Abstract
This addition to Oxford’s Handbooks manages to be both a curiosity and a pivotal reference work. It is a curiosity because of the publisher’s decision to expand a volume originally intended to cover Joshua-Kings so that it also covered Chronicles-Nehemiah but not Ruth or Esther. This is curious because the designation ‘Historical Books’ is one that is familiar from the canonical presentation in English Bibles (reaching back to LXX), but this then includes Ruth and Esther. Perhaps a Handbook on the Deuteronomistic and Chronistic Histories would be too much of a mouthful, but it is unfortunate that the current title does not accurately represent the content.
However, once we move beyond this point it quickly becomes apparent that this is a pivotal reference work that is an essential item for theological libraries. It is helpfully arranged into four main sections – Contexts (12 essays considering sources, history, texts), Content (9 essays considering themes, concepts, issues), Approaches (9 essays considering composition, synthesis, theory) and Reception (8 essays considering Literature, traditions, and figures). As these different areas are not fully distinct there is naturally some repetition across the papers (e.g., the relationship of 1 Esdras to Chronicles-Nehemiah appears several times), but the editors have rightly allowed this to stand, allowing the different perspectives on this to contribute to the relevant essay. Each essay has a bibliography, many substantial, allowing students beginning study in that area to go further.
The Contexts section considers issues of historiography and the relevance of other ancient sources, text critical matters and the significance of these books for Israel’s history. Although generally sympathetic to the importance of these texts for understanding Israel’s history, they are all also concerned to establish a critical history, including awareness of text-critical matters for such things. The Contents section does not survey these books individually but rather explores them from a range of angles, including economics and politics, sociology and religion. Although clearly operating with differing interpretative models, these essays open up these books, demonstrating the importance of considering such matters. The Approaches section addresses some classical questions of introduction. Hence, the essays explore issues of composition and reading models for these books, including a shift to more reader-oriented approaches. Since it may be unfamiliar to many, Kristin de Troyer also provides a helpful introduction to 1 Esdras, showing its relevance for understanding Chronicles-Nehemiah. The Receptions section considers the reception history of various figures from the historical books plus one further essay on the reception of these books as a whole in the New Testament. Although the essay titles here might suggest that they all do the same thing the reality is that these papers show how diversely ‘reception’ can be understood. Nevertheless, these papers demonstrate the potential for thinking about the reception of these figures.
Altogether, and provided one notes that the title does not quite describe the book correctly, this is an outstanding resource that provides readers with important overviews of key areas of research and approaches to these books.