ReViews: Understanding the Bible Ecologically

In The Natural History of the Bible, Daniel Hillel combines a wealth of scholarship from the fields of history, archaeology and Biblical criticism, but above all, from the environmental sciences, to illustrate the profound effect that environment played in shaping ancient Hebrew society and culture. Long overlooked, or relegated to mere background if considered at all, Hillel puts the ecological setting of the Hebrew saga front and center. Following the broad outline of Biblical history, he takes us through each of the different physical environments of the Hebrew experience: the irrigation ecology of southern Mesopotamia, the initial settlement in […]