The Ottawa School of Theology & Spirituality
The Bible: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives
September 16 – November 25, 2013
Lecturer - David Steinberg
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/
steinberg.david0@gmail.com
Tel. 613-731-5964
Lecture 2
Archaeology; Biblical Archaeology; Documentary Hypothesis;
Minimalists and Maximalists
Sept. 23, 2013
Lecture 1 slides available at http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture1.ppt OR
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture1.pdf
Lecture 2 slides available at http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture2.ppt OR
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture2.pdf
‫ היה אומרת " לא עליך המלאכה לגמור ולא‬... ‫רבי טרפון‬
".‫אתה בן חורין להבטל ממנה‬
Rabbi Tarfon … used to say “You are not
required to complete the work but you are not
free to desist from it.”
Avot 2:21
Archaeology
• Definition – Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the
Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse)
is the study of human cultures through the recovery,
documentation and analysis of material remains and
environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts,
human remains, and landscapes.
• Goals - are to document and explain the origins and
development of human culture, understand culture history,
chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behavior and ecology,
for both prehistoric and historic societies. It is considered in North
America to be one of the four sub-fields of anthropology.
Archaeology
A Few Key Points–
1. Oldest at the Bottom (usually)
2. Relative Date vs. Absolute Date and
Synchronicities (Limmu Lists from 911 through
631 B.C.E. (= B.C.)
3. Surveys, rescue digs, digs
4. Population c. 100 per built up acre;
5. Geophysics, pollen, middens etc.
6. Archaeological vandals – bad methodology,
excessive digging, not publishing
Archaeology and the Bible
Archaeology can–
• Prevent the Bible from being mythalogical by
anchoring it in the realm of history
• Provide the geographical and chronological
context of biblical people and events; show
their cultural, economic, political etc.
contexts
• Uncover the empirical evidence for clarifying
the text
• Shed light on the daily life of biblical people
by recovering their pottery, utensils,
weopons, seals, architecture etc.
Trends in Archaeology
•
•
•
•
It has become a team effort
More analysis for less digging
Geophysical and remote sensing technology
Interest moved from trying to prove historical
events to reconstructing ancient societies
with the aid of anthropological models
• Centre of interest moved from elites to
ordinary people
Two Sage Observations
From Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000
Excavations, as a rule, record only those things
which appear to them important at the time, but fresh
problems in Archaeology and Anthropology are
continually arising …. Every detail should, therefore,
be recorded in the manner most conducive to facility
of reference, and it ought at all times tio be the chief
object of an excavator to reduce his own personal
equation to a minimum. (Pitt-Rivers 1887)
Palestine: “Where more sins have probably been
committed in the name of archaeology than on any
commensurable portion of the earth’s surface.”
(Mortimer Wheeler 1956)
Tel(l) 1
• Tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by
human occupation and abandonment of a geographical
site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low,
truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.
• Tells should be distinguished from more transiently
populated sites which may not show any elevation
Tel(l) 2
Usually tells are located on or near:
• Permanent water supply
• Enough arable land to feed the
population
• Trade routes
• Good defensive position
Tel Megiddo
Over 20 strata of occupation c7,000-586 BCE.
2 Kings 23:29-30. “In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king
of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; and Pharaoh
Neco slew him at Megiddo … and his servants carried him dead in a chariot
from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.
Tel Hazor
The largest archaeological site in northern Israel, featuring an upper tell of 30
acres and a lower city of more than 175 acres
“Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword, for
Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. And they struck all the people who
were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them … Then he burnt Hazor with
fire” Joshua 11:10–11
Importance of Publication1
From Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000
• Without publications, the best of archaeological
field work is a failure…. (A) well-published
volume with plans, drawings, photographs
and so on, enables others to reconstruct in
their own minds exactly how the site was
excavated. If a trained archaeologist cannot do
this, then the publication is faulty and of limited,
if any, use. A good publication also allows
other archaeologists to interpret for
themselves what the archaeological data
mean.
Importance of Publication 2
From Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000
• It is to be hoped that it will soon be
possible for computer information from
all digs (past and present) to be readily
accessed so that research and study
can be conducted in the most
comprehensive way possible.
Most Unusual Rescue Dig 1
Most Unusual Rescue Dig 2
Most Unusual Rescue Dig 3
From the “Great Man” to the Interdisciplinary Team 1
Prior to the 1960s, Palestinian/Israeli
digs were dominated by a single
individual usually a trained clergyman
or biblical scholar who sidelined as an
archaeologist. Professional standards
were very uneven, a great deal of key
evidence was discarded unrecorded
and unexamined and publication did
not occur or was poor and/or late.
