Philadelphia: Van Gorcum and Fortress Press, 1974, 1976. Scholarly, comprehensive, wonderful. Out of print.
• Sharon, Moshe, ed. The Holy Land in History and Thought: Papers Submitted to the International Conference on the Relations between the Holy Land and the World Outside It, Johannesburg, 1986. Leiden: Brill, 1988.
* Shinan, Avigdor, ed. Israel: People, Land, State, a Nation and its Homeland. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2005. Good succinct history in a large/pictorial format.
• Weinfield, Moshe. The Promise of the Land: The Inheritance of the Land of Canaan by the Israelites. Berkley: University of California, 1993. Ebook: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft596nb3tj/
•Yadin, Yigael. Bar-Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome. New York: Random House: London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971. Wonderful. Out of print.
Stories from the Land
* Vilnay, Zeev. Legends of Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Sefer ve-Sefel, 2004 [Reprinted from Jewish Publication Society 1960]. With the three volumes over 1,000 stories based upon location. Wonderful and important collection of Jewish stories gathered from ancient Jewish literature through the medieval period.
* Vilnay, Zeev. Legends of Judea and Samaria. Jerusalem: Sefer ve-Sefel, 2006. Ditto.
* Vilnay, Zeev. Legends of Galilee and Jordan and Sinai. Jerusalem: Sefer ve-Sefel, 2007. Ditto.
• Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909-1938; republished in 2 volumes, 2006. (See Bialik and Kugel below.)
Modern Israel and Palestine
• Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem! New York: 1972.
• Dershowitz, Alan. The Case for Israel. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
• Gilbert, Martin. Israel: A History. McNally & Loftin, 2008 rev ed.
• Oz, Amos. A Tale of Love and Darkness. Orlando: Harvest Books – Harcourt, 2005. [Israeli Memoir]
• Karsh, Efraim. Palestine Betrayed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Amazing work on the history of the Middle East conflict.
• Morris, Benny. Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001. Vintage, 2001.
General/Travel/Coffee-Table Books on Israel
* Alon, Azareia. Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves. Jerusalem: Carta, 2008. Basic but helpful for a hand reference for the National Parks and Reserves.
• Zaharoni, Irit, ed. Israel: Roots and Routes, A Nation Living in Its Landscape. Tel Aviv: MOD Publishing House, 1990. Part coffee table book, part all-encompassing Jewish history, land and people.
* Doron, Galia. Traveling With the Bible. Ministry of Defense, 2008. Useful work for incorporating archaeology, Tanakh, and guiding.
• Roman, Yadin, ed. ERETZ: The Book, 1985-2005. A selection of articles from ERETZ Magazine. Tel Aviv: Eretz Publishing, 2005.
• Roman, Yadin and Heidi J. Gleit, ed. Handbook and Guide to Israel 2010. Tel Aviv: Eretz Publishing, 2009.
Christian Perspectives on the Land of Israel/Palestine
• Burrell, D. and Y. Landau, eds. Voices From Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land. Mahweh:Paulist, 1992.
* Lowe, Malcom, ed., People, Land and State of Israel, Immanuel vol. 22/23, (Jerusalem: Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, 1990; www.etrfi.org). Important collection of articles, including Jewish perspectives.
• Merkley, Paul C. Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001).
• Wilken, Robert. The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought. New Haven: Yale, 1992.
• Talmon, S. and D. Flusser. The Gospel and the Land: Early Christianity and Jewish Territorial Doctrine. Christian News From Israel 25 (1975): 132-39.
Historical Geography of Eretz Israel
* Avi-Yonah, Michael. The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab Conquest (536 B.C.-A.D. 640). Jerusalem: Carta, 2003 [reprinted from 1977 rev. ed with new preface by Anson F. Rainey]. Great book, survey/history.
* Aharoni, Yohanan with A. Rainey. The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography. Westminster John Knox, 1981, Second revised ed. Technical. Very helpful reference.
● Monson, James M., Regions on the Run: Introductory Map Studies in the Land of the Bible, 2006, www.bibback.com. Very useful mapping exercises that help internalize the Land of Israel. (Includes Christian connections to the Land.)
