Pre-Exilic Israel, the Hebrew Bible, and Archaeology PDF Download

Author: Anthony J. Frendo
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0567191893
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
The nature of historical and archaeological research is such that biblical and archaeological evidence should both be taken into account so that we can attain a more reliable reconstruction of ancient Israel. Nowadays we are faced with numerous reconstructions which are very often diametrically opposed to each other owing to the different assumptions of scholars. An examination of certain issues of epistemology in the current climate of postmodernism, shows that the latter is self-defeating when it claims that we cannot attain any true knowledge about the past. Illustrations are taken from the history of pre-exilic Israel; however, the indissoluble unity of text and artefact is made clearer and more concrete through a detailed case study about the location of the house of Rahab as depicted in Joshua 2: 15, irrespective of whether this text is historical or not. Text and artefact should work hand in hand even when narratives turn out to be fictional, since thus there emerges a clearer picture of the external world which the author would have had in mind.

Author: Oxford Old Testament Seminar
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567082067
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
In recent years there has been a tendency among certain scholars to claim that little can be known about pre-exilic Israel, because the Old Testament was only compiled in the post-exilic period (for example Philip Davies, Thomas Thompson, Neils Peter Lemche). One scholar (Lemche) has even claimed that the Old Testament is a Hellenistic work. The purpose of this book is to argue that this is an extreme and untenable position and that, though much of the Old Testament was indeed edited in the exilic or post-exilic period, many of the underlying sources used go back to the pre-exilic period. When critically analyzed these sources can shed much light on the pre-exilic period. This important work is the product of a team of seventeen international scholars, no fewer than five of whom are Fellows of the British Academy. None of the chapters has previously been published.

Author: Thomas L. Thompson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
A major new synthesis and interpretation of findings over the past twenty-five years in biblical archaeology. Thompson's conclusions are sure to spark intense debate.

Author: William G. Dever
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802821263
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
For centuries the Hebrew Bible has been the fountainhead of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Today, however, the entire biblical tradition, including its historical veracity, is being challenged. Leading this assault is a group of scholars described as the "minimalist" or "revisionist" school of biblical studies, which charges that the Hebrew Bible is largely pious fiction, that its writers and editors invented "ancient Israel" as a piece of late Jewish propaganda in the Hellenistic era. In this fascinating book noted Syro-Palestinian archaeologist William G. Dever attacks the minimalist position head-on, showing how modern archaeology brilliantly illuminates both life in ancient Palestine and the sacred scriptures as we have them today. Assembling a wealth of archaeological evidence, Dever builds the clearest, most complete picture yet of the real Israel that existed during the Iron Age of ancient Palestine (1200 600 B.C.). Dever's exceptional reconstruction of this key period points up the minimalists' abuse of archaeology and reveals the weakness of their revisionist histories. Dever shows that ancient Israel, far from being an "invention," is a reality to be discovered. Equally important, his recovery of a reliable core history of ancient Israel provides a firm foundation from which to appreciate the aesthetic value and lofty moral aspirations of the Hebrew Bible.

Author: Israel Finkelstein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743223381
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking work that sets apart fact and legend, authors Finkelstein and Silberman use significant archeological discoveries to provide historical information about biblical Israel and its neighbors. In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible—the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire—reflect the world of the later authors rather than actual historical facts. Challenging the fundamentalist readings of the scriptures and marshaling the latest archaeological evidence to support its new vision of ancient Israel, The Bible Unearthed offers a fascinating and controversial perspective on when and why the Bible was written and why it possesses such great spiritual and emotional power today.

Author: Susan Ackerman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300264887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
A synthetic reconstruction of women’s religious engagement and experiences in preexilic Israel “This monumental book examines a wealth of data from the Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography to provide a clear, comprehensive, and compelling analysis of women’s religious lives in preexilic times.”—Carol Meyers, Duke University Throughout the biblical narrative, ancient Israelite religious life is dominated by male actors. When women appear, they are often seen only on the periphery: as tangential, accidental, or passive participants. However, despite their absence from the written record, they were often deeply involved in religious practice and ritual observance. In this new volume, Susan Ackerman presents a comprehensive account of ancient Israelite women’s religious lives and experiences. She examines the various sites of their practice, including household shrines, regional sanctuaries, and national temples; the calendar of religious rituals that women observed on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis; and their special roles in religious settings. Drawing on texts, archaeology, and material culture, and documenting the distinctions between Israelite women’s experiences and those of their male counterparts, Ackerman reconstructs an essential picture of women’s lived religion in ancient Israelite culture.

Author: Patricia Dutcher-Walls
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0567027570
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
This volume explores the advantages of seeing a topic from two different but complementary perspectives. All of the papers in the volume were read at two sessions at SBL (2005 and 2006) that were co-sponsored by the Social Sciences and the Hebrew Bible Section of SBL and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The sessions were designed to promote dialogue among scholars by juxtaposing research based in the social sciences and archaeology. Scholars contributed papers from within their own methodological and research perspective, but addressed possible interactions and overlaps that their research might contribute to the complementary perspective. Significant intersections between the approaches emerged when patterns of social interactions accessed by social scientific methods paralleled patterns in material remains accessed by archaeological methods. The sessions and thus the book achieve coherence because all of the papers attended to aspects of the family in ancient Israel. While the presenters selected their own topics in the subject area, several foci emerged that reflect current research interests in these fields. These foci include research on ancestors and the cult of the dead, configurations of family house structures, and family relational interactions. All of the papers make their methods and approaches visible and delineate clearly the textual or material basis of their research, so that the dialogue among the papers is facilitated.

Author: John Barton
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802829009
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
"The Original Story" is a comprehensive and lively guide to the Old Testament, offering an essential introduction for readers of all faiths and none. It provides a complete course covering history, archaeology, geography, and textual interpretation.

Author: William G. Dever
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467459496
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Bringing the Bible and ancient Israel into a new and brighter light In the last several decades, archaeological evidence has dramatically illuminated ancient Israel. However, instead of proving the truth of the Bible—as an earlier generation had confidently predicted—the new discoveries have forced us to revise much of what was thought to be biblical truth, provoking an urgent question: If the biblical stories are not always true historically, what, if anything, is still salvageable of the Bible’s ethical and moral values? Has Archaeology Buried the Bible? simplifies these complex issues and summarizes the new, archaeologically attested ancient Israel, period by period (ca. 1200–600 BCE). But it also explores in detail how a modern, critical reader of the Bible can still find relevant truths by which to live.

Author: Sarah Malena
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575065789
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
From the Foreword— In a very short stretch of years, the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, has developed into one of the most important centers for teaching and research in biblical studies, in ancient Near Eastern and biblical archaeology, and more generally in Judaic studies. The program now rivals far older centers of study in these fields in eastern research universities. I have been an admirer of the program for some years, proud of former students of mine whose energy and foresight have contributed to the developments in La Jolla, including the establishment of endowed chairs that guarantee the future of this center and its program. This collection of essays honoring the Judaic Studies Program and its faculty is a testimony to the fecundity of the program in producing scholars, whose essays dominate the collection. Several essays come from other scholars whose home base is in the West and who have engaged in colloquia and common pursuits with the San Diego faculty. . . . There are sections on Genesis, poetry and prophecy, narrative and history, lexicon, archaeology, and (not least) paleography. —Frank Moore Cross Harvard University