From the “Great Man” to the Interdisciplinary Team 2
Now, excavations are headed by fully
trained archaeologists, full recording is
accomplished with the aid of computer
systems and a full interdisciplinary
team of surveyor, geophysicist, paleobotanist, geologist, paleoanthropologist, epigrapher, etc. aided
by a large number of student and other
volunteers.
Volunteer Opportunities
The First “Great Man”, the Father of Palestinian Archaeology
Flinders Petrie (1853-1942)
Flinders Petrie
• At Tell el-Hesi (1890) he established pottery typology
combined with stratigraphy as the key to (relative)
dating.
“… once settle the pottery of a country and the key is in our hands
for all future explorations.”
• Ever since pottery typology plus stratigraphy has
been the key to dating particularly in periods (e.g.
Iron Age/Israelite period) where inscriptions are rare
or non-existent
The Greatest of the “Great Men” - Albright
The Greatest of the “Great Men” - Albright
Albright (1891-1971)
• The Biblical Archaeologist par excellence
• Master of almost the whole of Ancient Near
Eastern studies
• Developed the Albrightian synthesis (see
below)
• Trained two generations of epigraphers and
Israeli and American Biblical Archaeologists
• The Biblical Archaeologists he trained
eventually morphed into Syro-Palestinian
archaeologists
Biases in Archaeological Interpretation
It is a paradox of archaeology that the objects dug up are
concrete and real things, yet it is difficult to ascribe any
meaning to them. Interpretation takes place, for example:
– in the choices made about what sites to excavate and
what portions of those sites to excavate
– about what kinds of information to record and what
kinds of material to send off to specialists for analysis,
in the reports written by the excavators and
specialists; and,
– in the choices made about what reports to consult in
resolving a particular problem.
Interpretation is greatly affected, therefore, by the
question of who makes what decisions in what context.
Certain objects or places, for example, may be
considered important for one interpreter and not worth
bothering about by others.
Phases of Archaeology
Overview
• Culture History – Relates to History
• Processual Archaeology – Relates to
Anthropology
• Post-processual Archaeology – PostModernism
– Gender Archaeology
– Behavioral Archaeology
– Evolutionary (Selectionist) Archaeology
Culture History
Relates to History
• Grouping sites into distinct "cultures", to determine the
geographic spread and time span of these cultures, and to
reconstruct the interactions and flow of ideas between them.
• Cultural historians employed the normative model of culture, the
principle that each culture is a set of norms governing human
behaviour. Thus, cultures can be distinguished by patterns of
craftsmanship; e.g., if one excavated sherd of pottery is decorated
with a triangular pattern, and another sherd with a chequered
pattern, they likely belong to different cultures.
• Approach leads to a view of the past as a collection of different
populations, classified by their differences and by their
influences on each other.
• Changes in behaviour could be explained by diffusion whereby
new ideas moved, through social and economic ties, from one
culture to another or by replacement of one population (culture)
by another.
Processual Archaeology (New Archaeology) Relates to
Anthropology
• In the 1960s, American archaeologists (pre-history) developed a
"New Archaeology", aimed at being more "scientific" and
"anthropological".
• Culture - a set of behavioural processes and traditions
responsive to environment. Processual archaeology has seen
social system predominantly as a set of standard types of society
drawn from cultural evolutionary thought – bands, lineage,
chiefdoms, states (and derived and related forms). The main
features are horizontal and vertical divisions, particularly class and
ranking, and the distribution of resources, through social groupings,
via exchange and other economic mechanisms.
• Borrowed from the exact sciences the idea of hypothesis testing
and the scientific method.
• They believed that an archaeologist should develop one or more
hypotheses about a culture under study, and conduct
excavations with the intention of testing these hypotheses
against fresh evidence.
• Partly response to evidence of anthropology, that ethnic groups
and their development were not always entirely congruent with
the cultures in the archaeological record. (Very important point
for Biblical Archaeology)
Critiques of Processual Archaeology
• Too one-sided, too deterministic, too inflexible. Explanations
generated are dominated by general overarching social forces
and entities. How did real people fit into them? how we are to
conceive of society in a way that allows its constituent people
to be active and creative in reproducing and changing their
society.
• How are we to understand how people are both determined by
social structures, yet also act in ways that work to change
those structures?
• Post processual archaeology has followed a great deal of
social theory in positing much more dynamic social structures.
The issue is one of balancing determinism and free-will when
clearly people do not make history as they will, but
nevertheless are not wholly determined in their actions by
transcendent social structures and historical forces. It is about
how action is to be conceived.
Post-processual Archaeology 1
Post-Modern Archaeology
• In the 1980s, British archaeologists questioned
processualism's appeals to science and impartiality by
claiming that every archaeologist is in fact biased by his or her
personal experience and background, and thus truly scientific
archaeological work is difficult or impossible.
