Agenda in Biblical History: A Reading Guide for Genesis through Nehemiah

This is not merely a recounting of the events that we identify as history of the Israelites. It should more accurately be considered an identification of the historical context of the of these three major sections of history in the Bible: the Pentateuch as the introduction for both histories that follow; the Deuteronomistic History covering Joshua through II Kings; and the Chronicler's history covering I Chronicles through Nehemiah. The point is to recognize that while these histories share time periods and events, they also contain noticeable differences in detail that are determined by the immediate pressures and needs of the Israelite community at their specific times of authorship. Each history had a distinct focus aligned with different social/political/religious pressures that served to offer hope, challenge, or clarification for the original audience. The challenge, then, is to discern the historical setting of the author of the history. With this in mind, the goal is to determine how the larger historical narrative was uniquely impacted by the author's exigencies of the moment, which would have been years or even decades after the events themselves. This is a subtlety that is frequently overlooked, but germane to the meaning that is intended for the contemporary reader. A final important angle of this work is to regard it as a reading guide to history in the OT. If full value is to be gained, the reader must be careful to read the passages that are referenced in the text in brackets, e.g. [READ ____ ]. It is important to take advantage of a good translation of the Bible, preferably ESV, RSV, or NASB. Without the advantage of reading the required passages, use of this reading guide would be somewhat hollow.