The Classic Studies in Jewish History during the Time of Jesus collection presents 14 historic works detailing both biblical and post-biblical Jewish history. They cover the development of a nation, a religion, and a distinct cultural identity. These classic works represent the intellectual foundation for today’s scholarship on Jewish history. The authors—including Selah Merrill, Edmond Stapfer, and James Stevenson Riggs—detail the origins and impacts of events in Jewish history, such as the exodus from Egypt; the establishment, split, and fall of the Kingdom of Israel; the Maccabean revolt, the Roman occupation; and the Great Revolt. As the leading Jewish history scholarship of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these works will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Jewish history or the development and practice of Judaism.

The Dead Sea. Bethlehem. The Sea of Galilee. Jericho. Babylon. Cairo. These are but a few of the places visited by these courageous writers in the Travels through the Bible Lands Collection (15 Vols.). During the turn of the nineteenth century, traveling to and across the Holy Land was a dangerous and arduous journey for a Westerner. These diverse explorers–missionaries, writers, cartographers, theologians, ethnographers, diplomats, archeologists–risk the danger to trek the deserts between Egypt and Turkey, survey the caves of the Dead Sea, dig in the dirt of Babylon, fight disease in Beirut, spread the gospel in Turkey, and stand in awe of the pyramids of Egypt.

In this volume, Selah Merrill presents a historical and cultural overview of Galilee prior to Jesus’ birth, during his life, and after his death and resurrection.

Selah Merrill, appointed as an archeologist for the American Palestine Exploration Society, sailed from New York to Beirut in 1875 for a two year expedition into the wild lands of Palestine. Befriending the local Arab tribes, Merrill and his team were given unparallel access to the Jordan valley. Beginning with their inauspicious arrival in a cholera stricken Beirut, where all the hotels were closed and only wild dogs roamed, and ending with Merrill living amongst the Arabs in the desert and documenting their way of life, this book is a fascinating page-turner from start to finish.