• Exponents of this relativistic method analysed not only the
material remains they excavated, but also themselves, their
attitudes and opinions. The different approaches to archaeological
evidence which every person brings to his or her interpretation result
in different constructs of the past for each individual. The benefit of
this approach has been recognised in such fields as visitor
interpretation, cultural resource management and ethics in
archaeology as well as fieldwork.
• Post-processualism provided an umbrella for all those who
decried the processual model of culture, which many feminist
and neo-Marxist archaeologists for example believed treated
people as mindless automatons and ignored their individuality
Post-processual Archaeology 2
• Started as a reaction to processual archaeology
criticizing processualism as positivist, and
materialist
• Now consists of a wide range of approaches
focusing on e.g. religion, belief systems, social
complexity, gender
• Studies art, architecture, burial goods, nonutilitarian artifacts
• Consists of a wide range of approaches all
viewing culture as being comprised of
individuals
From http://www.geog.unt.edu/~lnagaoka/arch2500/outlines/postproc.pdf#search=%22postprocessual%20archaeology%22
Gender Archaeology
• Method of studying ancient societies by closely examining the
roles played by men and women in the past as exhibited
through the archaeological record.
• Gender archaeologists examine the relative positions in society
of men and women through identifying and studying the
differences in power and authority they held. These differences
can survive in the physical record although they are not always
immediately apparent and are often open to interpretation. The
relationship between the genders can also inform relationships
between other social groups such as families, different classes,
ages and religions.
• Only 8% of the names in the Hebrew Bible are those of females!
Chronology – Absolute and
Relative 1
Method
1. Pottery
assemblages
Date
Relative
Issues
Are the changes in
pottery synchronous
in different areas.
Is the pottery
intrusive?
2. Carbon 14,
Absolute within
Optical, Thermorange
luminescence dating
3. Scarabs
Absolute – earliest
date of stratum
Range of dates
Is it an heirloom?
Only for pre-Iron Age
Chronology – Absolute and
Relative 2
Method
Date
Issues
4. Coins
Absolute – earliest date of
stratum
Was coin long in circulation
or hoarded?
Hellenistic period and later
5. Contemporary Inscriptions
and other Documents –
Contents
Depends whether contents
include datable references.
DSS do not!
Extremely rare in Palestine –
papyrus, ostraca, DSS
6. Contemporary Inscriptions
and other Documents – Style
of Writing (Paleography)
Relative
Now have good series for
most of the periods starting
9th C. BCE
7. Biblical Text
Texts purport to tell of a range
of periods
When were they written?
(Documentary Hypothesis)
Did the author know much
about the period purported to
describe?
Is it tendentious?
Chronology – Absolute and
Relative
Method
1. Pottery assemblages
Date
Relative
Issues
Are the changes in pottery synchronous
in different areas.
Is the pottery intrusive?
2. Carbon 14, Optical,
Thermoluminescence dating
Absolute within range
Range of dates
3. Scarabs
Absolute – earliest date of stratum
Is it an heirloom?
Only for pre-Iron Age
4. Coins
Absolute – earliest date of stratum
Was coin long in circulation or hoarded?
Hellenistic period and later
5. Contemporary Inscriptions and other
Documents – Contents
Depends whether contents include
datable references. DSS do not!
Extremely rare in Palestine – papyrus,
ostraca, DSS
6. Contemporary Inscriptions and other
Documents – Style of Writing
(Paleography)
Relative
Now have good series for most of the
periods starting 9th C. BCE
7. Biblical Text
Texts purport to tell of a range of periods
When were they written? (See reading on
Documentary Hypothesis)
Did the author know much about the
period purported to describe?
Is it tendentious?
Biblical Texts (as preserved)
Archaeological Artifacts (as
preserved)
Concretize thought and behavior
Symbolic, "encoded" messages of past
Express deliberate intent, imagination
Selective, elitist by nature
Broadly representative, "populist"
Heavily edited in transmission
Constitute random sample
Reflect principal ideology
Reflect common practice
Closed corpus
Dynamic, expanding source of data
Continuous tradition
"Broken" tradition
Only a residue of past
"Curated artifacts"
Refract the past
Literature
"Real" life
Biblical Texts
(as preserved)
Archaeological
Artifacts
(as preserved)
Selective, elitist by nature
Broadly representative,
"populist"
Heavily edited in transmission Constitute random sample
Reflect principal ideology
Reflect common practice
Closed corpus
Continuous tradition
Dynamic, expanding source
of data
"Broken" tradition
Literature
"Real" life
Views of the Bible
These lectures relevant to views 2 and 3
1. Divine or divinely inspired error-free document.
Although revealed or authored at one time and
place can be understood in every time and
place without regard to original context.
2. Divinely inspired complex document whose
original meaning(s) can only be understood in
context of authors’ social-cultural-historical
context.
3. Human complex document whose original
meaning(s) can only be understood in context
of authors’ social-cultural-historical context.
