METS Program

Max's METS Orientation Reading List

Travel Guides

Israel and Jordan are well represented among the standard travel guidebooks. Check your local bookstore for Fordor's, Let's Go, etc. Note that there is a Blue Guide for Jordan in English. Also there is a combination Syria-Jordan guide in the Lonely Planet series. The Cadogan Guide to Syria and Lebanon (by Michael Haag) is very good. My Introducing the Holy Land is somewhat out of date and long out of print.

Biblical Times

Your seminary libraries will have plenty of good material on the history and archaeology of biblical times. An atlas is a good place to begin—an atlas of the ancient world, an archaeological atlas, or a Bible atlas. The following are examples:

Beitzel, B. J., The Moody Atlas of Bible Lands (Moody Press, 1985).
Rogerson, J., Atlas of the Bible (Facts on File, 1985).
Cornell, T. and Matthews, J., Atlas of the Roman World (Facts on File, 1983).

Also look through recent volumes of The Biblical Archaeologist (renamed Near Eastern Archaeology in 2000) and Biblical Archaeology Review. Some of the best articles from Biblical Archaeology Review have been reprinted by H. Shanks and D. P. Cole under the title Archaeology and the Bible: The Best of BAR (Biblical Archaeology Society, 1990).

Lurking behind everything you read nowadays about the history and archaeology of biblical times is the raging controversy between those who regard the biblical account of ancient Israel’s origins as relatively accurate on matters of history and those who do not. If you want to plunge into that controversy (and I hope that you will) read the following:

Finkelstein and Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts (Free Press, 2001).

Provan, Long and Longman, A Biblical History of Israel (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2003).

For a taste of how Steve and I approach these issues, look for:

McKenzie, King David: A Biography (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Miller, "Reading the Bible Historically: The Historian's Approach," Chapter I (pp. 11- 28) in To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Application, ed. by S. R. Haynes and S. L. McKenzie (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993).

Miller, “History or Legend? Digging into Israel’s Origins,” The Christian Century 121,4 (2004) 42-47.

Finally, some other titles related to biblical times—mentioned here more by way of example of the extensive literature available than as urgent reading for the trip:

Avi-Yonah, M., The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule (Schocken, 1976).

Bowersock, G. W., Roman Arabia (Harvard University Press, 1983).

Hoerth, A. J., Mattingly, G. L., and Yamauchi, E. M., Peoples of the Old Testament World (Baker Books, 1994).

Laughlin, John C. H. Archaeology and the Bible (Routledge, 2000).

Mazar, A., Recent Archaeology in the Land of the Israel (Doubleday, 1984).

Miller, J. M., and Hayes, J. H., A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Westminster, 1986).

Moorey, P. R. S., A Century of Biblical Archaeology (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991).

Rousseau, J. J. and Arav, Rami, Jesus and His World (Fortress Press, 1995).

Shanks, H., (ed) Ancient Israel (Biblical Archaeology Society, 2nd ed. 1999).

_________, (ed.) Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism (Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992).

Eastern Christianity

Dalrymple, William, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East (Henry Holt and Co., 1997).

Bailey, Betty Jane and J. Martin, Who Are the Christians of the Middle East? (Eerdmans, 2003).

From the Holy Mountain is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in recent years. Dalrymple follows the trail of a Christian monk who lived during the late 6th-early 7th centuries C.E.—i.e., toward the end of the Byzantine Period and on the eve of the expansion of Islam.

Arab History and Islam

Esposito, J. L., Islam: the Straight Path (Oxford, 1988).

Goldsmith, A., A Concise History of the Middle East (Westview, 1983).

Hourani, A., A History of the Arab Peoples (Harvard University Press, 1991).

Lewis, B., The Arabs in History (Hutchinson, 1962).

Mansfield, P., The Arabs, 2nd ed. (Viking Penguin, 1985); History of the Middle East (Penguin Books, 1991).

Martin, R. C., Islam (Prentice-Hall, 1982).

Nydell, Margaret K., Understanding Araba: A Guide for Westerners (Intercultural Press, 1987).

Rahman, F., Major Themes of the Quran (Bibliotheca Islamica, 1980).

Robinson, Frances (ed.), Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World (Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Waines, D., An Introduction to Islam (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

I have found Goldsmith’s A Concise History of the Middle East particularly useful.

The Crusades

Armstrong, Karen., Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World (Anchor, 1992).

