June 2006 HEBREW BIBLE QUALIFYING EXAMINATIONS READING LISTS The following lists represent the minimal expectations

for preparation for the Ph.D. Qualifying Examinations in the area of Hebrew Bible. In the Examination Prospectus submitted by each student (see the area guidelines), addenda should be added for each list as appropriate. There are three separate exams (not counting the Minor Area exam and the Orals): History of Ancient Israel; Methods and History of Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible since ca. 1750 C.E.; and one exam selected by the student from the following three areas: Religion in Ancient Israel; Literature of the Ancient Near East; or Social World of the Ancient Near East. In addition to the lists below, each student will include in the Examination Prospectus a reading list for her or his major area; the exams on History of Ancient Israel and on Methods and History of Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible since ca. 1750 C.E. will include questions focusing on the major area. The following lists are subject to periodic revision as necessary. History of Ancient Israel Ahlstrm, Gsta. The History of Ancient Palestine. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993. Bach, Alice, ed. Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1999. Berquist, Jon L. Judaism in P ersias Shadow : A Social and H istorical A pproach . Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. Bird, Phyllis A. Missing Persons and Mistaken Identities: Women and Gender in Ancient Israel. Overtures to Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997. Brenner, Athalya. The Israelite Woman. Sheffield: Academic Press, 1994. Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Transl. Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002. Better yet, the French version: Histoire de lem pire perse de Cyrus Alexandre (Paris: Fayrad, 1996). [Read selections especially pertinent to Yehud.] Collins, John J. The Bible after Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. Coote, Robert B., and Keith W. Whitelam. The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective. Sheffield: Almond, 1987. Davies, Philip R. In Search of A ncient Israel. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993.

Edelman, Diana. The Origins of the Second Temple: Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem. London: Equinox, 2005. Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. T he B ible U nearthed: A rcha eologys N ew V ision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Free Press, 2001. Alternatively, read sev eral o f F inkelsteins articles about the Iron I and Iron II periods. Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. David and Solomon: In Search of the B ibles Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. New York: Free Press, 2006 Garbini, Giovanni. History and Ideology in Ancient Israel. New York: Crossroad, 1988. Gottwald, Norman K. The Politics of Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000. Gottwald, Norman K. The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 B.C.E. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979. [Read selected sections.] Grabbe, Lester L. C an a H istory of Israel B e W ritten? Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. King, Philip J., and Lawrence E. Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox, 2002. Kofoed, Jens. Text and History: Historiography and the Study of the Biblical Text. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005. Lemche, Niels Peter. The Israelites in History and Tradition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998. Lemche, Niels Peter. Ancient Israel: A New History of Israelite Society. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995. Lipschits, Oded, and Joseph Blenkinsopp, eds. Judah and Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2003. [Read selected essays.] Lipschits, Oded, and Manfred Oeming, eds. Judah and Judeans in the Persian Period. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006. [Read selected essays.] Liverani, Mario. Isra els H istory and the H istory of Israel. Transl. Chiara Peri and Philip R. Davies. London & Oakville: Equinox, 2005. Liverani, Mario, Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography. Ed. Zainab Bahrani & Marc van de Mieroop. Ithaca: Cornell University, 2004.

3 Long, V. Philips, Iain Provan, Tremper Longman, A Biblical History of Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003. [At least the first three chapters.] McNutt, Paula. Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999. Meyers, Carol. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. New York: Oxford University, 1988. Noth, Martin. The Deuteronomistic History. 2nd ed. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991. Rogerson, John W. Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999. [Nice pix and tables.] Routledge, Bruce. Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2004. S im kins, R onald A ., and S tephen L . C ook, eds. T he S ocial W orld of the H ebrew B ible: Twenty-Five Y ears of th e S ocial S ciences in the A cadem y. Semeia 87 (1999). Van Seters, John. In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History. New Haven: Yale University, 1983. Wellhausen, Julius. Prolegomena to the History of Israel. Preface by W. Robertson Smith. Foreword by Douglas A. Knight. Reprint. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994. Methods and History of Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible since ca. 1750 C.E. Aichele, George, et al. The Postmodern Bible. New Haven, Yale University, 1995. [Read selected sections.] Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 1985. Barton, John. Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study. Rev. edition. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1996. Brown, Michael Joseph. Blackening of the Bible: The Aims of American Biblical Scholarship. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2004. Carter, Charles E., and Carol L. Meyers, ed. Community, Identity, and Ideology: Social Science Approaches to the Hebrew Bible. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996. [Read introduction by Charles Carter, pp. 3-36, and selected chapters.] Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979. [Read especially Part 1.]