Key Concept 1
What We Mean by Myth
• A structure through which a community organizes and makes
sense of its experience. The world "out there" does not impinge
itself on us … organized into meaningful patterns. Our experience of
the world is a complex transaction between what comes to us from
"out there" and the way we structure or "read" it.
• Myths are the spectacles that enable us to see order in what
would otherwise be confusion. They are created, initially, by
"reading" communities, beginning with their earliest attempts to
shape, explain, or make some sense out of their experience of
nature and history.
• Gradually, as the mythic structure seems to work, to be
confirmed by ongoing experience, it is refined, shared, and
transmitted to later generations. It becomes embodied in
official, "canonical" texts and assumes authoritative power. In
its final form, it becomes omnipresent and quasi-invisible, so
much has it become our intuitive way of confronting the world.
Key Concept 2
Ritual
• “… underlying the rituals, the careful reader will find an intricate web
of values that purports to model how we should relate to God and to
one another.
• Anthropology has taught us that when a society wishes to
express and preserve its basic values, it ensconces them in
rituals.‘… (R)ituals endure with repetition. They are visual and
participatory. They embed themselves in memory at a young
age, reinforced with each enactment.
• (W)hen rituals fail to concretize our theological commitment they
become physical oddities, superstitions, or small idolatries. Ritual is
the poetry of religion that leads us to a moment of transcendence.
When a ritual fails because it either lacks content or is misleading, it
loses its efficacy and its purpose. A ritual must signify something
beyond itself, whose attainment enhances the meaning and value of
life.
History of Biblical Israel
(1930-1970)
Two choices
1.
2.
Literary analysis (including Documentary
Hypothesis) of the Genesis-2 Kings =
archaeology of the biblical text. Key names
J Wellhausen; A Alt; M Noth (Noth’s The
History of Israel 1958)
Biblical archaeology = dirt archaeology in
intimate combination with (often naïve)
reading of the biblical text) – key names W
F Albright; G E Wright (J Bright’s A History
of Israel 1959)
Background to Documentary Hypothesis 1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The variations in the divine names in Genesis;
The secondary variations in diction and in style;
The parallel or duplicate accounts (doublets);
The continuity of the various sources;
The political assumptions implicit in the text;
The interests of the author(s).
Many portions of the Torah seem to imply more than one author. Doublets
and triplets repeat stories with different points of view. Notable repetitions
include:
– the creation-accounts in Genesis. The creation-story in Genesis first describes
a somewhat evolutionary process, starting with the creation of the Earth, then the
lower forms of life, then animals, and finally man and woman (created together).
It then begins the story again, but this time with the creation of man first, then
animals to assuage man's loneliness, and when this fails, the creation of Eve
from Adam's rib;
– in the flood story Noah takes his family into the ark twice;
– the stories of the covenant between God and Abraham;
– the naming of Isaac;
– the three strikingly similar narratives in Genesis about a wife confused for a
sister;
– the two stories of the revelation to Jacob at Beth-El;
Background to Documentary Hypothesis 2
•
three different versions of how the town of Be'ersheba got its name;
•
Exodus 38:26 mentions "603,550 men over 20 years old included in the census"
immediately after passage of the Red Sea, while Numbers 1:44-45 cites the precisely
identical count, "The tally of Israelites according to their paternal families, those over 20
years old, all fit for service. The entire tally was 603,550", in a census taken a full year later,
"on the first [day] of the second month in the second year of the Exodus" (Numbers 1:1);
•
the story of the flood in Genesis appears to claim that two of all kinds of animal went on
the ark, but also that seven of certain kinds went on, and that the flood lasted a year, but
also lasted only 40 days;
•
the Ten Commandments appear in Exod 20, but in a slightly different wording in Deut 5. A
second, almost completely different set of Ten Commandments appears in Exod 34;
•
Numbers 25 describes the rebellion at Peor and refers to daughters of Moab, but the same
chapter portrays one woman as a Midianite;
•
Moses' wife, though often identified as a Midianite (and hence Caucasian), appears in the
tale of Snow-white Miriam as a "Cushite" (Ethiopian), and hence black;
•
in some locations God appears friendly and capable of errors and regret, and walks the
earth talking to humans, but in others God seems unmerciful and distant;
•
a number of places or individuals have multiple names. For instance, some passages give
the name of the mountain that Moses climbed to receive the commandments as Horeb and
others as Sinai, Moses' father-in-law has at least three names in the Hebrew original ( ,‫י ֶֶתר‬
‫י ְִתרֹו‬, and ‫)רעּואֵ ל‬,
ְ etc.
Documentary Hypothesis 1
• That the Five Books of Moses (the Torah;
Genesis-Deuteronomy) represent a
combination of documents from different
sources rather than a single text authored by
one individual.
