Oxford History of the Biblical World - Coogan, Michael A. (, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College a Director of Publications, Semitic Museum, Harvard University)

A comprehensive, illustrated survey of the world from which the Bible emerged. Geopolitics, symbolic universes, and social and political organization are considered from prehistoric times to the rise of Israel, and from Mesopotamia to Rome. The art, architecture, languages, legal systems, literature and religion of the times are also considered.