A History of Israel, Third Edition, John Bright, c. 1959, 1972, 1981 -- February 15, 2026

A History of Israel, Third Edition, John Bright, c. 1959, 1972, 1981.

Maybe just the best book I've found on the history of Old Testament Israel.

Half-Price Books: $8.49. Hardcover.

Contents: seven pages. 

Index: eleven pages.

Plates (maps):

Scripture references: 

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Important Dates

2000 BC: pivot from Stone Age to Bronze Age
1200 B: Trojan War; end of Bronze Age --> Iron Age 

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The Table of Contents

Prologue: the ancient Orient before circa 2000 BC

• 2000 BC: pivotal transition from stone age to bronze age
• before history: earliest stone age settlements
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt and Palestine in the 4th millenium, 3000 BC - 4000BC
• 3rd millenium
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt and western Asia
• the ancient Orient on the eve of the Patriarchal Age 
• 1200 BC: Trojan War -- well into the future 
• 1200 BC: pivot transition from bronze age to stone age; relative decline in tin availability?

Part One: The Age of the Patriarchs

• the world of Israel's origins
• the ancient Orient: 2000- 1750 BC
• the ancient Orient: 1750 - 1550 BC
• The Patriarchs

Part Two: the Formative Period

• exodus and conquest
• the formation of the people, Israel
• late Bronze Age (before the Trojan War): the Egyptian Empire
• the Amarna Period and the end of the 18th Dynasty
• 13th century: coming up to the Trojan War; the 19th Dynasty
• Canaan in the 13th century -- coming up to the Trojan War
• Egyptian bondage and the exodus
• wandering in the wilderness -- occurring during the lead-up to the Trojan War
• the conquest of Palestine 
• the formation of the people: Israel
• early Israel: the Tribal League

Part Three: Israel under the monarchy

• from tribal confederacy to monarchy

Part Four: the monarch

• so, from Moses to the patriarchs to tribes to unification and monarchs
• King David: 1000 - 961 (two hundred years since the Trojan War)
• so, just prior to King David, the Greeks were going through the same stage, tribal kings
• King Solomon: united monarchy -- 961 - 922 BC
• Israel's Golden Age (compare with the Greeke Golden Age, the 5th Century)
• so:
• 10th century: Israel's Golden Age
• 5th century: Greek's (Athens') Golden Age
• divided kingdom (Israel and Judah) after death of Solomon, 922 BC
• the House of Omri, Israel's recovery, 876 BC
• Israel and Judah: mid-ninth to mid-eighth
• again, well before Greek's Golden Era
• so, again, the dates to remember
• 2000 BC
• 1200 BC
• 1000 BC
• 500 BC
• the Assyrian Advance, the fall of Israel and the subjugation of Judah
• Judah: a satellite of Assyria
• mid-eighth to the birth/death of Hezekiah (715 - 687)
• prophets of the late 8th century in Judah
• Judah reigns/the end of Assyrian domination
• reign of Josiah (640 - 609)
• death of Josiah to the First Deportatioin
• Neo-Babylonian Empire / last days of Judah
• the end of the kingdom of Judah
• the developing theological emergency
• the prophets and the survival of Israel's faith

Part 5