The Land Before The Kingdom Of Israel A History Of The Southern Levant And The People Who Populated It

Author : Brendon C. Benz
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 511 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781575064284

Get Book

The Land Before the Kingdom of Israel by Brendon C. Benz Pdf

Ancient Israel is widely regarded as having been set apart from the nations, representing a unique sociopolitical entity in the ancient world. United by a common tribal identity and a commitment to worshiping the God who delivered them from Egypt exclusively, the Israelites established an egalitarian community that stood in contrast to the hierarchical polities of their polytheistic. In spite of these traditions, modern scholarship for the most part has recognized the points of continuity between Canaanite religion and Israelite religion and concluded that the two religious systems largely developed from the same cultural milieu. However, scholars continue to contend that the Canaanites’ and Israelites’ social and political structures were distinct. Most scholars agree that the Israelites were geographical, economic, and/or political outsiders. The Land before the Kingdom of Israel responds to this modern perspective by contributing an original reconstruction of the sociopolitical landscape of the Late Bronze Age Levant that exposes points of continuity between the polities and populations that inhabited the land and those that were later identified with Israel. By examining multiple sources, Brendon Benz isolates and accounts for complex social and political realities that have gone unnoticed. In so doing, he sets the stage for viewing premonarchic Israel and the Bible’s depiction of it in a new way. In addition to shedding light on historical memories embedded in the books of Judges and Samuel that do not conform to conventional wisdom regarding Israel’s early history, Benz demonstrates that a contingent of the early Israelites was heir to the social and political structures of their Late Bronze Age Levantine predecessors.

Author : Brendon C. Benz
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 655 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9781646022762

Get Book

The Land Before the Kingdom of Israel: A History of the Southern Levant and the People Who Populated It by Brendon C. Benz Pdf

Author : Michael J. Stahl
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 498 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2021-03-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004447721

Get Book

The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition by Michael J. Stahl Pdf

In The “God of Israel” in History and Tradition, Michael Stahl examines the historical and ideological significances of the formulaic title “god of Israel” (’elohe yisra’el) in the Hebrew Bible using critical theory on social power and identity.

Author : Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 375 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2022-11-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9780567663238

Get Book

The Dawn of Israel by Lester L. Grabbe Pdf

In this companion volume to his bestselling Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? Lester L. Grabbe provides the background history of the main ancient Near Eastern peoples and empires: Babylonia, Assyria, Urartu, Hittites, Amorites, Egyptians. Grabbe's focus is on Palestine/Canaan and covers the early second millennium, including the Middle Bronze Age and the Second Intermediate Period and Hyksos rule of Egypt. Grabbe also addresses the question of a 'patriarchal period'. The main focus of the book is on the second half of the second millennium: Late Bronze and early Iron Age, the Egyptian New Kingdom, the Amarna letters, the Sea Peoples, the question of 'the exodus', the early settlements in the hill country of Palestine, and the first mention of Israel in the Merenptah inscription. Archaeology and the contribution of the social sciences both feature heavily, as does inscriptional and iconographic material. As such this volume provides a fascinating portrayal of ancient Israel and this definitive work by one of the world's leading biblical historians will be of interest to all students and scholars of biblical history.

Author : Karen Radner,Nadine Moeller,D. T. Potts
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 1001 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2022-04-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9780190687601

Get Book

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III by Karen Radner,Nadine Moeller,D. T. Potts Pdf

"The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East offers a comprehensive and fully illustrated survey of the history of Egypt and Western Asia (Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Iran) in five volumes, from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander of Great. The authors represent a highly international mix of leading academics whose expertise brings alive the people, places and times of the remote past. The emphasis lies firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities under investigation. The individual chapters present the key textual and material sources underpinning the historical reconstruction, giving special attention to the most recent archaeological finds and how they have impacted our interpretation. The first volume covers the long period from the mid-tenth millennium to the late third millennium BC and presents the history of the Near East in ten chapters "From the Beginnings to Old Kingdom Egypt and the Dynasty of Akkad". Key topics include the domestication of animals and plants, the first permanent settlements, the subjugation and appropriation of the natural environment, the emergence of complex states and belief systems, the invention of the earliest writing systems and the wide-ranging trade networks that linked diverse population groups across deserts, mountains and oceans"--

Author : Victor H. Matthews
Publisher : Essentials of Biblical Studies
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2018-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9780190231149

Get Book

The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel by Victor H. Matthews Pdf

Designed as a supplementary resource for students who have an interest in the ancient Near East and biblical history, this volume provides a basic introduction to the historical, archaeological, and socio-contextual aspects of ancient Israel during its early foundation period through the endof the monarchy in Judah. Victor Matthews integrates extra-biblical information on the physical realities of geo- and super-power politics, international and interregional movement of peoples, and the evolutionary process of complex states in the ancient Near East with information from biblicalnarratives in order to explore the development of ancient Israelites' identity, cultural traditions, and interactions with other major cultures. In particular, he examines aspects of everyday life in both village culture and urban settings as a key to the development of social, legal, and religioustraditions and practices. The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel features an easy to navigate format, non-technical language, and a series of informative insets that highlights important methodological concepts and comparative material.

