Changing Perspectives I ─ Studies in the History, Literature and Religion of Biblical Israel

In 28 essays and articles reprinted from original publication between 1964 and 2003, Van Seters (emeritus, biblical literature, U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) discusses aspects of Israel at different periods. His topics include the problem of childlessness in Near Eastern law and the patriarchs of Israel, the geography of the Exodus, the case against the Deuteronomistic redaction of the Pentateuch, problems in the literary analysis of the court history of David, the primeval histories of Greece and Israel compared, and the transformation in Israelite religion from child sacrifice to Pascal lamb. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John Van Seters is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and currently resides in Waterloo, Ontario Canada. During his 23 year teaching career at UNC he was the James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature. He holds a PhD (1965) from Yale University in Near Eastern Studies and a ThD h.c. (1999) from the University of Lausanne. Among his various honours and awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH fellowship, an ACLS fellowship, and research fellowships at Oxford, Cambridge, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and National Research Fund of South Africa. Among his many publications are the Hyksos, A New Investigation (1966); Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); In Search of History (1983) for with he won the James H. Breasted Prize and the American Academy of Religion book award; The Edited Bible (2006); and The Biblical Saga of King David (2009).