Billings, The Cross & the Crescent: A History of the Crusades (Sterling, 1987).

Kennedy, Hugh., Crusader Castles (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Riley-Smith, J., The Atlas of the Crusades (Facts on File, 1981) and The Crusades: A Short History (Yale University Press, 1987).

Riley-Smith, J. (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades (Oxford University Press, 1995).

Runciman, S., A History of the Crusades (Cambridge, 1951-54) 4 vols.

Runciman’s A History of the Crusades is the classic account, delightful reading, and available in paperback. But if you are not ready to take on four volumes, start with Riley-Smith or Karen Armstrong.

Early Travelers and Archaeology

Kernohan, R. D., The Road to Zion: Travelers to Palestine and the Land of Israel (Eerdmans, 1995).

Shepherd, Naomi, The Zealous Intruders: From Napoleon to the Dawn of Zionism—The Explorers, Archaeologists, Artists, Tourists, Pilgrims, and Visionaries Who Opened Palestine to the West (Harper & Row, 1987).

Silberman, N. A., Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology, and the
Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799-1917 (1982).

Thrnton, Lynne., The Orientalists: Painter-Travelers (ACR PocheCouleur, 1994).

Wallach, Janet, Desert Queen (Random House Anchor Books, 1996).

Desert Queen, the biography of Gerturde Bell, is especially good reading. This daring British woman traveled independently throughout the Middle East during the years before World War I and was in on the diplomatic discussions that determined the boundaries of present-day Syria and Iraq. Read her biography along with David Fromkin’s The Peace to End All Peace (see below).

The Middle East Today

Cleveland, William L., A History of the Modern Middle East (Westview, 2nd edition, 2000).

Fromkin, David., The Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. (Avon Books, 1989).

Herzog, Chaim, Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East (Vintage Books, 1982).

Little, D., American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945 (University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

Morris, B., Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict 1881-2001 (Vantage Books, 1999, 2001).

Peters, F. E., Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Princeton University
Press, 1982).

Shlaim, Avi., War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History, rev. ed.(Penguin Books, 1995).

Weir, Shelagh., The Bedouin (British Museum Publications,1990).

Fromkin’s The Peace to End All Peace is an absolute must for understanding the
Middle East today. I strongly recommend that you read it before our trip.

More on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Israeli Consul nearest you will, upon request, send a great deal of material about modern Israel. For a perspective more attentive to Palestinian concerns, request information from The American Friends Service Committee (a relief agent of the Quakers). And here are some other suggestions:

Ateek, N. S., Justice and Only Justice (Orbis, 1989).

Chacour, E., Blood Brothers (Chosen Books, 1984) and We Belong to the Land (Harper San Francisco, 1990).

Friedman, T. L., From Beirut to Jerusalem (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1989).

Hilliard, Alison and Bailey, Betty Jane., Living Stones Pilgrimage with the Christians of the Holy Land (University of Notre Dame Press/Middle East Council of Churches, 2000).

Rudin, J., Israel for Christians (Fortress, 1983).

Ruther, R. and H. J., The Wrath of Johah (Harper & Row, 1989).

Shipler, D. K., Arab and Jew (Times Books, 1986).

There is no way, during our short time in Israel, that we can give full and balanced attention to all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Because the METS program is designed for Christian seminarians, however, we definitely will contact local Palestinian Christians. As representative of the local Christians, we usually visit SABEEL, an interfaith organization founded and directed by Naim Ateek. Read Check Ateek’s Justice and Only Justice and check their website www.sabeel.org.

Newspapers

Above all, catch up on current developments in Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt by reading the news releases in major newspapers and news magazines—New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Economist Magazine, etc. All of these and many others are available on the internet. And while you are surfing the internet, read up on the countries that we will visit http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/indexgeo.html.

Videos

Jerusalem: Within these Walls (National Geographic, 1986)

Islam (Smithsonian World, 1987)

The Crusades (BBC; available from PBS Video)

Lawrence of Arabia

The Teaching Company

Finally, especially for you lay folks who want review courses that you enjoyed in college, or know what the seminarians have been studying, I strongly recommend the recorded courses available through The Teaching Company. The following topics are especially relevant.

“The History of Ancient Rome” (We will walk among fantastic Roman ruins)

“The World of Byzantium” (The Byzantine Period will come up again and again)

“Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age” (Also the Hellenistic Period)

“The Old Testament” and “The New Testament” (Both good for you lay folks who want to know what the seminarians have been studying)