Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Matthews enhances the understandability of his work by utilizing visual aids such as shaded boxes, maps, diagrams, graphs, and black-and-white photographs along with the main texts. He also provides a well-balanced summary of earlier and current scholarship on the ancient Israelites, providing the references.
One weakness in the book is the fact that Matthews only focuses on one time period in Israelite history. This book only includes sources and data in the second period of Israel, "the monarchy (1000-587 BCE)." But "early Israel (1250-1000 BCE)" is neglected. When one deals with the world of ancient Israel, one should cover this important foundational era in Israelite history as well. The reviewer looks forward to seeing another guide to this earlier time period with an equally well-balanced perspective to understanding the ancient Israelites. Matthews' work could also be strengthened with an inclusion of a description of the ethnographic aspects of the ancient Israelite society.
In chapter 5, the history and historiography of Western society is applied to reconstruct the society of ancient Israel. When Matthews discusses the benefits of the social sciences to the study of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, he introduces a number of the basic issues to beginners. However, the sociological and anthropological terminologies and models (such as Emic/Etic distinctions, socially shared cognition, luminal, endogamy and exogamy, and structural-functionalist) are not clearly defined for the beginner. Thus, he provides the beginner little guidance (124.125, 130) in navigating these more difficult topics. Finally, a few minor corrections should be made to the reference section, such as the addition of diacritical marks on names (e.g., Ahlstrom; 199). However, this in no way detracts from the great value of this volume.
This book would be a useful supplement for assisting "students, laypeople, and their instructor" (9). It is highly recommended to anyone who seeks a clear, concise, easy to follow guide to the study of ancient Israelites before jumping into the deep ocean that is the study of the ancient Israelite world.
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