Lester Grabbe is probably the most distinguished, and certainly the most prolific of historians of ancient Judaism, the author of several standard treatments and the founder of the European Seminar on Historical methodology. He has continued to set the bar for Hebrew Bible scholarship.
In this collection some thirty of his distinguished colleagues and friends offer their reflections on the practice and theory of history writing, on the current controversies and topics of major interest. This collection provides an opportunity for scholars of high caliber to consider groundbreaking ideas in light of Grabbe's scholarship and influence. This festschrift offers the reader a unique volume of essays to explore and consider the far-reaching influence of Grabbe on the field of Biblical studies as a whole.

Philip R. Davies is Professor of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield, UK.
Diana V. Edelman is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield.

List of Abbreviations
THE EDITORS
Introduction
HANS BARSTAD
History and Memory. Some Reflections on the 'Memory Debate' in Relation to the Hebrew Bible
NIELS PETER LEMCHE
Postcolonial Studies and the Study of Israelite History.
NADAV NAAMAN
Text and Archaeology in a Period of Great Decline: The Contribution of the Amarna Letters to the Debate on the Historicity of Nehemiah's Wall
RAINER ALBERTZ
Secondary Sources Also Deserve to be Historically Evaluated: The Case of the United Monarchy
THOMAS L. THOMPSON
Reiterative Narrative and the Problem of the Exile
ANDRÉ LEMAIRE
Hazor in the Second Half of the 10th Century BCE: Historiography, Archaeology and History
MARIO LIVERANI
The Chronology of the Biblical Fairy-Tale
EHUD BEN ZVI
The Story of Micaiah, son of Imlah: What Could the Ancient Intended Readers Learn from It?
DIANA V. EDELMAN
Of Priests and Prophets and Interpreting the Past: The Egyptian Hm-Ntr and Hry-Hbt and the Judahite nabi'
HUGH G.M. WILLIAMSON
Welcome Home
ODED LIPSCHITS
Here is a Man Whose Name is ?ema?' (Zechariah 6:12)
BOB BECKING
Drought, Hunger, and Redistribution: A Social-Economic Reading of Nehemiah 5
JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP
Footnotes to the Rescript of Artaxerxes (Ezra
7:11-26)
GARY N. KNOPPERS
Aspects of Samaria's Religious Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period
E. AXEL KNAUF
Biblical References to Judean Settlement in Eretz Israel (and Beyond) in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods
PHILIP R. DAVIES
The Hebrew Canon and the Origins of Judaism
GEORGE J. BROOKE
What Makes a Text Historical? Assumptions behind the Classification of Some Dead Sea Scrolls