When methodology relating to the history of ancient Israel is discussed, the issue of historiography is frequently injected into the debate. This includes both principles of writing history from a modern perspective and also historiography as it relates to ancient writings. The first part of this most recent volume in the European Seminar in Historical Methodology series contains essays on historiography, including such well-known scholars as Ehud Ben Zvi, Philip Davies, and Axel Knauf. The second part is made up of reviews of histories of Israel or related works by such writers as William Dever, Baruch Halpern, Steven McKenzie, Mario Liverani, Alberto Soggin, Lester Grabbe, Jens Bruun Kofoed, and Iain Provan, V. Phillips Long, and Tremper Longman, III. Reviewers include Rainer Albertz, Niels Peter Lemche, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Philip Davies, Bob Becking, Ehud Ben Zvi, and Lester Grabbe. The original authors had the opportunity to respond to the reviews, while the editor provides an introduction that summarizes the various contributions and a conclusion that provides personal reflections on the debate.

This collection of essays, arising from the meetings of the SBL's Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts Group, examines how prophecy has been constructed in biblical literature such as the Former Prophets, the Latter Prophets, Chronicles, and Daniel, and even in the Qur'an. Recognizing that these texts do not simply describe the prophetic phenomena but rather depict prophets according to various conventional categories or their own individual points of view, the essays analyze the way prophecy or prophets are portrayed in these writings to better understand how they were structured by their respective authors. -- Publisher

This tightly focused collection of essays, from an invited seminar of international specialists, centres on the question of the apocalyptic worldview around the time of the Maccabean revolt. What was the nature of apocalyptic at this time? Did the Maccabees themselves have a distinct apocalyptic worldview? These questions lead to other, more specific queries: who of the various groups held such a view? Certain of the essays analyse the characteristics of the apocalypses and related literature in this period, and whether the apocalyptic worldview itself gave rise to historical events or, at least, influenced them. The collection begins with two introductory essays. Both the main and short papers have individual responses, and two considered responses by well-known experts address the entire collection. The volume finishes with a concluding chapter by the lead editor that gives a perspective on the main themes and conclusions arising from the papers and discussion.