Israel Books

All the depth & dramatic richness of King David's life permeate this classic study by FW Krummacher, acknowledged by many to be the greatest evangelical German preacher of the nineteenth century.

This fascinating study captures the mysteries of the biblical King David by placing him in the context of Saul and God's responses in a way that enlightens all three characters via a brilliant elucidation of the repeated literary patterns of 1 and 2 Samuel. Borgman applies theories of orality of Walter Ong and Gerhardsson capturing a dozen literary patterns which expose the inner structure of the original oral biblical story-teller. In comparing and contrasting the patterns he exposes the fatal flaws of Saul in his triad of anointings and the mysteriousness of David who is introduced several times to Saul and the reader in response to the question "Who is David?" With each introduction a different aspect of this truly complex and multi-dimensional king is exposed. Often the modern reader with a superficial knowledge of the stories sees a flat character in David. Borgman demonstrates and pushes the character into three dimensions by exposing his mysteriousness and nuances of character as David struggles with his role as an indulgent father and how this parental flaw unravels in his role as king.

Because Borgman is sensitive to the oral reading of text he sees/hears connections that have been missed by commentators before him. His careful listening to the text allows him to connect the pattern of the sparing of Saul in the cave and at night with the Nabal/Abigail "sparing" revealing how these patterns reveal various facets of the character of David. By comparing the responses to flaws of Saul and David, Borgman puts his finger on exactly how David was shown to be a "person after God's own heart" while Saul is rejected after having been chosen (another of his insights often overlooked or tersely dismissed by many with text-ignoring theological agendas).

This book will open new horizons for anyone attempting to understand David, study 1 and 2 Samuel or understand the divine/human interaction narrated in the David stories. One of the spin-off benefits of Borgman's insights is a solution for understanding the "Psalms of Innocence" which have puzzled those studying Psalms. His work on David provides a rich background for understanding the sitz im leben of the Davidic psalms in general. One should not miss Borgman's own master craftsmanship as he is a brilliant biblical commentator and a careful word-smith full of wit and keenly aware of the value of a well crafted phrase. One final note. Don't skip the end notes as there Borgman carries on a delightful conversation with others who have sought to plumb the depths of this mysterious king of Israel.

In short, this book is a great read!
A must have for anyone seeking to understand King David or read his Psalms.

David is an enigmatic figure. He has stories attributed to him that are reminiscent of legendary figures from Greek mythology, yet has other stories that show him as a very flawed, very human figure. He seems loyal and disloyal, caring and selfish, naïve and manipulative - almost as if there were several personalities present. Yet through all of this complexity, the single figure of David is more prominent than almost any other human figure in the Hebrew Scriptures (for instance, David's name appears about 1080 times, compared with 772 for Moses, the next most-cited person). Moses, too, is a flawed person, but the depth of detail of David makes him in many ways a more interesting figure; his close-ness yet distance to the Divine also makes him more like the others of us ordinary human beings.

Steussy identifies four different narrative strands that give the portrait of David to us: The history from Genesis to Kings (in particular, the narrative in Samuel); the Chronicles, a parallel yet distinct history from the other; the Psalms, many attributed to David, others talking about David as God's chosen or special one, and the general sense of all the Psalms being 'of David'; and finally, snippets of David from prophetic literature. While the image of David continues to be replayed and embellished in current art and literature, Steussy confines this survey to the actual Biblical presentations of David.

Steussy devotes major attention to the first three strands of David; the largest strand being the first, the primary history set forth from Torah to Kings. She likens the first strand to being a mural realistically painted, the second strand from Chronicles as being more akin to a stained-glass window image of David, and the Psalms as being a collage portrait of David. The fourth strand is more difficult to pin down, and only one chapter is devoted to it, because the scattered references do not make up, in terms of volume, a significant addition; however, they do add, rather like spices, a flavouring to the other primary pieces. Through all the portraits, 'David stands perpetually at the point where divine power enters our world'.

Steussy also delineates the different ways of approaching the Biblical text: dogmatic, critical, and artistic. Being a professor in a liberal-academic setting, perhaps it is natural that Steussy would approach the topic primary from the scholarly-critical method. However, she does not discount the other approaches as invalid or without value, and draws in on occasion differing possibilities based on the variety of approaches available.

While this is a scholarly text, it is not part of that body of work that is 'by scholars, for scholars'. Steussy avoids jargon and discipline-specific terminology whenever possible, and when not possible, defines and explains the language she is using. Thus, this is a book accessible to any person interested in topics such as history and Biblical studies regardless of specific educational background.