• We do not know the original contexts in
which the original documents were written
• Clear that different sources had different
points of view and wrote in different
historical contexts
Theological Concerns of the “Documents”
• P – priesthood and cult.
• D – covenant for Israel; its relationship
to God in terms of divine obligation and
reciprocity.
• J – God’s role both directly confronting
the individual and working behind the
scenes of human history.
• E – Role of the prophets in proclaiming
God’s message to the people.
Documentary Hypothesis 2
• The earliest documents incorporated
probably date to 9th-8th c. BC though could
have drawn on earlier written or oral
traditions. Most written c. 700 BC – 586 BC in
Jerusalem and after 586 BC in Babylon
• Genesis seems to be among the later parts to
be written yet it describes anachronistically
stories of Abraham (c. 1700 BC?). El Shaddai
early or late? Also note dates of David (c.
1005- 965 BC). See Wikipedia article The Bible and history
• Continuing authoring, editing and final
assembly c. 586 BC – c. 460 BC in Babylon.
Key to final product but blank to us.
Documentary Hypothesis 3
The hypothesis a redactor (R) composed the Torah by
combining four earlier source texts (J, E, P and D),
specifically:
• J (Jerusalem perhaps from 9th to 7th c. BC) - the
Jahwist. J describes a human-like God called Yahweh
and has a special interest in Judah and in the
Aaronid priesthood. J has an eloquent style and uses
an earlier form of Hebrew than P.
• E (Samaria region perhaps from 9th or 8th and before
722 BC) - the Elohist. E describes a human-like God
initially called El or Elohim, and called Yahweh
subsequent to the incident of the burning bush. E
focuses on biblical Israel and on the Shiloh
priesthood. E has a moderately eloquent style. E uses
an earlier form of Hebrew than P.
Documentary Hypothesis 4
• P (Jerusalem 8th and 7th c. BC) - the Priestly source.
P describes a distant and unmerciful God, sometimes
referred to as Elohim or as El Shaddai. P partly
duplicates J and E, altering to suit P's opinion P wrote
most of Leviticus. P has its main interest in an Aaronid
priesthood and in King Hezekiah and lists and dates.
• D (Shiloh priestly traditions developed in Jerusalem
after 715 and before 622 BC) - the Deuteronomist. D
consists of most of Deuteronomy. D probably also
wrote the Deteronomistic history (Josh, Judg, 1 & 2
Sam, 1 & 2 Kgs). D has a particular interest in the
Shiloh priesthood and in King Josiah. D uses a form of
Hebrew similar to that of P, but in a different literary
style.
Collapse of the Documentary Hypothesis (DH)
• Wellhausen’s classical presentation of the DH was
based on knowing the date of D (7th c. BCE) and
assumptions about the evolution of religion.
• Date of D remains valid but his evolutionary
assumptions are now widely rejected.
• The Making of the Pentateuch (1987) R. N. Whybray
examined the evidence for the Documentary Hypothesis
and concluded that it was insubstantial. His alternative
proposal was that the Pentateuch was essentially the
work of a single author who drew upon multiple
sources and disregarded, or was ignorant of,
modern notions of literary consistency and
smoothness of style and language.
Consequence of Collapse of the Documentary
Hypothesis (DH)
• Analysis of the text to recover its history have gone in every
direction. Some scholars still maintain a modified version of
the DH (See Who Wrote the Bible by R. E. Friedman). Other
biblical scholars consider the DH to be dead without any
consensus on anything to replace it.
• Many archaeologists (e.g. Dever; Finkelstein) continue to
assume the validity of the DH because, probably, there is no
usable alternative in sight.
• Given the fact that the limited evidence of the biblical text has
been closely examined for over 200 years there is no likelihood
that further reliable historical information can be derived from
the text. (Contrast archaeology where data is always
increasing.)
Deuteronomic Reform
• An official program of the Judean king Josiah (reigned 639-609
BCE) to reform the cult and effectively to profoundly reform the
theological, and probably also fiscal, underpinnings of the
Kingdom of Judah.
• Based on a scroll said to have been found in the Jerusalem
Temple which probably contained the core of the canonical Book of
Deuteronomy. Probably authored in Jerusalem, in 7th century BC,
drawing partly on materials originating in the former Kingdom of
Israel. The newly found (authored?) scroll, like the canonical Book
of Deuteronomy, had 3 characteristics which made it the bedrock of
both Judaism and Samaritanism:
– It was theocentric, leaving no room for a concept of
secularity;
– It was absolutely unbending in demanding justice and
monotheism and promised that God, who is just, would
reward or punish his people based on how they kept God's
Torah; and,
– It demanded a single cultic site for sacrifices. This last
demand is found nowhere else in the Torah
Josiah's Reform 1
From 2 Kings 22-23
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.