● Faust, A. On the Use of ‘Land of Israel’, ‘Palestine’, and Other Terms in the Study of ‘Western Asia’, Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society (2005) 23:177-183.
● Karmon, Yehuda. Israel: A Regional Geography. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1971. Modern Israel: Fundamentals (Geography, Heritage), State of Israel (Boundaries, Settlements, Agriculture, Water, Economy), Regions: North, Centre, South) Areas Military Administration (Judea and Samaria).
* Smith, George Adam, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. New York : Harper & Row, 1966. Old but excellent. Classic renderings of the Land of Israel with beautiful and insightful descriptions. (Similarly Tristam.)
● Orni, Efraim and Elisha Efrat. Geography of Israel, Second Revised Edition. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 1966. Modern Israel: Regional, Climate, Settlement, Economy.
Geology and Geography
● Baly, Denis. The Geography of the Bible, New and Revised Edition. New York: Harper and Row, 1974, rev. ed. A wonderful work with many connection Scripture with the Land. Covers rocks, soils, land, etc.
● Issar, Arie S. Water Shall Flow From the Rock: Hydrogeology and Climate in the Lands of the Bible. Berlin/New York: Verlag/Springer, 1990. Technical.
● Monson, James M. and with Steven P. Lancaster. Geobasics in the Land of the Bible. Rockford, Illinois: Biblical Backgrounds, 2008. With study guide: www.bibback.com/downloads.html. New to me, but looks great.
● Tristram, H B. Natural History of the Bible: A Review of the Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology of the Holy Land. Gorgias Press, 2002 and Adamant/Elibron Classics, 2001 [1883 reprint edition]. Part historical geography, concentration on wild life, Tristram has classic descriptions of the Land of Israel.
Cultural Settings (and broader integrative works) of the Bible
● Averbeck, Richard E., Mark W. Chavalas, and David B. Weisberg, eds. Life and Culture in the Ancient Near East. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, 2003. Collection of articles.
● Borowski, Oded. Daily Life in Biblical Times. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003. Basic textbook for describing daily life. Without many pictures.
● Borowski, O. Agriculture in Iron Age Israel. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1987; American Schools of Oriental Research, 2000. Detailed descriptions of agricultural life.
● Deist, Ferdinand E. The Material Culture of the Bible: An Introduction. Edited with a preface by Robert P. Carroll (The Biblical Seminar 70; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000). Only portions are constructive.
● De Vaux, R. De, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. (2 Volumes in 1) Livonia & Grand Rapids: Dove & Eerdmans, 2001. Classic scholarly analysis of Israelite Religion.
● Hillel, Daniel. The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures. New York: Columbia, 2006. Scholarly and natural explanations of the Bible. Academic, not religious orientation.
● Hoerth, A. J., G. L. Mattingly, and E. M. Yamauchi (eds.), Peoples of the Old Testament World. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker, 1994. Very useful for a number of biblical connections. Three main parts with a single chapter for each people: Part 1: Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians); Part 2: Anatolia, Syria-Palestine, and Egypt (Hittites, Canaanites and Amorites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Philistines, Egyptians); Part 3: Transjordan (Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites).
* King, Philip J., and Lawrence E. Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Westminster John Knox, 2001. Beautifully illustrated and well-written. Benchmark for books on daily life in Biblical Israel.
● Matthews, V. and D. Benjamin. Social World of Ancient Israel 1250-587 BCE. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1993.
● Matthews, Victor H. Manners and Customs in the Bible, Third Edition. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2008.
● Pritz, Ray, By the Work of their Hands: Man-Made Objects of the Bible (New York: United Bible Society, 2009). Detailed and extensive collection of man-made object. With pictures. Practical orientation for Bible translators.
Biblical Flora and Fauna
● Baerg, Harry J. Illustrated Guide to Bible Plants and Animals, 3 Vols. (Vol 1: Mammals; Vol. 2: Birds and other Animals; Vol. 3: Plants). Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1989. Great illustrations; biologically oriented.
● Borowski, O. Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel. AltaMira Press, 1999. Academic.
● Goor, Asaph, and Max Nurock. The Fruits of the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel University Press, 1968.
