{"title":"Baruch Halpern","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the world of Baruch Halpern, a distinguished voice in biblical history and ancient Near Eastern studies. His insightful works shed new light on ancient texts and cultures. Explore his books today.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"david-s-secret-demons-book-baruch-halpern-9780802827975","title":"David's Secret Demons","description":"\u003ci\u003eThis is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins of development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory trhan the tradition has hitherto allowed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and -- above all -- surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politicians who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne of Israel by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The challenging arguments in \u003ci\u003eDavid's Secret Demons\u003c\/i\u003e are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition -- a big bonus -- Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49537780154641,"sku":"GOR004680331","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49668469096721,"sku":"GOR009540404","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362180731153,"sku":"CIN0802827977G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007287492881,"sku":"NIN9780802827975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51315459129617,"sku":"CIN0802827977VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52410368524561,"sku":"NLS9780802827975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802827977.jpg?v=1751043576"},{"product_id":"david-s-secret-demons-book-baruch-halpern-9780802844781","title":"David's Secret Demons","description":"\u003ci\u003eThis is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins of development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory trhan the tradition has hitherto allowed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and -- above all -- surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politicians who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne of Israel by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The challenging arguments in \u003ci\u003eDavid's Secret Demons\u003c\/i\u003e are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition -- a big bonus -- Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49883331920145,"sku":"CIN0802844782G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51331617292561,"sku":"CIN0802844782VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51582281908497,"sku":"GOR008169601","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802844782.jpg?v=1751043609"},{"product_id":"the-first-historians-the-hebrew-bible-and-history-book-halpern-baruch-9780866839907","title":"FIRST HISTORIANS: HEBREW BIBLE AND HISTORY","description":"An important reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible as historiography, now available in paper. The First Historians is a book that no one with serious interest in biblical scholarship can afford to neglect. Halpern is one of the most fertile, exuberant, and audacious minds of his generation. He is witty, learned, and outrageous in turn, a Momigliano of Hebrew historiography. One learns more from one book by Halpern than from a dozen by his plodding peers.-Frank Moore Cross, Harvard University With characteristic imagination, erudition, and wit, Halpern challenges the established understanding. . . of the Former Prophets. His designation of those books as historiography will surprise those who think that genre began with the Greeks. No one concerned with the roots of historical thinking in the West or with the relationship of the Bible to history can afford to miss this extraordinary volume-Jon D. Levenson, Harvard Divinity School It is an impressive and extremely important book. My only regret is that someone didn't write these things long ago-Halpern shows himself to be a master of literature, history, Semitic linguistics, ancient Near Eastern texts, and archaeology. No one in his generation controls all of these tools of the trade as Halpern does.-Richard Elliott Friedman, University of California, San Diego","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49889748582673,"sku":"CIN0866839909G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50056708325649,"sku":"CIN0866839909A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51783718797585,"sku":"CIN0866839909VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0866839909.jpg?v=1750850496"},{"product_id":"from-gods-to-god-book-matthew-j-adams-9783161499029","title":"From Gods to God","description":"The birth of the West stems from the rejection of tradition. All our evidence for this influence comes from the Axial period, 800-400 BCE. Baruch Halpern explores the impact of changing cosmologies and social relations on cultural change in that era, especially from Mesopotamia to Israel and Greece, but extending across the Mediterranean, not least to Egypt and Italy. In this volume he shows how an explosion of international commerce and exchange, which can be understood as a Renaissance, led to the redefinition of selfhood in various cultures and to Reformation. The process inevitably precipitated an Enlightenment. This has happened over and over in human history and in academic or cultural fields. It is the basis of modernization, or Westernization, wherever it occurs, and whatever form it takes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52434485543185,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52434486264081,"sku":"NLS9783161499029","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783161499029.jpg?v=1759180740"},{"product_id":"law-and-ideology-in-monarchic-israel-book-baruch-halpern-9780567538604","title":"Law and Ideology in Monarchic Israel","description":"Three major essays by Baruch Halpern, Brian Peckham and Paul E. Dion deal with traumatic changes in Israelite culture, in particular the transition from the traditional culture of Israel in Iron Age IIA (tenth-ninth centuries) to a new, more widely literate culture in the eighth-seventh centuries BCE. These essays throw into relief changes in legal, political and religious culture in Judah in the last 150 years of its independence. Their combined implications for the origins of Western law and civilization, and for the models from which Reformation and Enlightenment political theory were drawn, are substantial.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52482844360977,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52482845737233,"sku":"NLS9780567538604","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780567538604.jpg?v=1759853832"},{"product_id":"traditions-in-transformation-book-baruch-halpern-9780931464065","title":"Traditions in Transformation","description":"Fourteen studies contributed in honor of Frank Moore Cross, Hancock Professor of Biblical and Other Oriental Language at Harvard University. Contributors include: J. A. Miles, Jr., C. L’Heureux, B. Halpern, W. Janzen, R. B. Coote, R. J. Clifford, J. D. Levenson, R. E. Friedman, R. Polzin, J. S. Ackerman, L. J. Greenspoon, J. D. Purvis, J. J. Collins, and A. Y. Collins.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53181264232721,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53181264658705,"sku":"NLS9780931464065","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780931464065.jpg?v=1772238191"},{"product_id":"cultural-contact-and-appropriation-in-the-axial-age-mediterranean-world-book-baruch-halpern-9789004194540","title":"Cultural Contact and Appropriation in the Axial-Age Mediterranean World","description":"Karl Jaspers dubbed the period, 800-400 BCE, the Axial Age.  Axial it was, for out of it emerged the idea of Greek culture, with its influence on Roman and later empires.  Jaspers’ Axial Age was the chrysalis of culturally-meaningful modernity.    Trade expands intellectual horizons.  The economic and political effects permeate such social domains as technology, language and worldview.  In the last category, many issues take on an emotional freight – the birth of science, monotheism, philosophy, even theory itself.   Cultural Contact and Appropriation in the Axial-Age Mediterranean World:  A Periplos, explores adaptation, resistance and reciprocity in Axial-Age Mediterranean exchange (ca. 800-300 BCE).  Some essayists expand on an international discussion about myth, to which even the Church Fathers contributed.   Others explore questions of how vocabulary is reapplied, or how the alphabet is reapplied, in a new environment.  Detailed cases ground participants’ capacity to illustrate both the variety of the disciplinary integuments in which we now speak, one with the other, across disciplines, and the sheer complexity of constructing a workable programme for true collaboration.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53561250152721,"sku":"NLS9789004194540","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789004194540.jpg?v=1778801541"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-baruch-halpern.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}