Biblical Books and Texts as Self-Contained Sources for the Study of Ancient Israelite History

This article discusses the main value of, or the most significant contributions that the Hebrew Bible or, and much better, the books that were eventually included in that collection make for the critical study of ancient Israelite history. The latter are to be seen in the crucial ways in which these books contribute to the study of the discourses, ideologies, apprehensions and hopes of the communities, or at least the highly literate elites of the communities within which and for which they were written, and at times for social and economic studies of the same communities.