● Feliks, Yehuda. The Animal World of the Bible. Tel Aviv: Sinai, 1962. Very nice, succinct description, 150 pictures.
* Feliks, Yehuda. Nature & Man in the Bible: Chapter in Biblical Ecology. NY: Soncino, 1981 [1992, in Hebrew, Jerusalem: Rubin Mass]. Very useful collection of teachings, each one based upon a biblical passage, often with a picture or illustration. (Similar to Har-El 2003.)
* Feliks, Yehuda (פליקס, יהודה). 1997. .צמחי התנ”ך וחז”ל ירושלים: ראובן מס
* Har-El, Moshe. Landscape, Nature, and Man in the Bible. Jerusalem: Carta, 2003. Very useful collection of teachings, each one based upon a biblical passage, often with a picture. (Similar to Feliks, 1981.)
● Hareuveni, Nogah. Nature in Our Biblical Heritage. Trans. by Helen Frenkley. Israel: Neot Kedumim, 1980. Ibid., Tree and Shrub in Our Biblical Heritage, 1984. Ibid., Desert and Shepherd in Our Biblical Heritage, 1991. Founder of Neot Kedumim: The Biblical Nature Reserve. All three are very good resources or plant, tree and nomadic life and dovetail with the work of Neot Kedumim.
* Hopper, F. Nigel. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1992. Very good because its illustrated, comprehensive, and provides citations.
● Hope, Edward R., All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible. New York: United Bible Society, 2005. Very helpful for specific animals. Pictures.
* Schwartz, Donald Ray. Noah’s Ark: An Annotated Encyclopedia of Every Animal Species in the Hebrew Bible. Northvale, NJ and Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 2000. Especially helpful Talmudic sources (as well as Biblical).
* Zohary, Michael. Plants of the Bible: A Complete Handbook. Cambridge: University Press, 1982. Very useful partly because it synthesizes.
● Fauna and Flora of the Bible, 2nd ed. New York: United Bible Societies, 1980. Old, but helpful. B&W illustrations.
Ancient Near East Literature (Inscriptions)
* Ahituv, Shmuel. Echoes from the Past: Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period. Translated and Academic Editor—Anson F. Rainey. Jerusalem: Carta, 2008. Very helpful collection, made all the better because of Rainey. One volume and comprehensive in relation to Eretz Israel.
● Hallo, William W. and K. Lawson Younger Jr. eds. The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions, Monumental Inscriptions and Archival Documents from the Biblical World, 3 Vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997, 2000, 2002. COS
● Pritchard, James, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: University Press, 1955, 2nd ed. ANET
● Pritchard, James, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Pictures Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton: University Press, 1955, 2nd ed. ANEP
● Pritchard, James, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, Supplement. Princeton: Univ. , 1969. ANET Sup
Archaeology of Israel
● Aharoni, Yohanan. Archaeology of the Land of Israel. Philadelphia: WJKP, 1982.
● Archeology (Israel Pocket Library). Jerusalem: Keter, 1974. Old but helpful basic orientation based upon the Jewish Encyclopedia (1st ed) articles.
● Baez-Camargo, Gonzalo. Archaeological Commentary on the Bible. Garden City, Doubleday, 1984. Popular, not scientific, but covers the whole Bible. (similarly Cornfeld.)
● Ben-Tor, Amnon, The Archaeology of Ancient Israel. New Haven: Yale Uni. Press, 1992.
● Cornfeld, Gaalyah, Archeology of the Bible: Book by Book. London: Black, 1977. Similar to Baez-Camargo.
● Hess, Richard S. Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey. Grand Rapids/Nottingham: Baker Academic/Apollos, 2007. Good overview of archaeology and scholarly positions.
Jesus in His Jewish Context: Language, Land, and Literature Bibliography
* Flusser, David. Jesus. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2nd edition, 2001. Also Flusser, David with R. Steven Notley. The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Classic.
• Lowe, Malcom, ed., The New Testament and Christian-Jewish Dialogue: Studies in the Honor of David Flusser, Immanuel 24/25 (Jerusalem: Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel; etrfi.org, 1990). Great collection of articles. Especially the article by Shmuel Safrai, amongst others.
