Why and how should we read Old Testament narrative? This book provides fresh answers to these questions. First, it models possible readers of the Bible–religious and nonreligious, professional and nonprofessional–and the reasons that might attract them to it. Second, with the aid of Mediterranean anthropology, it sets out an approach that helps us to interpret a selection of narratives with a cultural understanding close to that of an ancient Israelite. Powerful stories, such as those of Tamar...
