The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible

Designed for students undertaking their first systematic study of the Hebrew Bible, this text has two goals: to acquaint readers with the content and major themes of the biblical documents, and to introduce them to issues in biblical scholarship. Pedagogically rich and reader-friendly, this text was designed for conventional introductory courses using historical-critical methodology, and will also be useful in courses studying the Bible as literature, or as a reference text in the study of ancient religion.

Stephen L. Harris is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento, where he served ten years as department chair. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. A member of the American Academy of Religion and the Jesus Seminar, his publications include Understanding the Bible, The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, and The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction. He has also written books on geologic hazards, including Fire and Ice: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, Agents of Chaos: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Other Geologic Hazards, and, for National Geographic Books, Restless Earth. He contributed the chapter on “Archaeology and Volcanism” to the new Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Academic Press, 2000).