* Lindsey, Jesus, Rabbi, and Lord. (Milwaukee, WI: Cornerstone [www.hakesher.org], 1990).
• Notley, R. Steven, M. Turnage, and B. Becker, eds. Jesus’ Last Week: Jerusalem Studies on the Synoptic Gospels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series 11. Leiden: Brill, 2006. Technical. See the complete listing of articles under the Jerusalem School (www.js.org) website. Note the especially significant article by Buth and Kvasnica on the Parable of the Vineyard Tenants and Son for both historical and linguistic conclusions.
* Spangler, Ann, and Lois Tverberg. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. Probably the best popular/devotional introduction to “Jewish Roots.”
* Tverberg, Lois. Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. Nice compliment.
* Okkema, Bruce (ed.) Insights into Jesus of Nazareth. (8 Volume DVD, with 14 sessions) Holland, Michigan: En Gedi Resource Center, 2008; www.egrc.net. (With David Bivin, Randall Buth, Dwight Pryor, Brad Young, Ronnie Reich, Hanan Eshel, Gabriel Barkay, Serge Ruzer, David Pileggi, Lenore Mullican, and Halvor Ronning). Groundbreaking research on DVD lectures.
Jewish Roots of the New Testament (General)
• Diprose, Ron. Israel and the Church: The Origin and Effects of Replacement Theology. Paternoster, 2004.
• Flusser, David. Judaism and the Origins of Christianity. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988. Huge tome. Technical. Stimulating.
• Flusser, David. Jewish Sources in Early Christianity. Tel Aviv, Israel: MOD Books, 1993. Small, basic.
* Levine, Amy-Jill, and Marc Z. Brettler, eds. The Jewish Annotated New Testament. New York: Oxford, 2011.
• Lustiger, Jean-Marie. The Promise. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. A rich work that brings together much theology with a devotional spirit.
• Stern, David. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992.
• Tverberg, Lois, and Bruce Okkema. Listening to the Language of the Bible. Holland, Michigan: En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004.
• Wilson, Marvin R., Our Father Abraham: Exploring the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989). Classic Jewish roots book that is awaiting the sequel in 2012 or 2013.
• Young, Brad H. Meet the Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teachings of Jesus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007. Excellent introduction to Jewish literature with an emphasis on the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus – Archaeological/Cultural/Material
* Charlesworth, James H., ed. Jesus and Archaeology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. Very important collection of articles on a wide range of themes and sites. 740pp.
• Connolly, Peter. Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth. Jerusalem/Oxford: Steimatzky/Oxford, 1983. Older but very useful in understanding everyday life. Simliar to Vamosh.
• Vamosh, Miriam Feinberg. Daily Life at the Time of Jesus. (Herzlia: Palphot & Mineapolis: Fortress, 2001). Great for Christian groups, bus drivers can get them in bulk.
• Wilkinson, John. Jerusalem as Jesus Knew It: Archaeology as Evidence. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978. Dated, but useful summary of late Second Temple period archaeology, especially related to Jesus.
Paul
* Nanos, Mark D. The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul’s Letter. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996. Mark Nanos is a reformed Jew who is asking new and insightful questions that are changing the way people are looking at Paul. See the forthcoming: Nanos, Mark and Anders Runesson. Paul and Apostolic Judaism: An Introduction. Forthcoming 2013. Should be very good. Also Nanos’s articles in The Galatians Debate. Peabody, MD: Hendrickson, 2002.
• Young, Brad. Paul the Jewish Theologian: A Pharisee among Christians, Jews, and Gentiles. Hendrickson, 1998. Christian professor who understands Paul more Jewishly than most. Basic but enjoyable.
• Zetterholm, Magnus. Approaches to Paul: A Student’s Guide to Recent Scholarship. Fortress, 2009. Good overview of Paul research.
* Eisenbaum, Pamela. Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. New York: HarperOne, 2009.
• Unnik, W.C. van. Tarsus or Jerusalem: The City of Paul’s Youth. Translated by G. Ogg. London: The Epworth Press, 1962 reprinted Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2006.
• Tomson, Peter. Paul and the Jewish Law: Halakha in the Letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles (Fortress: Minneapolis 1990).