4 Davies, Eryl W. The Dissenting Reader: Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible. Burlington: Ashgate, 2003 Davies, Philip R. Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998. Haynes, Stephen R., and Steven L. McKenzie, eds. To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Application. Rev. ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999. Knight, Douglas A., and Gene M. Tucker, eds. The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters. Philadelphia: Fortress; Chico: Scholars Press, 1985. Mays, James L., David L. Peterson, and Kent Harold Richards, eds. Old Testament Interpretation: Past, Present, and Future: Essays in Honor of Gene M. Tucker. Nashville: Abingdon, 1995. P ippin, T ina. Id eolog y, Id eological C riticism , and the B ible. Currents in Biblical Research: Biblical Studies 4 (1996): 51-78. Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress; Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001. Yee, Gale A., ed. Judges and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. Religion in Ancient Israel Ackerman, Susan. Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth Century Judah. Atlanta: Scholars Press 1992. Albertz, Rainer. A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period. 2 vols. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994. [Read selected sections.] Barr, James. The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1999. Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Sage, Priest Prophet: Religious and Intellectual Leadership in Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995. Day, John. Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000. Walls, Neil H., ed. Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005.

5 Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of the Goddess: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York: Free Press, 1992. Gnuse, Robert. No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. Johnston, Sarah Iles, ed. Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide. Cambridge: Belknap, 2004. Kaufmann, Yehezkel. The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1960. Knight, Douglas A., ed. Tradition and Theology in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977. Levenson, Jon D. The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993. Muffs, Yochanan. The Personhood of God: Biblical Theology, Human Faith, and the Divine Image. Foreword by David Hartman. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 2005 Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. In Search of God: The Meaning and the Message of the Everlasting Names. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. Miller, Patrick D. The Religion of Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000. Olyan, Saul. Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. Smith, Daniel L. The Religion of the Landless: A Social Context of the Babylonian Exile. Bloomington: Meyer-Stone Books, 1989. Smith, Mark S. The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004. Literature of the Ancient Near East Beckman, Gary M. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. 2nd ed. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999. [Read the texts to get a feel for historiography.] Black, Jeremy. Reading Sumerian Poetry. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1998. [Some chapters easier than others; but a useful introduction into an unusual literature.] Bottro, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992. [Some chapters less brilliant than others; very personal, but also sane.] Clifford, Richard J. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association, 1994. [Minimalist thinking about maximalist issues.]

Foley, John Miles, ed. A Companion to Ancient Epic. Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 3rd ed. Bethesda: CDL, 2005. [Good selection, minus Gilgamesh.] OR: Foster, Benjamin R. From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda: CDL, 1995. [Probably a saner sampling. Also minus Gilgamesh.] Foster, B., et al. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001 [Includes essays taken from elsewhere.] OR: George, A. R. The Gilgamesh Epic. Barnes and Noble. 1999. [The edition of choice on one of the great epics; many freebies thrown in.] Frankfort, H., et al. Before Philosophy. Baltimore: Penguin, 1963. [Read it for its lyrical view of the past.] Hallo, William W., ed. The Context of Scripture. 2 vols. New York: E. J. Brill, 1997. [Introductions worth reading; but also good stuff to sample.] Hoffner, Harry A., Jr. Hittite Myths. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998. [Many of them fragmentary and difficult to access without background. But you need to read them.] Irvin, Dorothy. Mytharion: The Comparison of Tales from the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Becker, 1978. [Old fashioned, and probably not sound analytically; but among the first of its kind.] Lichtheim, Miriam. Literature of Ancient Egypt. 3 vols. University of California, 1973-1980. [Basic compendium; minimal comments, but a good introduction to what Egyptians wrote. Concentrate on the narratives and the wisdom literature.] Oppenheim, A. L. Ancient Mesopotamia. Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1977. [Great read, incredible scholarship; but must not take what it says at face value.] Parker, Simon, ed. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997. [Texts that must be read; try to locate decent commentary to them.] Reinink, G. J., and H. L. J. Vanstiphout. Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East: Forms and Types of Literary Debates in Semitic and Related Literatures. Leuven: Peeters, 1991. [Good essays on an unusual literature. Optional.] Saggs, H. W. F. The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel. London: University of London, 1978. [Very interesting perspective.]