Author : Eric M. Trinka
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2022-02-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000544084

Get Book

Cultures of Mobility, Migration, and Religion in Ancient Israel and Its World by Eric M. Trinka Pdf

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.

Author : Mark S. Smith,Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith
Publisher : Fortress Press
Page : 924 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781506480497

Get Book

Judges 1 by Mark S. Smith,Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith Pdf

This groundbreaking volume presents a new translation of the text and detailed interpretation of almost every word or phrase in the book of Judges, drawing from archaeology and iconography, textual versions, biblical parallels, and extrabiblical texts, many never noted before. Archaeology also serves to show how a story of the Iron II period employed visible ruins to narrate supposedly early events from the so-called "period of the Judges." The synchronic analysis for each unit sketches its characters and main themes, as well as other literary dynamics. The diachronic, redactional analysis shows the shifting settings of units as well as their development, commonly due to their inner-textual reception and reinterpretation. The result is a remarkably fresh historical-critical treatment of 1:1-10:5.

Author : Alan Cadwallader,James R. Harrison,Angela Standhartinger,L. L. Welborn
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 395 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2023-12-28
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567695987

Get Book

The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity by Alan Cadwallader,James R. Harrison,Angela Standhartinger,L. L. Welborn Pdf

A complete geographical and thematic overview of the village in an antiquity and its role in the rise of Christianity. The volume begins with a “state-of-question” introduction by Thomas Robinson, assessing the interrelation of the village and city with the rise of early Christianity. Alan Cadwallader then articulates a methodology for future New Testament studies on this topic, employing a series of case studies to illustrate the methodological issues raised. From there contributors explore three areas of village life in different geographical areas, by means of a series of studies, written by experts in each discipline. They discuss the ancient near east (Egypt and Israel), mainland and Isthmian Greece, Asia Minor, and the Italian Peninsula. This geographic focus sheds light upon the villages associated with the biblical cities (Israel; Corinth; Galatia; Ephesus; Philippi; Thessalonica; Rome), including potential insights into the rural nature of the churches located there. A final section of thematic studies explores central issues of local village life (indigenous and imperial cults, funerary culture, and agricultural and economic life).

Author : John Goldingay
Publisher : Baker Books
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2023-04-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781493440054

Get Book

Joshua (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Historical Books) by John Goldingay Pdf

John Goldingay is one of the most prolific and creative Old Testament scholars working today. In this book he draws on the best of biblical scholarship as well as the Christian tradition to offer a substantive and useful commentary on Joshua. The commentary is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text. Goldingay treats Joshua as an ancient Israelite document that speaks to twenty-first-century Christians. He examines the text section by section--offering a fresh translation, textual notes, paragraph-level commentary, and theological reflection--and addresses important issues and problems that flow from the text and its discussion. This volume, the first in a new series on the Historical Books, complements other Baker Commentary on the Old Testament series: Pentateuch, Wisdom and Psalms, and Prophets. Each series volume is grounded in rigorous scholarship but is useful for those who preach and teach. The series editors are David G. Firth (Trinity College, Bristol) and Lissa M. Wray Beal (Wycliffe College, University of Toronto).

Author : D. A. Wood
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 651 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2022-12-20
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 9781666760040

Get Book

Canaad by D. A. Wood Pdf

“Gods against gods, men against men, each kind / against each other: Who is in the right? / Truly, which ones could ever conquer Death?” So Laeya—the Canaanite goddess Athirat masked in human form—asks after a crucial battle. Situated in the interimperial turmoil of the Late Bronze Age, Canaäd follows this heroine’s journey as it dovetails with that of Aqhat, a refugee from the Levantine coast. After tragedy casts Aqhat into the desert, a prophecy affords him the opportunity to slay three deities before the year’s end and thereby become divine himself. Determined to right the wrongs of those responsible for his community’s suffering, he and his companions join forces with Laeya, setting out to permanently revolutionize how mortals and gods interrelate—with consequences that even the gods cannot fathom. At once a speculative and historically attuned study of religion, Canaäd brings the Ancient Near East to life in tangible and dramatic form, weaving together largely unknown histories and numerous fragmentary myths from a Canaanite perspective.

