No biblical historian is included in the standard dictionaries of historians. Banks' study examines the boundaries, as well as the links that exist between history writing in biblical studies and the practice of history in professional departments of history within the university. She argues that while the influence of the profession of writing history is apparent there are countervailing forces as well. The presupposition that the Bible is a book of history, or that it contains the historical record of the people of Israel, conditions the outcome of historical research in biblical studies. One theme of the study is the prospect of a history of Israel written as histories of other entities have been written.

Banks argues that Julius Wellhausen's history of Israel set in motion the general tendency toward ever greater congruence between historiography in biblical studies and in academic departments of history; that the initial tension caused by Wellhausen's work produced a reaction which effectively stalled the movement toward accommodation between secular, academic history and biblical studies; and that a new generation of scholars applying the methods used by secular historians has revived and continued the tendency to promote the practice of secular, academic historiography in biblical studies. Banks applies her method to Wellhausen, Martin Noth, John Bright, and Thomas Thompson.