Steussy does have an amazing care for attention to detail; for example, having chosen to use the text of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible as the primary text for references, she then in turn analyses and criticises the translation and word choice wherever it seems to her problematic. This kind of attention also draws in references from outside sources and cross-references in the Biblical texts to further illuminate points along the way.

Steussy has an extensive bibliography which lists many valuable resources. There are endnotes (I have a preference as a reader for footnotes, but the placement decision is often a publisher one rather than an author one), and blessedly a topical index in addition to an index of Biblical references.

This is a fascinating study of David, which would serve well for individual study, classroom assignments and Bible study groups.

I have lived and traveled extensively in Israel and have found this book to be an enourmous help. It has easy to follow trips, which can be done in a day and allows the reader to see sights not listed in other travel guides. I have recommended it to others and have heard nothing but positive feedback. I advise bringing this book along with a travel guide with places to stay and eat for a complete and easy trip to Israel.

There are a host of volumes available now on recreations and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even more available on the possible (and often bizarre) interpretations of the scrolls, particularly of the non-biblical pieces. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been an object of fascination, debate, and sometimes suspicion since the first ones surfaced a generation ago in the deserts around the Dead Sea in the late 1940s. This particular book on the Dead Sea Scrolls is not just another translation, nor is it another collection of essays, though it has both elements -- it is, in fact, a catalog of a major exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The editor, Ellen Middlebrook Herron, is to be commended for putting together such an interesting volume that both complements the exhibition yet serves as a compelling text in its own right.

The layout and design is a very eye-catching arrangement -- the book is filled will full-colour, glossy photographs from start to finish. This is no mere catalog with 'mug shots' of objects on display. The photography is interesting to the eye; mixed through the book are photographs of the desert areas around the Dead Sea, the Qumran settlement site, the Dead Sea itself (one particular shot of underwater in the Dead Sea, followed by the Dead Sea at dusk, is stunning), and historical photographs of early scroll scholars at work, so the reader will get a sense not only of the history in the scrolls, but the history of the scrolls.

This front section is interspersed with some essays by people whose names would be immediately recognised by anyone who follows the tales of the scrolls -- Emmanuel Tov and James Vanderkam are two names that stand out, but the others (such as Ruth Peled and Ayala Sussman, who worked on another exhibition guide) will also be familiar.

The heart of the book is, of course, the catalogue to the exhibition, arranged in a very practical and informative way. There are two primary sections: From the Qumran Caves, a study of scrolls and scroll fragments; and From the Qumran Ruin, a study of the artifacts from the Qumran settlement site.

The scrolls are all presented with explanation of what is being shown (calendar, phylactery, biblical text, etc.), dating, Hebrew letters printed out with most probable choices filling in the gaps in the scrolls, and an English translation. The page layout is such that the scroll photographs are set against the pure white page, without artificial 'background', which makes their appearance all the most stunning and realistic. The artifacts are sometimes presented against a black page, and sometimes against a white page background (whichever provides the best viewing in contrast, I would imagine). These catalog entries include most likely dates and descriptions. These include everything from pottery and inkwells to dried dates and coins.

Concluding the catalog is a section on resources. A very helpful glossary of terms, bibliographic information presented topically for further study, and acknowledgements (particularly for the photographs, this is nice to have, to know from whom other such wonderful photographs may be found) complete the text. Often I would take points off for lack of an index, but the quality of this text is such I cannot bring myself to do it.

This is an Eerdmans publication produced in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. They should all be very proud of this fine book. Herron says in her introductory essay that the scrolls' true legacy may be that they bring people of different faiths and nationalities together to a common past. This book is certainly one of collaboration between many people; rare is a book produced by 'committee' a good thing -- this is a rare exception.

This is a wonderful book filled with facts that the recreational reader, the traveler and student of the Middle East will enjoy. Kreiger takes the reader on the journeys of several explorers in and around these waters. You celebrate with their accomplishments and are saddened with their inability to achieve all their goals Kreiger takes the reader back to prehistoric periods, over 14000 years ago, when Lake Lisan covered most of the Jordan Valley, including the Dead Sea. You are also left with the feeling of traveling down to the lowest point on dry land in this world of ours with the intense heat engulfing your body.

She speaks of the problems brought on by the social forces on this ecosystem. Will the Dead Sea survive? I highly recommend this book.

