Eminent biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan offers here a wide-ranging and stimulating exploration of the Old Testament, illuminating its importance as history, literature, and sacred text. He provides a marvelous overview of one of the great pillars of Western religion and culture, a book whose significance has endured for thousands of years and which remains vitally important today for Jews, Christians, and Muslims worldwide.

Michael D. Coogan is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College and Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. One of the leading biblical scholars in the United States, he is editor of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition, and is a contributor to such standard reference works as The Encyclopedia of Religion, HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, and The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Collaborative works that he conceived and edited include The Oxford Companion to the Bible, The Illustrated Guide to World Religions, and The Oxford History of the Biblical World.