Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel

Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel
Author: Beth Alpert Nakhai
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN:

Annotation This book discusses the role of religion in Canaanite and Israelite society, from the Middle Bronze Age through the Israelite Divided Monarchy (2000-587 BC). It contains an extensive archaeological study of all known Middle Bronze through Iron Age temples, sanctuaries, and open-air shrines, organized by period and geographic region. Social science and textually based analyses of sacrifice in antiquity reveal the many ways in which religion was related to social structure, and the author emphasizes the ways in which social, economic and political relationships determined - and were shaped by - forms of religious organization.

Did God Have a Wife?

Did God Have a Wife?
Author: William G. Dever
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2008-07-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802863949

This richly illustrated, non-technical reconstruction of "folk religion" in ancient Israel is based largely on recent archaeological evidence, but also incorporates biblical texts where possible.

The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

The Old Testament in Archaeology and History
Author: Jennie Ebeling
Publisher:
Total Pages: 686
Release: 2019-01-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781481309271

One hundred and fifty years of sustained archaeological investigation has yielded a more complete picture of the ancient Near East. The Old Testament in Archaeology and History combines the most significant of these archaeological findings with those of modern historical and literary analysis of the Bible to recount the history of ancient Israel and its neighboring nations and empires. Eighteen international authorities contribute chapters to this introductory volume. After exploring the history of modern archaeological research in the Near East and the evolution of biblical archaeology as a discipline, this textbook follows the Old Testament's general chronological order, covering such key aspects as the exodus from Egypt, Israel's settlement in Canaan, the rise of the monarchy under David and Solomon, the period of the two kingdoms and their encounters with Assyrian power, the kingdoms' ultimate demise, the exile of Judahites to Babylonia, and the Judahites' return to Jerusalem under the Persians along with the advent of Jewish identity. Each chapter is tailored for an audience new to the history of ancient Israel in its biblical and ancient Near Eastern setting. The end result is an introduction to ancient Israel combined with and illuminated by more than a century of archaeological research. The volume brings together the strongest results of modern research into the biblical text and narrative with archaeological and historical analysis to create an understanding of ancient Israel as a political and religious entity based on the broadest foundation of evidence. This combination of literary and archaeological data provides new insights into the complex reality experienced by the peoples reflected in the biblical narratives.

The Religions of Ancient Israel

The Religions of Ancient Israel
Author: Ziony Zevit
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 852
Release: 2003-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780826463395

This is the most far-reaching interdisciplinary investigation into the religion of ancient Israel ever attempted. The author draws on textual readings, archaeological and historical data and epigraphy to determine what is known about the Israelite religions during the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE). The evidence is synthesized within the structure of an Israelite worldview and ethos involving kin, tribes, land, traditional ways and places of worship, and a national deity. Professor Zevit has originated this interpretive matrix through insights, ideas, and models developed in the academic study of religion and history within the context of the humanities. He is strikingly original, for instance, in his contention that much of the Psalter was composed in praise of deities other than Yahweh. Through his book, the author has set a precedent which should encourage dialogue and cooperative study between all ancient historians and archaeologists, but particularly between Iron Age archaeologists and biblical scholars. The work challenges many conclusions of previous scholarship about the nature of the Israelites' religion.

Archaeology and Ancient Israelite Religion

Archaeology and Ancient Israelite Religion
Author: Avraham Faust
Publisher:
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2020-09-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9783039368082

Israelite religions have always fascinated scholars. Initial studies used the Bible as their main source of information and attempted to read it critically in order to learn about the religion of ancient Israel. With the advent of modern research in the Near East, more and more information on other Ancient Near Eastern religions was accumulated and initially used to illuminate Israelite religious practices as described in the Bible, but gradually led to challenging some of the accepted truisms. The new information was collected mainly through archaeological excavations, and archaeology had gradually become a major player in the study of ancient Israelite religion(s) and religious practices. The massive amount of information on the various subthemes related to Israelite religions, the shifting trends in scholarship, the multiplicity of approaches, and the interdisciplinary nature of the field means that no single scholar can master all the data today. Indeed, there is currently no comprehensive and updated book that covers all or even most aspects pertaining to Israelite religion(s). This volume is a partial attempt to fill some of this lacuna. The volume includes a number of broad, summarizing studies, presenting readers with the up-to-date state of the research on a number of important issues, from Solomon's temple to broader studies of the loci of cultic activity in ancient Israel through to analysis of the difference between the "official" and "popular" expression of religion, the place of women in Israelite cult(s), similarities and differences between the religious practices in Israel and Judah and those of other Iron Age religions, and the religion of some of Israel's neighbors to the role of zooarchaeology in the study of religion, ancient Israelite festivals, and more.

Canaan and Israel in Antiquity

Canaan and Israel in Antiquity
Author: K. L. Noll
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781841273181

This is a classroom-tested introduction to academic study of the ancient world that produced the Bible. It offers a general and yet flexible programme of study that enables a range of approaches to be understood and applied.

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan
Author: William Foxwell Albright
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780931464010

Professor Albright speaks to a new generation of scholars through this reprint of his classic work contrasting Israelite and Canaanite religions. The five chapters were originally presented as seven lectures and discuss Poetry and Prose, the Patriarchal Background, Canaanite Religion in the Early Bronze Age, the Struggle between Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, and the Religious Cultures of Israel and Phoenicia.

Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World

Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World
Author: Eric M. Trinka
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2022-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000544087

This book examines the relationship between mobility, lived religiosities, and conceptions of divine personhood as they are preserved in textual corpora and material culture from Israel, Judah, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. By integrating evidence of the form and function of religiosities in contexts of mobility and migration, this volume reconstructs mobility-informed aspects of civic and household religiosities in Israel and its world. Readers will find a robust theoretical framework for studying cultures of mobility and religiosities in the ancient past, as well as a fresh understanding of the scope and texture of mobility-informed religious identities that composed broader Yahwistic religious heritage. Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World will be of use to both specialists and informed readers interested in the history of mobilities and migrations in the ancient Near East, as well as those interested in the development of Yahwism in its biblical and extra-biblical forms.

Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic

Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic
Author: Frank Moore CROSS
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674030087

Annotation The essays contained in this book are preliminary studies directed toward a new synthesis of the history of the religion of Israel. Each study is addressed to a special and, in the authors view, unsolved problem in the description of Israel's religious development.