Historical And Biblical Israel

The history of Israel is a much-debated topic in Old Testament studies. On one side are minimalists who find little of historical value in the Hebrew Bible. On the other side are those who assume the biblical text is a precise historical record. Many serious students of the Bible find themselves between these two positions and would benefit from a careful exploration of issues in Israelite history. This substantive history of Israel textbook values the Bible's historical contribution without overlooking critical issues and challenges. Featuring the latest scholarship, the book introduces students to the current state of research on issues relevant to the study of ancient Israel. The editors and contributors, all top biblical scholars and historians, discuss historical evidence in a readable manner, using both canonical and chronological lenses to explore Israelite history. Illustrative items, such as maps and images, visually support the book's content. Tables and sidebars are also included.

At the center of this book lies a fundamental yet unanswered question: under which historical and sociological conditions and in what manner the Hebrew Bible became an authoritative tradition, that is, holy scripture and the canon of Judaism as well as Christianity. Reinhard G. Kratz answers this very question by distinguishing between historical and biblical Israel. This foundational and, for the arrangement of the book, crucial distinction affirms that the Israel of biblical tradition, i.e. the sacred history (historia sacra) of the Hebrew Bible, cannot simply be equated with the history of Israel and Judah. Thus, Kratz provides a synthesis of both the Israelite and Judahite history and the genesis and development of biblical tradition in two separate chapters, though each area depends directly and inevitably upon the other. These two distinct perspectives on Israel are then confronted and correlated in a third chapter, which constitutes an area intimately connected with the former but generally overlooked apart from specialized inquiries: those places and archives that either yielded Jewish documents and manuscripts (Elephantine, Al-Yahudu, Qumran) or are associated conspicuously with the tradition of the Hebrew Bible (Mount Gerizim, Jerusalem, Alexandria). Here, the various epigraphic and literary evidence for the history of Israel and Judah comes to the fore. Such evidence sometimes represents Israel's history; at other times it reflects its traditions; at still others it reflects both simultaneously. The different sources point to different types of Judean or Jewish identity in Persian and Hellenistic times.

In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, the authors do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history. In Part One, the authors set the volume in context and review past and current scholarly debate about learning Israel's history, negating arguments against using the Bible as the central source. In Part Two, they seek to retell the history itself with an eye to all the factors explored in Part One.

We the People explores John Howard Yoder’s account of peoplehood and develops an appreciative revision that considers the politics of Jesus in relation to the people of Israel. This revision articulates the theopolitical stakes in relation to the modern nation-state’s claims to peoplehood and the observable effects of its exegetical and historical moorings in self-assertion as the new and purified Israel. Tommy Givens then undertakes a critical engagement with Karl Barth’s account of God’s election and a theologically sensitive exegesis of key biblical texts in dialogue with Carl Schmitt, Jacob Taubes, and N. T. Wright.

The history of biblical Israel, as it is told in the Hebrew Bible, differs substantially from the history of ancient Israel as it can be reconstructed using ancient Near Eastern texts and archaeological evidence. In A Concise History of Ancient Israel, Bernd U. Schipper uses this evidence to present a critical revision of the history of Israel and Judah from the late second millennium BCE to the beginning of the Roman period. Considering archaeological material as well as biblical and extrabiblical texts, Schipper argues that the history of “Israel” in the preexilic period took place mostly in the hinterland of the Levant and should be understood in the context of the Neo-Assyrian expansion. He demonstrates that events in the exilic and postexilic periods also played out differently than they are recounted in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In contrast to previous scholarship, which focused heavily on Israel’s origins and the monarchic period, Schipper’s history gives equal attention to the Persian and early Hellenistic periods, providing confirmation that a wide variety of forms of YHWH religion existed in the Persian period and persisted into the Hellenistic age. Original and innovative, this brief history provides a new outline of the historical development of ancient Israel that will appeal to students, scholars, and lay readers who desire a concise overview.

Combines experience gained through decades of teaching biblical exegesis and courses on the history of ancient Israel, and of on-going involvement in biblical archaeology. The volume covers the history of 'Biblical Israel' through its fragmentation in the Hellenistic and Roman periods until 136 CE.

The history of Israel of the Bible remains one of the most hotly contested issues in scholarship of the Hebrew Bible today. One of the clearest voices in the debate is that of Abraham Malamat. In the pages Malamat distills years of writing on the history of Israel from its beginnings up to the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.). Malamat divides his study into the following sections: (1) The Dawn of Israel; (2) Forming a Nation; (3) The Rise of the Davidic Dynasty; (4) Twilight of Judah and the Destruction of the First Temple; and (5) Historical Episodes in the Former Prophets and the Prophetical Books. All those interested in the emergence of Israel as a people and the rise of the story of Israel will find this an essential volume. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.

The book holds 26 chapters encompassing the history of Israel from its very beginnings up to the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 BC). The successive parts are (1) The Dawn of Israel, dealing with the Israelite proto-history, Mari and early Israel as well as the tribal societies and genealogies. (2) Forming a Nation, The Exodus and Conquest of Canaan, the period of the Judges and the charismatic nature of the Judges, the Danite migration. (3) The Rise of the Davidic Dynasty, a political view of the kingdom of David and Solomon, the diplomatic, international marriages of the latter, organs of statecraft in the Israelite monarchy. (4) King Amon and Josiah and their final fate, twilight of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem. (5) This part is dedicated to historical episodes in the Former Prophets and in the Prophetical Books. Several excursi follow. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.