Israel & the Nations: The History of Israel from the Exodus to the Fall of the Second Temple

Thank you so much.

Because the Bible has a spiritual point and tells a spiritual story, the context with which that story develops can seem obscure at times. Professor Bruce's effort, in Israel and the Nations, attempts to place most of the Old and New Testament within its regional political and cultural context in a very precise and clear prose style.Bruce writes with the presupposition of the historicity of the miracles and supernatural interaction with the Hebrew people being real, but that is not his primary focus. His focus is to place the spiritual story within the larger story of the ancient near east. He does regard the the Bible to be a history source of the highest rank. The author makes no theological judgments of the events, but merely places them in time.His story is remarkable when taken out of its familiarity: a large tribe of nomads arising from Egypt over 3500 years ago onto a cross-roads section of the Mediterranean coast, after various civil wars, economic collapses, and defeats by a string of neighboring powers, should be nothing more than a footnote to history, as much as the Hittite Empire or the Amorite. Instead, they changed the world, largely due to their struggle to keep and at times abandon their unique religious faith.The first half of the book covers the period from the Egyptian exodus to the end of the prophets. This retelling of the history has a wonderful way of humanizing the events told in the Old Testament. The envies and strife spring from real tribal warfare, real economic crisises, and real political intrigue. The rise and fall of King Solomon and his descendants is an excellent example. Taking advantage to exploit natural resources, like copper and horses for chariots, his tribal empire grew; yet fell when tax burdens, forced labor, double-crossings of allies and enemies happened and raw nepotism and favoritism ensured the worst of combinations: weak and oppressive government, something not easily picked up by reading the scriptural narrative, but the elements are all there.The value of Psalm 137, which tells of the joy of Judah's traditional enemy, Edom, rejoicing over their fall to the Babylonians in 587 BC has a greater ring to it when you understand the doom of the fall of Jerusalem and what that meant for relations to neighbors and what that said about the confidence of the Jewish people in years to come.The last half of the book deals with what is known as the inter-testament period to the final fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 to the Romans and the Jewish diaspora that forever changed Judaism and his daughter faith Christianity. The exploits of Alexander the Great, his successor Greek rulers, the rise of Rome, and the Herodian dynasty are all told here from the perspective of the Jewish people and state. What readily becomes apparent is that the Jews were becoming more of a spiritual people and less of a nationalistic people, as the Greek influence after Alexander, spread the Jewish influence around the Mediterranean basin. In fact the first translation of the Bible out of its native tongue, the Septuagint, took place around 50 BC in the Jewish learning centers of Alexandria, Egypt.This is an excellent book, not only because the story it tells is excellent, but because Dr. Bruce writes of it extremely well and concisely in under 250 pages. It would be a worthwhile read for students of the Bible.

Great book if you are looking to find out about Biblical Israel from a historical point of view. Highly recommend.

I was hoping for much more insight (as I've loved some of his other books), but I'm halfway through and it's basically a rather tiresome review of the historical information in the Old Testament with a few irritating, inaccurate and pedestrian queries thrown in (ie, his implication that the Israelites were inconsistent in their rejection the golden calf while accepting cherubim on the ark - uh...no). After falling asleep a billion times trying to read this, I have put it down in search of a more penetrating and better written book on the history of Israel. I give it 3 stars, as there may be some who just want something just a bit more involved than spark notes to familiarize themselves with this history.

Must read book! Great book on understanding the background history of the nation of Isreal and surrounding nations. Well written and easy to read for the layman.

The attention to detail satisfies the student in me, and the story-telling satisfies the historian/adventurer in me, and then the teaching of great lessons from God satisfies the disciple in me. It is an excellent book

Dr. Bruce was a New Testament scholar but saw the need for students of the Bible to have a clear understanding of the history of Israel to the time of Christ. Well written, although you can see a difference from his writings on Paul. Pauline literature was his first love.

I really liked this book. If you want to know more about the political history of the holy land look no further.

Anything from F F Bruce is to be welcomed. This book gives an excellent overview of the history of Israel in the Old & New Testaments. As wel an excellent overview of the Inter-testament all period.