Jonathan S. Greer

This concise and practical introduction helps students read and understand the whole Bible in its ancient context with an eye toward why backgrounds study matters today. With nearly twenty years of combined experience in teaching backgrounds courses, Jonathan and Jennifer Greer ably cover both the Old and New Testaments in a single, accessible, well-organized volume. The authors introduce readers to geography, history, archaeology, religion, social contexts, and literature to help them enter the ancient world before viewing each genre of the Bible--Old and New Testaments--through an ancient lens. Addressing not only the why but also the how-to of engaging the ancient world, this book shows why backgrounds study is important for understanding and interpreting the Bible, provides methods and tools for engaging the text's foreignness, and explores the difference backgrounds study makes for living faithfully in our world today. Ten illustrations are included.

This authoritative volume brings together a team of world-class scholars to cover the full range of Old Testament backgrounds studies in a concise, up-to-date, and comprehensive manner. With expertise in various subdisciplines of Old Testament backgrounds, the authors illuminate the cultural, social, and historical contexts of the world behind the Old Testament. They introduce readers to a wide range of background materials, covering history, geography, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern textual and iconographic studies. Meant to be used alongside traditional literature-based canonical surveys, this one-stop introduction to Old Testament backgrounds fills a gap in typical introduction to the Bible courses. It contains over 100 illustrations, including photographs, line drawings, maps, charts, and tables, which will facilitate its use in the classroom.

In Dinner at Dan, Jonathan S. Greer provides biblical and archaeological evidence for sacred feasting at the Levantine site of Tel Dan from the late 10th century - mid-8th century BCE. Biblical texts are argued to reflect a Yahwistic and traditional religious context for these feasts and a fresh analysis of previously unpublished animal bone, ceramic, and material remains from the temple complex at Tel Dan sheds light on sacrificial prescriptions, cultic realia, and movements within this sacred space. Greer concludes that feasts at Dan were utilized by the kings of Northern Israel initially to unify tribal factions and later to reinforce distinct social structures as a society strove to incorporate its tribal past within a monarchic framework.