Israel's Ethnogenesis

Israel's Ethnogenesis
Author: Avraham Faust
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134942087

Winner (for best semi-popular book) of the 2008 Irene Levi-Sala Prize for publications on the archaeology of Israel. The emergence of Israel in Canaan is a central topic in biblical/Syro-Palestinian archaeology. However, the archaeology of ancient Israel has rarely been subject to in-depth anthropological analysis until now. 'Israel's Ethnogenesis' offers an anthropological framework to the archaeological data and textual sources. Examining archaeological finds from thousands of excavations, the book presents a theoretical approach to Israel's ethnogenesis that draws on the work of recent critics. The book examines Israelite ethnicity - ranging from meat consumption, decorated and imported pottery, Israelite houses, circumcision, and hierarchy - and traces the complex ethnic negotiations that accompanied Israel's ethnogenesis. Israel's Ethnogenesis is unique in its contribution to the archaeology of ethnicity, offering an anthropological study that will be of interest to students of history, Israelite culture and religion, and the evolution of ethnic groups.

Understanding Biblical Israel

Understanding Biblical Israel
Author: Stanley Ned Rosenbaum
Publisher: Mercer University Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780865547025

According to Stanley Rosenbaum, the Bible resembles what a family would retrieve after a tornado hits a trailer park -- some of the family's own possessions mixed with those of others, overlapping, contradicting, and disordered. Understanding Israelite History is a revolutionary attempt to fill in the many gaps left in the historical record. Rosenbaum begins by demonstrating that Israel's religion was not a clean, divinely inspired break with humanity's past, but derives from the long sweep of events that began when Homo sapiens first acquired language. Strata of earlier religions are still visible beneath the surface of Israelite monotheism. Early Israel was not "one man's family", however dysfunctional. It was a collection of individuals and groups, mainly outcasts or lower social elements, who coalesced into a nation and developed -- though they did not always follow -- a religion of ethical monotheism and principles of democratic government and social justice that still today move and inspire more than half the world's population. Like all religions, Israel's was shaped by the language, in this case Hebrew, in which it is expressed. Expressing monotheism in a language that is essentially dualistic conduced to the suppression of the female elements of earlier religions which had nurtured Israel's religion, and consequently, to a lack of appreciation for the part played by women in Israel's religious life. This skewed view of Israel's religion and its history that the Bible contains is a result of its having been collected, edited and in part written by Judeans, southern survivors, and heirs of David's kingdom who were moved to record it in the wake of the destruction ofJerusalem in 586 BCE.

The Origin Tradition of Ancient Israel

The Origin Tradition of Ancient Israel
Author: Linda Thompson
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 225
Release: 1987-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567333035

For more than three decades, Thomas L. Thompson has written at the intersection of biblical theology and archaeology. Origin Tradition of Ancient asks important questions about historicity in general and Israel's history in particular-including, perhaps most importantly, at what point Israel's history begins. After surveying the recent literature on the subject, Thompson closely examines the Pentateuchal tradition as a narrative of Israel's history, and offers detailed exegesis of the historical narratives in Genesis and Exodus, including Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the sojourn in the wilderness. He closes with a discussion of chronology and historiography.

Early History of the Israelite People

Early History of the Israelite People
Author: Thompson
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2021-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004494227

This is a groundbreaking book on the origins of Israel, taking into account the contexts of geography, anthropology, and sociology, and drawing on a careful analysis of archaeological and written evidence. Thompson argues that none of the traditional models for the origin of biblical Israel in terms of conquest, peaceful settlement, or revolution are viable. The ninth and eighth century BC State of Israel is a product of the Mediterranean economy. The development of the ethnic concept of biblical Israel finds its context in history first at the time of the Persian renaissance. The volume presents a clear historical context and an interpretative matrix for the Bible.

The Origin and Character of God

The Origin and Character of God
Author: Theodore J. Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 1097
Release: 2020
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190072547

Introductory Matters -- The History of Scholarship on Ancient Israelite Religion : A Brief Sketch -- Methodology -- El Worship -- The Iconography of Divinity : El -- The Origin of Yahweh -- The Iconography of Divinity : Yahweh -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Warrior and Family God -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as King and Yahweh as Judge -- Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Holy.

Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective

Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective
Author: Thomas E. Levy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 580
Release: 2015-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 331904768X

The Bible's grand narrative about Israel's Exodus from Egypt is central to Biblical religion, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim identity and the formation of the academic disciplines studying the ancient Near East. It has also been a pervasive theme in artistic and popular imagination. Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective is a pioneering work surveying this tradition in unprecedented breadth, combining archaeological discovery, quantitative methodology and close literary reading. Archaeologists, Egyptologists, Biblical Scholars, Computer Scientists, Geoscientists and other experts contribute their diverse approaches in a novel, transdisciplinary consideration of ancient topography, Egyptian and Near Eastern parallels to the Exodus story, the historicity of the Exodus, the interface of the Exodus question with archaeological fieldwork on emergent Israel, the formation of biblical literature, and the cultural memory of the Exodus in ancient Israel and beyond. This edited volume contains research presented at the groundbreaking symposium "Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination" held in 2013 at the Qualcomm Institute of the University of California, San Diego. The combination of 44 contributions by an international group of scholars from diverse disciplines makes this the first such transdisciplinary study of ancient text and history. In the original conference and with this new volume, revolutionary media, such as a 3D immersive virtual reality environment, impart innovative, Exodus-based research to a wider audience. Out of archaeology, ancient texts, science and technology emerge an up-to-date picture of the Exodus for the 21st Century and a new standard for collaborative research.

Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel

Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel
Author: Kenton L. Sparks
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 1998-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575065169

From the introduction: “When we speak of ethnicity, we bring into view a particular kind of sentiment about group identity wherein groups of individuals view themselves as being alike by virtue of their common ancestry. It is something of a truism to point out that ethnicity has played an important role in the history of Judaism, both in the postbiblical era and prior to it....The reason for this interest is twofold. First, in virtually every discipline of the humanities, there seems to be a general unhappiness with the superficial way that scholars have handled the issues of culture and identity. More specifically, with respect to ancient Israel, recent biblical scholarly activity—both literary and historical—has raised serious doubts about the supposed origins and antiquity of Israelite ethnicity.” With this agenda in view, Kent Sparks provides a summary of current studies in ethnicity and ethnic identity, then moves to a discussion of Israel’s ancient Near Eastern context and expressions of ethnic identity in the written remains from surrounding nations. Turning next to ancient Israel itself, he examines texts generally considered early in Israel’s history for information relevant to Israel’s ethnic identity. Sparks then investigates the witness of the prophets and the historical materials relating to the Judean monarchy and the exilic period, looking for expressions of ethnic sentiment. His research will likely prove to be the foundation on which future study of the topic will be built.

The Origin of the Jews

The Origin of the Jews
Author: Steven Weitzman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0691191654

The scholarly quest to answer the question of Jewish origins The Jews have one of the longest continuously recorded histories of any people in the world, but what do we actually know about their origins? While many think the answer to this question can be found in the Bible, others look to archaeology or genetics. Some skeptics have even sought to debunk the very idea that the Jews have a common origin. Steven Weitzman takes a learned and lively look at what we know—or think we know—about where the Jews came from, when they arose, and how they came to be. He sheds new light on the assumptions and biases of those seeking answers—and the religious and political agendas that have made finding answers so elusive. Introducing many approaches and theories, The Origin of the Jews brings needed clarity and historical context to this enduring and divisive topic.