An Introduction to the Bible

David M. Carr is Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His previous books include Reading the Fractures of Genesis: Historical and Literary Approaches (1996); The Erotic Word: Sexuality, Spirituality and the Bible (2003); and Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature (2005). Colleen M. Conway is Professor of Religious Studies at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. Her books include Men and Women in the Fourth Gospel: Gender and Johannine Characterization (1999) and Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco Roman Masculinity (2008).

List of Figures. List of Maps. List of Boxes. Preface. Acknowledgments. List of Abbreviations. Major Periods and Corresponding Texts Covered in this Book. Timeline. Prologue: Orientation to Multiple Bibles and Multiple Translations. 1. Studying the Bible in Its Ancient Context(s). 2. The Emergence of Ancient Israel and Its First Oral Traditions. 3. Echoes of Empire in Monarchal Israel. 4. Narrative and Prophecy amidst the Rise and Fall of the Northern Kingdom. 5. Torah and Other Texts Written in the Wake of the Assyrian Empire. 6. Bible for Exiles: Promise and Story in the Neo-Babylonian Empire. 7. The Persian Empire and the Emergence of a Temple-Centered Jewish Community. 8. Hellenistic Empires and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible 9. Studying the New Testament in Its Ancient Context. 10. Paul and his Letters in the Roman Colonial Context. 11. Mark's Story of Jesus in the Midst of Roman Retribution. 12. The Gospel of Matthew: Defining Community in the Wake of Destruction. 13. Negotiating the Empire in Luke-Acts. 14. The Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles: Turning Inward as a Strategy for Life in the Empire. 15. Variations on Responses to Empire in other New Testament Writings. Epilogue: The Final Formation of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Glossary. Index.