1st Edition

Classic Essays in Biblical History

Edited By Frederick Greenspahn, Peter Machinist Copyright 2019
    628 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume brings together essays by leading scholars from North America, Europe, and Israel who have drawn on literary analysis of the biblical text as well as archaeology, anthropology, and sociology to make significant contributions to our understanding of the history and religion of ancient Israel.

    An introduction by the editors summarizes issues that have emerged over the past generation, including competing positions as to the reliability of the biblical accounts and the relevance of archaeological evidence; it also places the essays that are reproduced in the following pages into this larger context. The first section of essays then offers several that present different views as to the methodology for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel. Subsequent sections examine issues pertaining to what the Bible depicts as the patriarchal period, the exodus from Egypt and occupation of the Promised Land, the united monarchy and its subsequent division, and the Babylonian exile and return. The final section includes essays that explore Israelite religion, focusing on fundamental beliefs and practices as well as relationships to the religions of neighboring cultures.

    Contents

    Introduction

    METHODOLOGY

    1. Julius Wellhausen, ³Introduction² and ³The Theocracy as Idea and as

    Institution² (chapter 11) of his Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (New York: Meridian Books, 1957) pp. 1-13 and 411-25.

    2. Iain W. Provan, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III, ³Knowing about

    the History of Israel,² from their A Biblical History of Israel

                 (Westminster John Knox, 2003), chapter 3, pp. 51-74 and 311-19.

    3. Niels P. Lemche, ³On the Problem of Reconstructing Pre-Hellenistic

    Israelite (Palestinian) History,² in Lester Grabbe, ed., ³Like a Bird in a Cage² (JSOT Supplement 363; London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003) pp. 150-67 = Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 3/1 (2000).

     

    PATRIARCHAL PERIOD

    4. Frank Moore Cross, Jr., ³The God of the Fathers² in his Canaanite Myth and 

          Hebrew Epic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), pp. 3-12.

    5. Benjamin Mazar, ³The Historical Background of the Book of Genesis,² Journal 

          of Near Eastern Studies 28 (1969) 73-83.

     

    EXODUS

    6. Roland deVaux, ³The Oppression,² ³The Exodus from Egypt: The Biblical

    Traditions,² ³The Historical Interpretation,² and ³The Date of the Exodus² in his Early History of Israel (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978) pp. 324-27, 370-76, and 388-92.

    7. Donald B. Redford, ³An Egyptological Perspective on the Exodus Narrative²

    in Egypt, Israel, Sinai, Archaeological and Historical Relationships in

                 the Biblical Period, ed. Anson F. Rainey (Tel Aviv University, 1987)

                 pp. 137-61.

     

    CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT

    8. William F. Albright, ³The Israelite Conquest of Canaan in the Light of

    Archaeology,² Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 74 (April, 1939) 11-23.

    9. George E. Mendenhall, ³The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine,² Biblical 

          Archaeologist 25 (1962) 65-87.

    10. Martin Noth, ³The Occupation of the Land by the Tribes of Israel² and ³The

    Twelve-tribe System² in his The History of Israel, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1958) pp. 68-97.

    11. Lawrence E. Stager, ³The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel,²

          Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 260 (1985) 1-35.

     

    UNITED MONARCHY

    12. Hayim Tadmor, ³Traditional Institutions and the Monarchy: Social and

    Political Tensions in the Time of David and Solomon,² in Studies in the Period of David and Solomon, ed. Tomoo Ishida (Tokyo/Eisenbrauns, 1982) pp. 239-57.

    13. Amihai Mazar, ³The Spade and the Text: The Interaction between Archaeology

                 and Israelite History Relating to the Tenth-Ninth Centuries BCE² in

    Understanding the History of Ancient Israel, ed. H.G.M. Williamson (Proceedings of the British Academy 143; Oxford, 2007) pp. 143-171.

    14. Gary N. Knoppers, ³The Vanishing Solomon: The Disappearance of the United

    Monarchy from Recent Histories of Ancient Israel,² Journal of Biblical Literature 116 (1997) 19-44.

     

    DIVIDED MONARCHY

    15. John S. Holladay, Jr., ³The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah: Political and

    Economic Centralization in the Iron IIA-B (ca. 1000-750 BCE)² in The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, ed. Thomas E. Levy (London: Leicester University Press, 1998) pp. 368-98 and 586-90.

    16. Mordechai Cogan, ³Judah Under Assyrian Hegemony: A Re-examination of

                 Imperialism and Religion,² Journal of Biblical Literature 112 (1993)

                403-14.

    17. Nadav Na¹aman, ³The ŒDiscovered Book¹ and the Legitimation of Josiah¹s

                Reform,² Journal of Biblical Literature 130 (2011) 47-62.

     

    EXILE

    18. William G. Dever, ³Archaeology and the Fall of Judah² in Eretz-Israel 29 

               (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2009) pp. 29*-35*.

    19. Bustenay Oded, ³Observations on the Israelite/Judean Exiles in Mesopotamia

    during the Eighth-Sixth Centuries BCE² in Immigration and Emigration Within the Ancient Near East: Festschrift E. Lipinski, ed. K. van Lerberghe and A. Schoors (OLA; Leuven: Peeters, 1995) pp. 205-12.

    20. Hans M. Barstad, ³On the History and Archaeology of Judah during the

    Exilic Period, A Reminder,² Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 19 (1988) 25-36.  

     

    RESTORATION

    21. Elias J. Bickerman, ³The Edict of Cyrus in Ezra 1,² Journal of Biblical

    Literature 65 (1946) 249-75.

    22. Sara Japhet, ³People and Land in the Restoration Period² in her From the 

    Rivers of Babylon to the Highlands of Judah, Collected Studies on the Restoration Period (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006) pp. 96-116.

     

    RELIGION

    23. Morton Smith, ³The Common Theology of the Ancient Near East,² Journal of 

    Biblical Literature 71 (1952) 135-48.

    24. Yehezkel Kaufmann, ³The Bible and Mythological Polytheism,² Journal of 

                 Biblical Literature 70 (1951) 179-97.

    25. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, ³Asherah and Abundance,² chapter 13 of her In the 

    Wake of the Goddesses, Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (New York: Free Press, 1992) pp. 153-61 and 264-66.

    26. Rainer Albertz, ³Family Religion in Ancient Israel and Its Surroundings²

    in Household and Family Religion in Antiquity, ed. John Bodel and Saul Olyan (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008) pp. 89-112.

    27. Robert Wilson, ³Early Israelite Prophecy,² Interpretation 32 (1978) 3-16. 

    Index

    Biography

    Frederick E. Greenspahn is Gimelstob Eminent Scholar of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University, USA.

    Peter Machinist is Hancock Research Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard University, USA.