An international team of historians, archaeologists and biblical scholars discuss new perspectives on the archaeology, history and biblical traditions of ancient Jerusalem and examine their ethical, literary, historical and theological relationships. Essays range from a discussion of the Hellenization of Jerusalem in the time of Herod to an examination of its identity and myth on the Internet, while Thomas L. Thompson's informed Introduction queries whether a true history of ancient Jerusalem and Palestine can in fact ever be written.

Contributors include: Thomas L. Thompson, Michael Prior, Niels Peter Lemche, Margreet Steiner, Sara Mandell, John Strange, Firas Sawwah, Lester Grabbe, Philip Davies, Thomas M. Bolin, Ingrid Hjelm, David Gunn and Keith Whitelam.