• Stendahl, Kister, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976); and K. Stendahl, Final Account: Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995)
Early Christian Judaism
* Kinzer, Mark S. Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People. Grand Rapids, 2005. Very important and provocative book on Jews and Christians based on Jewish readings of the New Testament.
• Pritz, Ray A. Nazarene Jewish Christianity. (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988). Hebrew University PhD that is still in print.
Hebrew in the First Century
Rabin, Chaim. Hebrew and Aramaic in the First Century. In The Jewish People in the First Century, edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern, pages 1007-1039. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976.
Grintz, Jehoshua M. Hebrew as the Spoken and Written Language in the Last Days of the Second Temple. JBL 79 (1960): 32-47.
Buth, Randall. Language Use in the First Century: Spoken Hebrew in a Trilingual Society in the Time of Jesus. TOCC 5, no. 4 (1992): 298-312.
Fassberg, Steven Which Semitic Language Did Jesus and Other Contemporary Jews Speak? Catholic Biblical Quarterly 74:2 (2012), pages 263-280
Rabin, Chaim. A Short History of the Hebrew Language. Jerusalem: Jewish Agency; reproduced at http://www.adath-shalom.ca/rabin_he.htm, 1973.
Segal, Moses H. Mishnaic Hebrew and Its Relation to Biblical Hebrew and to Aramaic. Jewish Quarterly Review 20 (1908): 647-737. Breakthrough in the field.
Hebrew Learning Aids
• Buth, Randall. Living Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1 (with 3 audio CD); Volume 2 (with 11 CDs); Volume 3: Selections from the Hebrew Bible (Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center; www.biblicallanguagecenter.com, 2005-2011.
• Winitz, Harris. The Learnables. (International Linguistics Corporation) http://www.learnables.com/hebrew.html
• Yanshuf. Easy Hebrew. Bi-Weekly Newspaper and CD: http://www.hebrewtoday.com/
* Avi-Yonah, Michael, ed. A History Of Israel And The Holy Land. New York and Jerusalem: Continuum and Jerusalem Publishing House, 2001.
* Faust, Avraham. On the Uses of ‘Land of Israel’, ‘Palestine’ and other terms in the study of ‘Western Asia’: A Comment on C. Dauphin’s Review.” Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 23 (2005): 177-83.
• Gafni, Isaiah. Land, Center and Diaspora: Jewish Constructs in Late Antiquity. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997.
• Hoffman, Lawrence A., ed. The Land of Israel: Jewish Perspectives. University of Notre Dame, 1986.
• Safrai, S. and M. Stern, eds. The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions, 2 volumes CRINT. Assen, Netherlands and Philadelphia: Van Gorcum and Fortress Press, 1974, 1976. Scholarly, comprehensive, wonderful. Out of print.
• Sharon, Moshe, ed. The Holy Land in History and Thought: Papers Submitted to the International Conference on the Relations between the Holy Land and the World Outside It, Johannesburg, 1986. Leiden: Brill, 1988.
* Shinan, Avigdor, ed. Israel: People, Land, State, a Nation and its Homeland. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2005. Good succinct history in a large/pictorial format.
• Weinfield, Moshe. The Promise of the Land: The Inheritance of the Land of Canaan by the Israelites. Berkley: University of California, 1993. Ebook: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft596nb3tj/
Theological Perspectives on the Land of Israel
• Burrell, D. and Y. Landau, eds. Voices From Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land. Mahweh:Paulist, 1992.
* Lowe, Malcom, ed., People, Land and State of Israel, Immanuel vol. 22/23, (Jerusalem: Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, 1990; www.etrfi.org). Important collection of articles, including Jewish perspectives.
• Merkley, Paul C. Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001).
• Talmon, S. and D. Flusser. The Gospel and the Land: Early Christianity and Jewish Territorial Doctrine. Christian News From Israel 25 (1975): 132-39.
• House, Wayne. Israel the Land and the People: An Evangelical Affirmation of God’s Promises. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1998.
• Ronning, Halvor. Geography of the Promised Land, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Bible, London, 1970.
• Wilken, Robert. The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought. New Haven: Yale, 1992.
