A retired Episcopal priest in Alabama, Losch draws not only on the scriptural references to people, which are often brief and without context, but also secular literature of the period and archaeological and anthropological studies to flesh out the characters. Not everyone rates an article in the main section, but no one is left out of one appendix or another, the first of which briefly identifies all the people in the Bible and Apocrypha. The cross-referencing is abundant, but no bibliographic references are provided. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)