An Introduction to the Bible Sacred Texts and Imperial Contexts

includes index and biblioraphy

prologue: orientation to multiple bibles and multiple translations ......1 1 Studying the bible in its Ancient context(s) .....15 2 The emergence of ancient israel and its first oral traditions .....33 3 Echoes of empire in monarchal israel ......53 4 Narrative and prophecy amidest the rise and fall of the northern kingdom .....85 5 Torah and other texts written in the wake of the assyrian empire .....119 6 Bible for exile: Promise and story in the neo-babylonian empire ......147 7 Persian empire and the emergence of a temple-centered jewish community ......181 8 Hellenistic empires and the formation of the hebrew bible .....205 9 Studying the new testament in its ancient context .....221 10 Paul and his letters in the roman colonial context ......241 11 Mark`s story of jesus in the midst of roman retribution ......269 12 The gospel of Matthew: Defining community in the wake of destruction .....289 13 Negotiating the empire in luke-acts .....307 14 The gospel of john and the johannine epistles: Turning inward as a strategy for life in the empire .....327 15 Variations on responses to empire in other new testament writings .....345