No other book has influenced the religion and culture of the Western world like the Bible and its largest component, the Old Testament, which is shared by Jews and Christians alike. This groundbreaking work by noted biblical scholar Christoph Levin is the most current and concise introduction to the Old Testament available today.

The book fully explains the development of the Old Testament canon, as well as the editorial history underlying its various parts, including the five books of Moses, the prophetic books, and the Psalms. Examining the Old Testament in its historical context,...

In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts "the Exile" is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and economic disasters associated with them in terms that YHWH punished Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But YHWH is not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply...