The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein discusses the Hebrew Bible from the origins of the ancient Israelites, the questions of whether the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) existed, whether the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and whether Moses existed, was there a conquest of Canaan, how big were the kingdoms of David and Solomon, whether there was a united kingdom of what became Israel in the north and Judea in the south, and the writing of much of the Hebrew text under King Josiah. Findelstein is a Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and Silberman an archeologist and a contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine. This is a SDG on archeology and history, not on religion. There was a lot of controversy over this book when it came out. All views are welcome.
1. Searching for the Patriarchs
2. Did the Exodus Happen?
3. The Conquest of Canaan
4. Who Were the Israelites?
5. Memories of a Golden Age?
6. One State, One Nation, One People? (c.930–720 BCE)
7. Israel’s Forgotten First Kingdom (884–842 BCE)
8. In the Shadow of Empire (842–720 bce)
9. The Transformation of Judah (c.930–705 BCE)
10. Between War and Survival (705–639 BCE)
11. A Great Reformation (639–586 BCE)
12. Exile and Return (586–c. 440 BCE)
The core book The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein , is available new, used from abebooks.com and as an audiobook.
Thomas Römer, The Invention of God, Harvard University Press.
Robert Alter, Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. New, used and an audiobook.
James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Volume 1.