Israel and the Nations: The History of Israel from the Exodus to the Fall of the Second Temple

The story of Israel is one of the outstanding tales of human history. Israel, occupying a narrow strip of land between sea and desert, was positioned on an international highway of commerce and warfare. This was a people whose future would be intertwined with the stories of nations great and small.

F. F. Bruce shapes the daunting complexities of this history, nearly fourteen hundred years from the exodus to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, into straight prose that sparkles withclarity. More than half of the book is devoted to the postexilic history of Israel, the "intertestamental" period and the first-century history that forms the backdrop of the New Testament.

First published in 1963, Israel and the Nations has achieved wide recognition as an excellent introduction to the history of Israel. This new edition, carefully revised by David F. Payne, includes some new material and a revised bibliography.

F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) was known worldwide as the "dean of evangelical scholarship"―a reputation earned by a lifetime of scholarship, teaching, and writing. Trained in classics at the University of Aberdeen and Cambridge University, he taught atthe Universities of Edinburgh, Leeds, and Sheffield before serving for nearly twenty years as the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England. During his distinguished career, he wrote many outstanding commentaries and books, including Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free; Israel and the Nations; New Testament History; The Books and the Parchments: How We Got Our English Bible; Jesus and Christian OriginsOutside the New Testament; and The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? He also served as general editor of The New International Commentary on the New Testament.