prehistoric_sea, what do you think of Herschel Shanks Ancient Israel? I picked it as a textbook right before it got revised, back when I taught an intro course in 1996. I think it's probably a little too apologetic (okay a lot, especially after the revision with the way they treat the Exodus) but it does outline the basic issues. I'm not a specialist in the field (ha ha yeah) so I might be less sensitive, especially to claims that archeological finds "prove" the historicity of various things in the Hebrew bible.
lunabee34, what's the period you want to cover? What are the main ideas you want to be sure to hit? Some kind of discussion of development of Judaism from ancient Israelite religion (with both monotheism and text becoming central ideas)?
You could have a lot of fun with this, you know. It seems grim in the face of the overt anti-Semitism of your original textbook, but it's not.
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Date: 2009-03-24 07:41 pm (UTC)You could have a lot of fun with this, you know. It seems grim in the face of the overt anti-Semitism of your original textbook, but it's not.