This book argues that the Old Testament is not exclusively a book about history but is dominated by interests in theology both as literature and as an expression of the community in which biblical writings originated.

Preface Jerusalem 1 “If I forget you, Jerusalem!” Exegesis 2 Emphatic Time in the Old Testament 3 Justice as Pre-existing World Order 4 Messiah in the Book of Isaiah 5 Old Testament Texts as Rewritten Literature 6 Psalm 2: Between Past and Future 7 The Introduction to David’s Psalms: New Reflections on Psalm 2 8 Sociology and Prophetic Literature History 9 History and Memory in the Old Testament 10 On History, Sociology, and Theology: Old Testament Perspectives 11 On Historical Memory in the Historiography of the Old Testament 12 Ezra and the Pentateuch 13 What Have We Done and Where are We Moving? Personal Remarks about a Change of Paradigm 14 Après le déluge: The Copenhagen School or Chaos? Theology 15 The History of Israel’s religion and the History of Israel: Identical or Different 16 Geography as Memory 17 Israel and Its Land 18 Israel as an Ideological Construction 19 The Relevance of Social-critical Exegesis for Old Testament Theology Appendix 272 BCE – A terminus a quo