Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Orientation to multiple bibles and multiple translations -- Studying the Bible in its ancient context(s) -- The emergence of ancient Israel and its first oral traditions -- Echoes of empire in monarchal Israel -- Narrative and prophecy amidst the rise and fall of the Northern Kingdom -- Torah and other texts written in the wake of the Assyrian Empire -- Bible for exiles : promise and story in the neo-Babylonian Empire -- Persian Empire and the emergence of a temple-centered Jewish community -- Hellenistic empires and the formation of the Hebrew Bible -- Studying the New Testament in its ancient context -- Paul and his Letters in the Roman colonial context -- Mark's story of Jesus in the midst of Roman retribution -- The Gospel of Matthew : defining community in the wake of destruction -- Negotiating the empire in Luke-Acts -- The Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles : turning inward as a strategy for life in the empire -- Variations on responses to empire in other New Testament writings -- Epilogue: The final formation of the Jewish and Christian bibles.