Alrighty. Btw, I just got bible unearthed. Sampled it last night.  It
goes truly well, especially considering the topic -- the language is
simple and unpretentious and a refresher to the relevant topics of the
old testament went quite well. To increase the enjoyment I got out the
english and russian versions of the bible. Now my nightstand looks
very, err, ecclesiastical.

---------------

One of the best books I've read lately. The exposition is rather
straightforward and consistent: every chapter the authors start out
with a historical period of covered in the old testament (Deuteronomic
history to be exact) -- they provide the biblical version of the
events (with citations and all), then they show the problems with this
version, archaeologists attempts to verify it, actual finds and
currently accepted interpretation of what actually happened. The
authors manage not to repeat themselves yet stay on the message
central to their book: most of the bible was composed and compiled
during the reign of Judean king Josia after the fall of the Northern
kingdom of Israel. The bible is a theological and ideological
narrative composed to help Josia and Jerusalem YHWH priesthood to
unite the kingdom of Judea and whatever remained of Israel under
centralized leadership and religion. Hence the nationalism and
intolerance to other cults. Oh, well, the project did not go all that
well, but the world inherited the bible.

The subject is fascinating. Apparently biblical archeology made alot
of progress in the last 15-some years as far as debunking the myths
and reconstructing the actual events. Kings and Samuel -- particularly
boring books of the Bible come alive with the insights as to what the
historical processes were that shaped the bible to read the way it
does.