Brad E. Kelle - The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible

Our initial discussions about this volume stretch back at least six, if not seven years, and so we are thankful, at the end of a long process, for the help and support we have received along the way, especially from the staff of Oxford University Press and our friend and editor Steve Wiggins. Our thanks also go to Caleb Strawn, who prepared the indices. Of course our deepest debts go to the contributors for their fine work and their patience during the slow process of bringing this large project to completion.

Although we took great editorial care during the review process, the reader will note some inconsistenciesa few of which, at least, are present by design. We have not, for instance, regularized all translations, whether of biblical or non-biblical texts. Similarly, we have not always provided versification differences across Hebrew, Greek, and English editions of the Bible. We have not always regularized the spelling of the divine name Yhwh, though our own preference was to devocalize it. We also did not require contributors to use Hebrew Bible rather than Old Testament. In all of these casesand similar oneswe have deferred to the individual preferences of the contributors. Additionally, in the case of some essays, original scripts were required; in most others, we have opted for transliteration so as to make the essays accessible to those who dont read the original languages. Again, these inconsistencies are often by design; at the least they are not naive. We hope that whatever discomfort readers may experience upon encountering such discrepancies will pale in comparison to the insight afforded by the contributions contained herein.

Finally, in a large reference work such as this one, with so many different contributors, some degree of overlap is to be expected and is, in fact, unavoidable. One will notice, for example, that several essays touch on compositional theories and debates regarding the Deuteronomistic History or the books of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah, with several others rehearsing the vexed tradition history of Ezra in its various ancient versions. Here again we have chosen not to eliminate such overlap, but have preferred to let it stand. We deem this a matter of scholarly integrity: letting each contributor have her or his say. Yet we also deemed it helpful, both pedagogically and interpretively: repetition is, after all, a useful method in teaching and learning; it is also the case that a number of the biblical books treated here abound in it!

Brad E. Kelle, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA

Brent A. Strawn, Duke University, Durham, NC