Peoples of the Old Testament World

Rating:
Summary: A Baker's Dozen
Review: A baker's dozen is supposed to be twelve and one more for good measure. In this book Hoerth et al present concise studies of a dozen peoples known from the Old Testament and include the Sumerians for what really is good measure due to their heritage to the Ancient Near East. The book is organized by geographic area. In Mesopotamia are the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, and of course the Sumerians. Along the coast of the Mediter-ranean Sea are the Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Philistines, and Egyptians. In the transjordan area are the Ammonites, Moabites, and the Edomites.

The scholarship is generally conservative. Many readers will recognize the names of Edward Yamauchi and James K Hoffmeier. Other readers will notice that David Howard struggles to coincide the archaeological data concerning the origin of the Philistines with the patriarchal history found in Genesis. Readers will also notice that the three articles on the transjordan peoples emphasize their existence at a time when the Exodus could have occured. However this latter is just a matter of emphasis as Gosta Ahlstrom allows for the same in his _History of Ancient Palestine_.

Though the book is now about ten years old, it is still generally solid in scholarship. One exception would be in Keith Schoville's article on the Canaanites and Amorites where he cites Giovanni Pettinato's claim that the name "Canaan" was known from the Eblaite texts of 2250 BCE. Many of Pettinato's claims on the connections between Ebla and the Old Testament no longer stand up.

Overall _Peoples_ is a worthy and interesting read. Many readers will want to pull out a map in order to follow along.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, essential resource for serious Bible students!
Review: Wow! What a resource! Every major people group mentioned in the Old Testament is explored in this single volume!

Categorized by geographic location and extensively indexed by Subject, Scripture reference and Author, this book is very easy to use . . . a handy refence for preparing to teach a Bible study.

And for more serious scholars (or people like me who are just curious to know more) there are references at the bottom of each page telling where the authors found the information they're writing about.

All of the information is up-to-date, giving details of recent archaeological finds which shed light on the Peoples of the Old Testament World. I love it!