The Bible and the ancient Near East /

This durable work by Gordon (approaching 90), assisted by Cornell colleague Rendsburg (born a year after the first edition), receives once again a fresh title but retains essentially what appeared in successive editions--Introduction to Old Testament Times (1953), The World of the Old Testament (1958), and The Ancient Near East (1965). Verbatim use of paragraphs, with preservation of chapter format titles in all but three of 19 instances, means that the reader must watch for what has not changed while looking at subtle nuances of revision--minor reading improvements, switch from "Old Testament" to "(Hebrew) Bible", use of BCE rather than BC for dates plus other chronological adjustments, some sensitivity to "political correctness" of gender pronouns. Footnotes occasionally document the passage of time or reconsideration of issues, supplemented by recognition of colleagues' publications. The biggest changes occur in middle chapters discussing the era "from Joseph to Joshua" and the tribal reorganizations. Frequently, as now required, biblical allusions are replaced by full narration. One major spelling error slipped in the name of Akhenaton's capital is Akhetaton! For the newcomer this book can be an exciting introduction, which rightly conjoins the Bible and the ancient Near East. General; lower-division undergraduate through professional. C. C. Smith; emeritus, University of Wisconsin--River Falls

This work is a fourth, and most welcome, updated edition of Gordon's Introduction to Old Testament Times (1953). (Gordon was professor of ancient Near Eastern Studies at Brandeis and New York University; coauthor Rendsburg is professor of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell.) Like all the earlier editions, this latest aims to help readers situate the Bible in its ancient historical context. It includes much new information gleaned especially from the Ebla archives, discovered in the 1970s. While it is erudite and dense with information, the work is nevertheless readable and easily understood and will appeal to students and interested lay readers. Scholars might wish for fuller footnotes, but this is a small criticism in a text intended for a wide public. Recommended for both academic and public libraries.‘James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.