Historical Geography and Nature of Eretz Israel
* Avi-Yonah, Michael. The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab Conquest (536 B.C.-A.D. 640). Jerusalem: Carta, 2003 [reprinted from 1977 rev. ed with new preface by Anson F. Rainey]. Great book, survey/history.
* Aharoni, Yohanan with A. Rainey. The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography. Westminster John Knox, 1981 Second revised ed. Technical. Very helpful reference.
● Baly, Denis. The Geography of the Bible, New and Revised Edition. New York: Harper and Row, 1974, rev. ed. A wonderful work with many connection Scripture with the Land. Covers rocks, soils, land, etc.
* Faust, A. On the Use of ‘Land of Israel’, ‘Palestine’, and Other Terms in the Study of ‘Western Asia’, Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society (2005) 23:177-183.
* Feliks, Yehuda. Nature & Man in the Bible: Chapter in Biblical Ecology. NY: Soncino, 1981 [1992, in Hebrew, Jerusalem: Rubin Mass]. Very useful collection of teachings, each one based upon a biblical passage, often with a picture or illustration. (Similar to Har-El 2003.)
* Har-El, Moshe. Landscape, Nature, and Man in the Bible. Jerusalem: Carta, 2003. Very useful collection of teachings, each one based upon a biblical passage, often with a picture. (Similar to Feliks, 1981.)
● Hareuveni, Nogah. Nature in Our Biblical Heritage. Trans. by Helen Frenkley. Israel: Neot Kedumim, 1980. Ibid., Tree and Shrub in Our Biblical Heritage, 1984. Ibid., Desert and Shepherd in Our Biblical Heritage, 1991. Founder of Neot Kedumim: The Biblical Nature Reserve. All three are very good resources or plant, tree and nomadic life and dovetail with the work of Neot Kedumim.
● Monson, James M., Regions on the Run: Introductory Map Studies in the Land of the Bible, 2006, www.bibback.com. Very useful mapping exercises that help internalize the Land of Israel. (Includes Christian connections to the Land.)
● Monson, James M. and with Steven P. Lancaster. Geobasics in the Land of the Bible. Rockford, Illinois: Biblical Backgrounds, 2008. With study guide: www.bibback.com/downloads.html. New to me, but looks great.
* Smith, George Adam, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. New York : Harper & Row, 1966. Old but excellent. Classic renderings of the Land of Israel with beautiful and insightful descriptions. (Similarly Tristam.)
● Tristram, H B. Natural History of the Bible: A Review of the Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology of the Holy Land. Gorgias Press, 2002 and Adamant/Elibron Classics, 2001 [1883 reprint edition]. Part historical geography, concentration on wild life, Tristram has classic descriptions of the Land of Israel.
Judaism: Mishnah and Talmud
• Bialik, Hayim N. and Yehoshua H. Ravnitzky. The Book of Legends: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash. New York: Schocken, 1992.
* Danby, Herbert, The Misnah (London: Oxford, 1933). Better than Neusner’s translation; with more footnotes.
• Heschel, Abraham J. Heavenly Torah: As Refracted through the Generations, ed. G. Tucker. NY: Continuum, 2004.
* Instone-Brewer, David. Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament, Vol 1: Prayer and Agriculture; Vol 2: Feasts and Sabbaths: Passover and Atonement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005, 2010).
* Kugel, James L. The Bible as it Was. Or the larger, Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1998 and 1999 respectively).
• Montefiore, C. G. and H. Loewe. A Rabbinic Anthology. (New York, Schocken, 1974).
* Strack, Hermann L. and Gunter Stemberger. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash: Augsburg/Fortress Pubs, 1992.
• Safrai, Ze’ev. The Economy of Roman Palestine. London: Routledge, 1994.
• Safrai, Shmuel, ed. The Literature of the Sages, First part: Oral Tora, Halakha, Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud, External Tractates. CRINT Section II, 3, Vol. 1. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987.
• Safrai, Shmuel, Z. Safrai, J. Schwartz, and P.J. Tomson, eds. The Literature of the Sages. Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature. CRINT, Section II, 3b. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum and Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2006.