An important reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible as historiography, now available in paper. The First Historians is a book that no one with serious interest in biblical scholarship can afford to neglect. Halpern is one of the most fertile, exuberant, and audacious minds of his generation. He is witty, learned, and outrageous in turn, a Momigliano of Hebrew historiography. One learns more from one book by Halpern than from a dozen by his plodding peers."-Frank Moore Cross, Harvard University "With characteristic imagination, erudition, and wit, Halpern challenges the established understanding. . . of the Former Prophets. His designation of those books as historiography will surprise those who think that genre began with the Greeks. No one concerned with the roots of historical thinking in the West or with the relationship of the Bible to history can afford to miss this extraordinary volume"-Jon D. Levenson, Harvard Divinity School "It is an impressive and extremely important book....