George Erich

Readers: This is the third printing of the 1997 edition of the book. Not sure why Amazon has this listed as a 2006 book. I own the 1997 first printing and it is excellent.

This may be a new 2006 second edition, and so perhaps the publisher has just temporarily shown us the cover of the 1997 edition --- as a placeholder for the new (?) edition. I certainly recommend this book to all professional geologists. It is a scholarly treatise and written at the university level; not meant for casual readers.

Dr. Tini Niemi received her PhD degree in geology from Stanford University with a dissertation on the San Andreas Fault at Olema (near Point Reyes). Dr. Niemi is now professor of geology at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She specializes in tectonic geomorphology and seismology.

Robert H. Sydnor
Geologist, Fair Oaks, California
[...]

The present age is the most critical of the twenty centuries of our era. There is a widespread feeling that history is winding up and approaching its conclusion. One of the most extraordinary happenings of the twentieth century is the return of the Jewish people to the land of its origin. That such a people should after many centuries of national homelessness return to the land of their forefathers, which during their absences had become mostly devastated, and rebuild it in the space of a few decades, is a phenomenon otherwise unknown in the annals of history.

During the nineteen centuries of Jewish dispersion, Heaven seemed to remain silent. Does the present reconstitution of Jewish nationhood in the Land of Israel portend the nearness of the day when the long silence of God shall at last be broken? Taking the regathering of the Jewish people in its ancient land as his point of departure, Dr. Kac answers this and other related questions in The Death and Resurrection of Israel and his other book The Rebirth of the State of Israel.
--- from book's back cover

In this very well written article, Stein and Gal-Or point out that when the topic is Israel, "an anti-intellectual approach that seeks to limit debate, free speech, and academic freedom has been increasingly present on Canadian campuses. It has manifested itself in a number of major strategies: preventing speakers from arriving at their destination, preventing speakers from being heard, restricting opposing views, exploiting emotion and using propaganda, and preventing rebuttal."

The authors note that while arguments on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict have often been "skewed," it is the anti-Israeli camp "that has exceeded the bounds of civilized debate" by using the above strategies. They make the point that students and faculty are supposed to listen to all points of view to form their opinions. They shouldn't want or need others to tell them which speakers are acceptable. And one can presume that those who are against freedom of speech have something to hide, and that facts would discredit their cause.

The authors give some examples of intimidation and harassment on campus. And they insist that pro-Israel speech be given the same protection as its anti-Israel equivalent. That protection ought to extend to grades on papers: the article shows that many students were downgraded on papers that showed Israel in a good light.

This eight-page article makes quite a few good recommendations, but I think the best is the following:

"Although opinions can be held freely, patently false statements of 'fact' should bear some censure in the form of cumulative academic consequences similar to acts of plagiarism or 'cooking of results' in academic experiments."

I would like to applaud Inroads for publishing this article. I highly recommend it.

This is an excellent and well-researched survey of US-Israeli relations between 1953 and 1962. Ben-Zvi recounts how at first the US Government sought to contain the supposed Soviet threat to the Middle East by uniting the nations of the region, and saw Israel as a hindrance to this.

But the anti-colonial revolutions of 1957-58 destroyed this policy. The US Government moved to support `moderate' Arab regimes against Arab nationalism. In April 1957, President Eisenhower sent the US 6th Fleet to help King Hussein of Jordan, and $30 million aid, after Hussein had dismissed the elected Government and declared martial law. Eisenhower then got Turkey, Iraq and Jordan to mobilise their armed forces against Syria, after nationalist forces gained power there.

In July 1958, the Iraqi people overthrew their pro-British Government. The US Government sent 14,000 troops to Lebanon to threaten Iraq, also to prevent revolution in Lebanon. The British Government sent 2,200 paratroops to Jordan to help Hussein: Israel allowed them to fly their troops in through Israeli airspace. This convinced the US Government that it should support Israel.

In August 1962, President Kennedy decided to sell Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, hoping it would then let the US inspect Israel's nuclear weapons facilities at Dimona and would allow 100,000-150,000 Palestinians to return home. Israel rejected both proposals, yet still got the Hawks.

This set a pattern for the next 35 years: Israel received huge military and economic support, but made no policy concessions. The US Government developed Israel as its military proxy in the Middle East, however unpopular this made Israel, and the USA. The costs to the region have been enormous: regular wars, the continual repression of the Palestinians, lack of political and economic progress. But this policy finally failed in the Gulf War, when the USA had to keep Israel out of the coalition against Iraq, for fear of wrecking it.