Author : Shlomit Bechar
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2022-08-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646022045

Get Book

Political Change and Material Culture in Middle to Late Bronze Age Canaan by Shlomit Bechar Pdf

Do shifts in material culture instigate administrative change, or is it the shifting political winds that affect material culture? This is the central question that Shlomit Bechar addresses in this book, taking the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (seventeenth–fourteenth centuries BCE) in northern Canaan as a test case. Combining archaeological and historical analysis, Bechar identifies the most significant changes evident in architectural and ceramic remains from this period and then explores how and why contemporary political shifts may have influenced, or been influenced by, these developments. Bechar persuasively argues that the Egyptian conquest of the southern Levant—enabled by local economic decline following the expulsion of the Hyksos and the fall of northern Syrian cities—was the impetus for these changes in ceramics and architecture. Using a macro-typological approach to examine the ceramic assemblages, she also discusses the impact of the influx of Aegean imports, suggesting that while “attached specialists” were primarily responsible for ceramic production in the Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age ceramics were increasingly made by “independent specialists,” another important result of the new administrative system created following Thutmose III’s campaign. An important contribution to our understanding of the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, this original and insightful book will appeal to specialists in the Bronze Age Levant, especially those interested in using ceramic assemblages to examine social and political change.

Author : Sara J. Milstein
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2016-09-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190205409

Get Book

Tracking the Master Scribe by Sara J. Milstein Pdf

When we encounter a text, whether ancient or modern, we typically start at the beginning and work our way toward the end. In Tracking the Master Scribe, Sara J. Milstein demonstrates that for biblical and Mesopotamian literature, this habit can lead to misinterpretation. In the ancient Near East, "master scribes"--those who had the authority to produce and revise literature--regularly modified their texts in the course of transmission. One of the most effective techniques for change was to add something new to the front, what Milstein calls "revision through introduction." This method allowed scribes to preserve their received material while simultaneously recasting it. As a result, many biblical and Mesopotamian texts continue to be interpreted solely through the lens of their final contributions. First impressions carry weight. Tracking the Master Scribe demonstrates what is to be gained when we engage questions of literary history in the context of how scribes actually worked. Drawing upon the two earliest corpora that allow us to track large-scale change, the book provides substantial hard evidence of revision through introduction, as well as a set of detailed case studies that offer fresh insight into well-known biblical and Mesopotamian texts. The result is the first comprehensive profile of this key scribal method: one that was ubiquitous in the ancient Near East and epitomizes the attitudes of the master scribes toward the literature that they left behind.

Author : Kyle H. Keimer,George A. Pierce
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 823 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2022-11-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000773248

Get Book

The Ancient Israelite World by Kyle H. Keimer,George A. Pierce Pdf

This volume presents a collection of studies by international experts on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society, economy, religion, language, culture, and history, synthesizing archaeological remains and integrating them with discussions of ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. Driven by theoretically and methodologically informed discussions of the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant, the 47 chapters in The Ancient Israelite World provide foundational, accessible, and detailed studies in their respective topics. The volume considers the history of interpretation of ancient Israel, studies on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society and history, and avenues for present and future approaches to the ancient Israelite world. Accompanied by over 150 maps and figures, it allows the reader to gain an understanding of key issues that archaeologists, historians and biblical scholars have faced and are currently facing as they attempt to better understand ancient Israelite society. The Ancient Israelite World is an essential reference work for students and scholars of ancient Israel and its history, culture, and society, whether they are historians, archaeologists or biblical scholars.

Author : Daniel D. Pioske
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2018-08-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190649876

Get Book

Memory in a Time of Prose by Daniel D. Pioske Pdf

Memory in a Time of Prose investigates a deceptively straightforward question: what did the biblical scribes know about times previous to their own? Daniel D. Pioske attempts to answer this question by studying the sources, limits, and conditions of knowing that would have shaped biblical stories told about a past that preceded the composition of these writings by a generation or more. This book is comprised of a series of case studies that compare biblical references to an early Iron Age world (ca. 1175-830 BCE) with a wide range of archaeological and historical evidence from the era in which these stories are set. Pioske examines the relationship between the past disclosed through these historical traces and the past represented within the biblical narrative. He discovers that the knowledge available to the biblical scribes about this period derived predominantly from memory and word of mouth, rather than from a corpus of older narrative documents. For those Hebrew scribes who first set down these stories in prose writing, the means for knowing a past and the significance attached to it were, in short, wed foremost to the faculty of remembrance. Memory in a Time of Prose reveals how the past was preserved, transformed, or forgotten in the ancient world of oral, living speech that informed biblical storytelling.