Preface to the First Edition
This book introduces students to the books of the Hebrew Bible as shaped in the crucible of the history of Israel and Judah, as well as in the varied interpretations of later Jewish and Christian communities. A prominent theme throughout is the way the books of the Bible reflect quite different sorts of interaction with past and present empires that dominated the ancient Near East. At first both students and professors may find this approach jarring, since I do not begin with Genesis and do not proceed through biblical books in order. The group of texts introduced early on in this textbook is quite different from the Bible they now know. Moreover, this textbook incorporates advances in Pentateuchal criticism over the past decades that are unfamiliar to both students and many professors. Yet I can say on the basis of my and others’ experience teaching this approach that the picture of the Bible’s development comes into focus as the narrative of its formation unfolds. At the outset, I highly encourage readers to consult the charts at the beginning of this introduction (pp. xx–xxiii) that provide an overview of major periods in Israelite history and texts connected to those periods. By the end of the process, students should find meaning in aspects of the Bible that they once overlooked, even as they also understand that much of the power of the Bible has been its capability to transcend the original contexts in which it was written. Moreover, through discussion of the history of Jewish and Christian interpretation of “Focus texts” at the end of each chapter, students will gain a taste of how faith communities have used the Bible in creative, inspired, and sometimes death‐dealing ways to guide and make sense of their lives.
I have been helped by many people in writing this textbook, first and foremost my wife, Colleen Conway. Versions of these chapters were originally written for a combined introduction to the Old and New Testaments that is co‐authored with her, Introduction to the Bible: Sacred Texts and Imperial Contexts (also published by Wiley‐Blackwell), and so she has read multiple versions of them, taught them in her courses, and offered many suggestions for improvement. Several colleagues – Benjamin Sommer, Kent Reynolds, Mark Smith, and Marvin Sweeney – went way beyond the call of duty to read and suggest revisions to excerpts from the manuscript relating to areas of their expertise. I cannot say that I incorporated all of their suggestions, but I can affirm that this book is much stronger thanks to their gracious help. In addition, my students over the past two years have read earlier drafts of this textbook and suggested corrections. Some students and teaching assistants who have offered a particularly large volume of helpful corrections are Mary Ellen Kris, Candice Olson, Lizzie Berne‐DeGear, Laurel Koepf, Meagan Manas, and Todd Kennedy. My thanks to all for their generous help in this project.
The date framework given in this textbook follows that of Anson Rainey and Steven Notley’s The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Jerusalem: Carta, 2005). In many cases specific dates are uncertain, but Rainey and Notley provide a recent, solid framework to start from on an introductory level. Unless otherwise indicated, the Hebrew and Aramaic translations of biblical and additional texts here are my own.
As with any such textbook, there is plenty of room for improvement. In particular, I am acutely conscious of the multiple ways in which virtually everything that is written here could be footnoted, qualified, and balanced with other perspectives. At particular points, such as my treatment of Pentateuchal source criticism, I explicitly summarize alternative perspectives that students may encounter when reading other resources. But inclusion of all alternative perspectives would have turned this into quite a different book, and one – I suggest – that would be much less suited for introducing students to academic study of the Bible. This introduction provides one general outline of the Hebrew Bible, which students can then supplement, correct, and balance in their future studies. All that said, I certainly invite all possible suggestions for correction and improvement so that any future edition of this textbook will be better.
David Carr
New York
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
I am happy to have this opportunity to update and revise this Introduction after using and receiving feedback on the first edition over the past decade. This new edition includes corrections and a number of updates to reflect developments in recent scholarship. These revisions are too numerous to mention, but are illustrated by the inclusion of several new “More on Methods” boxes that discuss African American Biblical Interpretation, Afrocentric and Womanist Interpretation of the Bible, Feminist Criticism and History of Interpretation/Biblical Reception, Trauma Studies and the Bible, and Ecological Biblical Criticism. This list reflects my ever‐increasing consciousness of the importance for white male scholars like myself to recognize the impact of my social location on my writing and how I and my students must learn from the work and insights of colleagues of color. Readers are particularly encouraged to read those scholars’ work directly, and I have provided some initial suggestions of resources to do so.
One of the primary aims of the first edition of the Introduction was to provide a relatively concise textbook so that students would have more time to read biblical texts as well. Though this revision includes substantial new material, I have worked to keep the overall book compact. In addition, users should note some new exercises and chapter review questions that focus on analysis of the Bible itself, including a series of questions oriented to the discussion of “Focus texts” featured in most chapters. Overall, I have endeavored to cite biblical passages by the numbers that appear in widely used English translations (e.g. NRSV, NIV; though note that some important English translations, e.g. the New Jerusalem or New Jewish Publication Society versions, follow the Hebrew versification, which diverges slightly for some biblical passages). Also, users of this book are encouraged to consult my own website, www.davidmcarr.com, for links to some non‐biblical texts discussed in this book, explanatory videos, and other materials related to this textbook.
Overall, I hope to have provided a “Contemporary” Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and highlighted this in the revised title of the book. Moreover, the main title was revised to focus on “Hebrew Bible” rather than just “Old Testament” in order to reflect the way that this book emphasizes academic study of the Bible and not just one (Christian) confessional approach to its subject matter. It should be emphasized, however, that this second edition preserves a focus on the impact of successive empires on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Tanakh, even though it no longer includes the previous subtitle “sacred texts and imperial contexts.”
Finally, I have been profoundly helped in this revision by the feedback provided by colleagues and numerous classes of students at my institution, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, especially the Fall 2019 section of my Introduction to the Old Testament. I want to offer specific thanks to several colleagues for sharing bibliography and/or reading drafts of sections and suggesting revisions, including Charles Carter, Thomas Dozeman, Esther Hamori, Mahri Leonard‐Fleckman, Robert Rezetko, Jerusha Rhodes, William Schniedewind, and my wife (and fellow biblical scholar) Colleen Conway. I dedicate this revision to my beloved parents, Adrienne and John Carr, both of them teachers and lifelong learners, even as I now mourn the loss of my father two years ago.
David Carr
New York
Acknowledgments