The high priest Hilkiah said ... "I have found the book of the law in the
house of the LORD." ... "….When the king heard the words of the
book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded ...
saying, "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people, and for all
Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for
great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because
our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to
all that is written concerning us." …
Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem
should be gathered to him. The king went up to the house of the
LORD, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both
small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of
the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. The
king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to
follow the LORD, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his
statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of
this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in
the covenant.
Josiah's Reform 2
From 2 Kings 22-23
'The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the
guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels
made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside
Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed
the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the
high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made
offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the
heavens. He brought out the image of Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside
Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust and threw
the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. He broke down the houses of
the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women
did weaving for Asherah.
He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places
where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba…. The priests
of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the LORD in
Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred.
He defiled the Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make
a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech. .. Moreover, Josiah
removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the towns of Samaria, which
kings of Israel had made.. Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards,
teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in
Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book
that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the LORD."
Finkelstein’s Proposal 1
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred
Texts Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman pp. 23 ff
The J and D sources - parts of Genesis and Deuteronomy-2 Kings reflect agenda and
background of Josiah’s reign when Josiah aimed at (re)unite all remaining Israelites and
traditional Israelite territories under his rule. This would be underwritten by God as he would
ensure that the written law (core of Deuteronomy) would be scrupulously followed including
making Jerusalem the only sacrificial site.
•
“Although these stories may have been based on certain historical kernels, they primarily
reflect the ideology and world-view of the writers.” “… (including) the story of the
patriarchs, the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, and even the saga of the glorious united
monarchy of David and Solomon….”
•
“(T)he genealogies of the patriarchs… offer a … commentary on political affairs in the
region in the Assyrian and Neo-Babalonian periods…. (M)any of the ethnic and place –
names (can) be dated to this time …(and) their characterizations mesh perfectly with what
we know of the relationship of neighboring peoples and kingdoms with Judah and Israel.”
•
The story of Jacob and Esau – 7th c. perceptions in ancient dress serving = divinely
legitimated then existing relationships Edom-Judah
Finkelstein’s Proposal 2
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred
Texts Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman pp. 23 ff
•
Patriarchal family joining northern (Jacob, Joseph) and southern (Abraham) traditions but
with Abraham as the senior.
•
Joshua’s conquests project back Josiah’s hopes. King Josiah is behind the mask of
Joshua.
•
“The glorious epic of the united monarchy was – like the stories of the patriarchs and the
saga of the Exodus and conquest – a brilliant composition that wove together ancient
heroic tales and legends into a coherent and persuasive prophecy for the people of Israel
in the 7th c. BCE.”
•
Josiah is shown as a noble successor to Moses (regives the Torah), Joshua (reconquors
the land) and David (re-establishes the Davidic monarchy over all Israel). Many key
characters – the pious Joshua, David, Hezekiah; the apostates Ahaz, Manasseh – are
porteayed as positive and negative mirror images of Josiah.
•
“(Josiah) a new David had come to the throne…. By cleansing Judah of the abomination of
idolatry – first introduced into Jerusalem by Solomon with his harem of foreign wives –
Josiah could nullify the transgressions that led to the breakdown of the Davidic “empire.”
Key Concept 3
History and Non-Historical Texts
“… you have to know what category of text you are dealing
with before you can begin analysis and comparisons. If you are
dealing with a literary text, it's a literary text; it's not a historic
annal …. There are, however, kernels of historic facts
imbedded in texts which are not at all historical. I don't think any
of us take the Gilgamesh epic as a historical document. But the plain
fact is that Gilgamesh has turned up in the king lists….. So we
mustn't despair of extracting history from legend, and even from
myth.”
Cyrus Gordon
Old Testament as Historical Source
Consensus of Almost all Serious Scholars
• That the Five Books of Moses (the Torah; GenesisDeuteronomy) represent a combination of documents from
different sources rather than a single text authored by one
individual.
• Different sources had different points of view and wrote in
different historical contexts. The point of view may be obvious,
the historical-political-social context which is key to
understanding the intended message and audience is usually
debatable.
• Almost all serious historians now agree that it is impossible to
isolate any historical information about specific events that
looks reliable from before the time of kings Saul (c. 1079-1007 BCE)
or David (c. 1018-970 BCE). Information gets more reliable as
approach main period of authoring 8th-7th c. BCE.
• For time of Saul, David, Solomon the Bible may or may not
contain much authentic, recoverable data.
Biblical Archaeology
No one agrees on a definition. The following are some of the
description/definitions:
• The archaeology of any area and period that might illuminate
the Bible. As such, it is a decontextualized and hence distorting
approach to –
– For the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) - Near Eastern (SyroPalestinian plus Mesopotamian) plus Egyptian Archaeology;
– For the New Testament - Classical Archaeology relating to Italy
and the eastern Roman provinces.
• Archaeology aimed at “proving the Bible right = ‘historical’
• An ‘arm-chair’ discipline of confronting the discipline of
Archaeology with the discipline of scientific study of the Bible.
This primarily takes place as a dialogue between
archaeologists and biblical scholars.
• An ‘arm-chair’ approach of tasking convenient archaeological
findings out of their context within scientific findings to “prove
the Bible right = ‘historical’”
Biblical Archaeology Definitions
Definition
Comments
1. The archaeology of any area and period that might
illuminate the Bible.
An approach to general Syro-Palestinian,
Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Classical Archaeology
that lift them out of their historic context .
2. Archaeology aimed at “proving the Bible right =
‘historical’
Religious apologetics which tends to bias site
selection and, more importantly, the interpretation of
finds (Jericho, Hebron, Sexuality and Canaanite
Religion).
3. An ‘arm-chair’ discipline of confronting the
discipline of anthropologically-based archaeology
with the discipline of scientific study of the Bible.
This primarily takes place as a dialogue between
archaeologists and biblical scholars.
See Dever What Did the Bible Writers Know
Grabbe Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How
4. An ‘arm-chair’ approach of tasking convenient
archaeological findings out of their context within
scientific findings to “prove the Bible right =
‘historical’
Religious apologetics which tends to bias the
interpretation of finds and to ignore inconvenient
ones
Do We Know It?
Outline of Biblical History as Seen by the 2 Approaches
Literary Analysis
Biblical Archaeology
The text reflects its time of writing thus –
• Virtually no historical events recoverable from
much before the time of Solomon;
• Genesis is mythical narrative, including etiological
stories. It may include some general folk memories
of earlier cultural periods may be in the text e.g. the
family, priest-less sacrifices in the Abraham stories.
The Patriarchal narratives, exodus and conquest are
clearly set in periods illuminated by archaeology. We
cannot prove the existence of an actual Abraham,
Moses, Joshua but they are likely to have existed. The
essential historicity of the Bible
The book of Joshua is completely unhistorical. On the
other hand, Judges does reflect some of the reality of
pre-monarchical Israel. Alt’s infiltration theory; Noth’s
amphictionary theory etc.
Pan-Israelite invasion based loosely on Joshua.
From David on basically a summary of the biblical text minus the miracles
Collapse of the Albrightian Synthesis
Two major works in the mid-1970s –
• Camels and Philistines
• Abraham and the south
• Abraham doesn’t fit in any known period
• Disjuncture between the archaeological and biblical conquest
narrative - cities destroyed (Jericho; Ai); no mention of
Egyptians when they were garrisoning Canaan in force until
about 1140 BCE; population (approx. 45,000 in hill country c.
1000 BCE vs. Bible’s approx. 4 million in wilderness)
• Increasing professionalization of archaeology
The collapse of the Albrightian synthesis essentially left most
archaeologists in agreement with Wellhausen that the biblical
texts reflect the culture, issues etc. of their time of authorship or
subsequent editing.
The collapse undermined the Biblical Theology movement.
Two interesting quotes
•“The French Dominican biblical scholar and archaeologist Roland
de Vaux noted ..."if the historical faith of Israel is not founded in
history, such faith is erroneous, and therefore, our faith is also”
(The Bible Unearthed; Finkelstein and Silberman 2001)
•“But the stories about the promise given to the patriarchs in
Genesis are not historical, nor do they intend to be historical;
they are rather historically determined expressions about Israel
and Israel’s relationship to its God, given in forms legitimate to
their time, and their truth lies not in their facticity, nor in their
historicity, but in their ability to express the reality that Israel
experienced. (The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham by
Thomas L. Thompson 1974)
What Mainstream Scholars Believe Now
• The Bible has a complex history at every
point requiring to be interpreted in the
appropriate cultural-historical context.
• Perfect “objectivity” is unachievable but
we should try to approach it by identifying
and correcting for our biases
• Political, religious and other ideologies
must not impact on analysis or
predetermine analytical outcomes i.e.
follow the evidence wherever it leads
Principles of the Historical Method 1
from Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? by Lester L. Grabbe 2008 pp. 35-36
1. All potential sources should be considered. After a
full critical evaluation, some sources might be
excluded….
2. Preference should be given to primary sources …
those contemporary of nearly contemporary with the
events being described. This means archaeology and
inscriptions. The biblical text is almost always a
secondary source, written and(/or) edited long after the
events ostensibly described. In some cases, the text
may depend on earlier sources, but these sources were
edited and adapted … (and) must be dug out from the
present context.
3. The context of the longue durée must always be
recognized…. (E.g. difference in economic potential
between the north and south)
Principles of the Historical Method 2
from Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? by Lester L. Grabbe 2008 pp. 35-36
4. Each episode or event has to be judged on
its own merits….