7 Saggs, H. W. F. Civilization before Greece and Rome. New Haven: Yale University, 1989. [Not a bad intro. Does a credible job on a difficult subject.] Sasson, Jack M., ed. Studies in the Literature of the Ancient Near East. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1984. [Get someone to gift it to you and then get used to sampling its pages, as back/foreground to what you are reading. Easy read, not bad biblio.] Sparks, Kenton L. Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005. [A very useful tool.] Vanstiphout, Herman L. J. Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003. Vogelzang, Marianna E., and H. L. J. Vanstiphout, eds. Mesopotamian Epic Literature: Oral or Aural? Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1992. [Interesting collection of essays.] Social World of the Ancient Near East Baines, John, and Jaromir Malek. Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. [Sample some of the chapters.] Chapman, Cynthia R. The Gendered Language of Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2004. Chavalas, Mark W., ed. EMAR: The History, Religion, and Culture of a Syrian Town in the Late Bronze Age. Bethesda: CDL, 1996. [Good collection about a recently found culture, odd in many ways.] Dick, Michael B., ed. Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1999. F alk, Z eev W . Hebrew Law in Biblical Times: An Introduction. 2nd ed., with CD-ROM of bibliography. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2001. Gates, Charles. Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome. London: Routledge, 2003. Gurney, O. R. The Hittites. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969. [A good read, albeit a bit dated.] Harris, Rivkah. Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature. Norman: Oklahoma University, 2000. [Nice articles, with interesting ideas.] Hornung, Erik. Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought. New York: Timken, 1992. [Excellent series of articles; makes you think as you learn.] OR:

8 Hornung, Erik. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1982. [Fine, as is anything Hornung does.] Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. [Very fine reconstruction by a first-rate cultural anthropologist.] Kramer, S. N. History Begins at Sumer. Garden City: Doubleday, 1957. [Fun and informative; take it with lots of salt.] Leick, Gwendolyn. Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. London: Routledge, 1994. [Every list should have one of those.] Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford University, 1986. [The creation of anti-patriarchy.] Macqueen, James G. The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor. Rev. ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986. [More up to date, but less fluent.] Marsman, Henie. Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their Social and Religious Position in the Context of the Ancient Near East. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Mieroop, Marc van der. Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History. London: Routledge, 1999. [Good thoughts on weighty matters, but done lightly and informatively.] Parkinson, Richard. Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection. London: Continuum, 2002. Postgate, J. N. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. New York: Routledge, 1992. [Excellent; a bit detailed but also authoritative.] Redford, Donald B., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University, 2001. [Dont read it in one sitting. Here only to be noticed.] Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 1990. [Good overviews, lots of pix.] Robins, Gay. Women in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1993. [Very nice introduction to the issues and the evidence. Too bad nothing like it for Mesopotamia.] Roth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997. [Basic translation of legal collections.] Sasson, Jack M., ed. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. 4 vols. New York: Scribner, 1995. [Get someone to gift it to you and then get used to sample its pages, as back/foreground to what you are reading. Easy read, not bad biblio.]

9 Toorn, Karel van der. Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life. Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1995. [Heavy stuff, but full of good information. Will help a lot in your assessment of the ANE.] Toorn, Karel van der. From Her Cradle to Her Grave: The Role of Religion in the Life of the Israelite and the Babylonian Woman. Sheffield: JSOT, 1994. [A bit pat, but useful survey.] Wilhelm, Gernot. The Hurrians. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1989. [Good survey on a seminal folk.] Wright, Ernest G., ed. The Bible and the Ancient Near East. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1965. [State-of-the-art essays at the eve of the anti-Albrightian revolt.] Miscellaneous At least one scholarly introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Crenshaw, James. Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction. Rev. ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998. Kawashima, Robert S. Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode. Bloomington: Indiana University, 2004. [Interesting read on development of Hebrew literature.] Killebrew, Ann E. Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 B.C.E. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005. McCarter, P. Kyle Jr. Ancient Inscriptions: Voices from the Biblical World. Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeological Society, 1996. Meyers, Eric M., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East. New York: Oxford University, 1997. [Read selected articles.] Niditch, Susan. Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996. Nissinen, Martti, ed. Prophecy in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context: Mesopotamian, Biblical, and Arabian Perspectives. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000. Schniedewind, William M. How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University, 2004 Weems, Renita J. Battered Love: Marriage, Sex, and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995.