The steady and widespread use of The Old Testament Survey since its publication in 1982 has encouraged us to make it even more serviceable in this revised form. Several aims have shaped our efforts in the updating of the volume.
First, we have tried to make the text more congenial to the thousands of college and university students who use it annually. Simpler style, gender-sensitive language, shorter sentences, a more congenial look to the pages, additional charts, illustrations, and maps these and other devices have been employed to that end.
Furthermore, we have transferred a number of chapters from the beginning to the end of the book to offer teachers the choice of plunging immediately into the biblical writings.
Second, we have sought to include in the text as well as in the endnotes and bibliographies material as current as possible, especially in those instances where new interpretative options have arisen or the scholarly consensus has changed. Third, we have added a new chapter on Archaeology and have included more data from recent archaeological research in the other chapters.
Our hope is that the revisions will enhance the use of the book for its intended readership: college and seminary students and their teachers, as well as pastors,
Bible students, and interested laypersons. The cordial participation of a team of colleagues in the task means that the work has undergone a breadth and depth of scrutiny that will enhance both its clarity and its quality. We are honored by the appearance of their names on the title page.
The sudden death in 1991 of our senior colleague, Bill LaSor, meant that we were deprived of his keen eye and ready pen during much of the process.
He did, however, leave mounds of materials behind him with perceptive suggestions and pointed queries that have reminded us of his commitment to the task and his competence through six decades of indefatigable labor in biblical and Semitic studies.