5. All reconstructions are provisional….
6. All reconstructions have to be argued for.
There can be no default position. You cannot just
follow the text unless it can be disproved…. The
only valid arguments are historical ones. Ideology,
utility, theology, morality, politics, authority – non of
these has a place in judging how to reconstruct an
event.
Maximalists and Minimalists
There are a range of views on the degree
to which (a) useful cultural background
information and (b) historically accurate
information on events and personalities
can be derived from the Hebrew Bible
particularly Genesis-2 Kings. There is the
rational/scientific mid-range flanked by
the dogmatically driven extremes.
Mid-Range Maximalists and Minimalists
Mid-Range Maximalists – these accept the nonmiraculous historical stories as basically
historically true unless contradicted by reliable
historical or environmental information. Egs.
Kitchen, Hoffmeier
Mid-Range Minimalists – skeptical of the
historicity of the biblical stories unless reliable
historical or environmental information
supports their credibility. E.g. Grabbe,
Finkelstein
Extreme Maximalists
• The Bible is (largely) infallible. Everything
is interpreted in this light.
• If it is written it is “true” in a modern
historic sense (no concept of myth)
• Archaeology is useful as a smorgasbord of
handy teaching aids
Extreme Minimalists=Nihilists Believe 1
Main representatives - Niels Peter Lemche, Thomas L.
Thompson (University of Copenhagen); Philip R. Davies, Keith
Whitelam (University of Sheffield) who vary in their views
but the following are representative –
• The Hebrew Bible is a product of the religious and
cultural “identity crisis” of Judaism in the Hellenistic
era, not the story of an actual historical Israel in the
long-gone Iron Age.
• It thus constitutes a literary tradition, not a historical
document; it is a “social construct” that reflects the
religious interests and propaganda of a late, elitist
theocratic party within Judaism. It reveals their history,
if any.
Extreme Minimalists Believe 2
• It follows that “Biblical” and “ancient” Israel are
fictitious—myths invented by the Biblical writers, not
historical realities. Even if a “historical Israel” in the Iron
Age could be reconstructed, it would consist of a very
brief outline of a handful of later kings and a few skeletal
political events, corroborated mainly by extra-Biblical
texts. Archaeology may be a putative source of history
writing, but in practice it is largely “mute” owing to scant
data and methodological imprecision.
• There was no “early Israel” as a distinct ethnic entity
in the Iron I period in Palestine, no Israelite state before
the ninth century B.C.E., no Judahite state before the
late eighth century B.C.E., no significant political capital
in Jerusalem before the second century B.C.E.
Extreme Minimalists Believe 3
• Archaeologists and Biblical scholars should
concentrate on writing the history of the
Palestinian peoples, not that of an imaginary
“ancient Israel.”
• Henceforth, Jewish and Christian theology
should be “liberated” from historical
considerations, allowed simply to compete in the
marketplace of ideas in a multicultural and
relativist society.
• Finally, the Biblical “meta-narrative,” the
foundation of much of the Western cultural
tradition, should be rejected as subversive.
Extreme Minimalist-Extreme Maximalist
Similarities
• Dogmatically Driven
• Minimalists – Post-modernism
• Maximalists – Fundamentalist Christianity
and Judaism
Can Reliable History be Culled
from the Bible for 1000-586 BCE?
• The answer of the extreme biblical
minimalists is “no”
• The answer of mainstream scholars is that
some parts of the Bible are more reliable
historically than others; each must be looked
at separately. We have evidence for biblical
tendentiousness, and for a remarkable
historical memory reflected in biblical texts.
Thus we should come to a new
understanding of the biblical texts and their
subtle historical value, not denigrate them as
historically valueless
Reaction of Extreme Minimalists to Tel Dan
Inscription
• Previously had demanded archaeological
evidence of David’s existence
• Forgery
• Placename
• Beit-Dod – house of uncle, lover
• Beit Dud – house of kettle
Evidence Against the Extreme Minimalists
• Inscriptions
• Many details of biblical evidence that
agree with what we know of the period
written about but could not have been
known to later writers except through old
documents –e.g. the architecture of
Solomon’s Temple, treaty format etc. etc.
• Biblical and Epigraphic Hebrew
Guidance from Sherlock Holmes
“….when you have eliminated all which is
impossible, then whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth…..”
Postmodernism
• Postmodernism mid- to late-20th-century theory of
knowledge which states that there is no real knowledge
of an objective, external world that can be perceived by
the human senses. As Nietzsche put it, “There are no
facts, only interpretations.”
• It was essentially a rebellion against all aspects of the
modern culture that had prevailed in the West since the
late 19th century. Specifically indicted were what may be
called aspects of the Western cultural tradition:
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Cartesian individualism
Rationalism, empiricism and positivist science
The modern, liberal democratic nation-state
Capitalist economics
Industrial and technological society
Western colonialism and imperialism
Belief in common, universal progress