The social history of ancient Israel : an introduction / Rainer Kessler ; translated by Linda M. Maloney.

"Translated from Rainer Kessler, Sozialgeschichte des alten Israel: Eine Einführung (c2006 by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt)"--T.p. verso.

Translated from the German.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-262) and indexes.

The social history method -- Social history as discipline and as method -- The social history of events and "the long term" -- A description of social history -- History of scholarship -- Methods for studying the social history of Israel -- Environment as living space -- The geographical environment -- The historical environment -- Material remains -- Archaeology : artifacts and interpretation -- Epigraphic material from Israel and its environment -- The texts of the Hebrew Bible -- The historical reliability of the biblical accounts -- Fiction and milieu -- Intentional and unintentional tradition -- Norm and reality -- Dating biblical texts -- In search of analogies -- Societies in Israel's environment -- Ethnology : from empirical studies to theory -- Sociological categories -- The epochs of Israel's social history -- Israel's origins as a kinship-based society -- The beginnings of something called Israel -- Structures of kinship-based societies -- Israel and Judah : from early statehood to full development -- From initial statehood to the middle of the eighth century -- The beginnings of a state -- Society and state under monarchical rule -- Profiles of monarchy in Israel and Judah -- The formation of an ancient class society -- The political background from the eighth to the sixth century -- Israel and Judah as an ancient class society -- Exiles and their consequences -- From Nebuchadnezzar to Cyrus -- Judah under Babylonian rule -- Israel in exile -- Provincial society under Persia -- From Cyrus to Alexander -- Society and state in Judah and Samaria in the Persian period -- Temple and Torah -- Life in the diaspora -- Yehud, Samaria, Israel : a provincial society in the Persian period -- The Jewish ethnos in the Hellenistic age -- From Alexander the Great to the Hasmoneans -- Changes in society and state -- Hellenistic governance structures -- The many forms of "Israel" -- Conclusion -- Trans-epochal features of Israel's social history -- Israel's identity -- Prospect : the theological relevance of social history.