The question of writing the 'history of ancient Israel' has become fiercely debated in recent years. It is a debate that seems to generate more heat than light because of quite different concepts of historical methodology. The European Seminar on Methodology in Israel's History was founded specifically to address this problem, and this volume contains the papers prepared for their first meeting., asking if, and if so how a history of Israel might be written, and the place of the Hebrew Bible as a source.