This brief chapter introduces the Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible. It notes the secondary and constructed nature of the category “Historical Books” (which is not native to the Hebrew Bible) and how this category might be potentially misleading as to the content and genre of these books, many of which are devoid of historiographic intent in anything like the modern sense. With these caveats entered, the introduction next explains how the essays in the book touch on four critical nodes: context (sources, history, texts), content (themes, concepts, issues), approaches (composition, synthesis, theory), and reception (literature, traditions, figures). Further, each essayist was asked to speak to how the topic/area/issue addressed in the essay relates to the Historical Books, as well as how the topic/area/issue helps one better interpret the Historical Books. In conclusion, this introduction notes the diversity that marks recent research in these books.
