Transcript The Emergence of the Israelites

The Emergence of the
Israelites
Settlement:
(See Textbook, pp. 69-98)
- The books of Joshua and Judges are part of the
Deuteronomistic History;
- Theology of this history may be summarized (Deut 2830):
- when Israel is faithful to Yahweh and follows the
Torah it will prosper;
- when Israel sins, e.g., mixing the cult of Yahweh with
Canaanite elements, the nation will suffer national
defeat;
- thus, a cycle: sin; punishment; repentance;
forgiveness; restoration.
(see Judges 3.7-11; 3.12-30; 4.1-5.31; etc.).
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Settlement:
- thus, a theological interpretation of history;
- as a result, Finkelstein says that we must turn to
archaeology and extra-biblical texts to learn about the
emergence of Israel in the central highlands of Palestine
in the 12th-11th century;
- the Merneptah Stele: testifies to the presence of an
“Israel” in Canaan in the late 13th century BC;
- archaeology provides evidence of a wave of settlement
in the highlands of Canaan at about the same time.
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Merneptah Stele:
-Merneptah (1213-1203 BC) (13th son of Ramesses II);
- the stele primarily commemorates a victory in a
campaign against the Libu and Meshwesh Libyans and
their Sea Peoples allies ( in Year 5…, that is, 1209/1208
BC);
- however, final two lines refer to a prior military
campaign in Canaan at the end of the 13th century;
- the conquest of three cities: Ashkelon, Gezer, and
Yanoam; and
- the annihilation of a group of people called “Israel”;
- thus, evidence for the presence of a group by the name
Israel in Canaan at this time (a people; not a country).
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Merneptah Stele –
Thebes (granite stone)
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Merneptah Stele (318 x 163 cm).
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Route described on the Merneptah
Stele.
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Settlement:
(See Textbook, pp. 69-98)
- Intensive archaeological surface surveys in the central
hill country of Palestine and elsewhere;
- reveal an entirely new settlement pattern in Iron Age I
(1200-1000 BC – traditional dating);
- hundreds of new, small sites were inhabited in the
mountainous areas of the Upper and Lower Galilee, in the
hills of Samaria and Ephraim, in Benjamin, in the northern
Negev, and in parts of central and northern Transjordan
(however, not in southern Transjordan);
- can much of this activity be related to the Israelites or
proto-Israelites?
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Tribal Allotment According
to the Bible.
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Settlement:
- in Galilee: small agricultural villages ca. 1 acre in area;
- at Hazor and Dan: occupational strata attributable to the
Israelites?
- in Lower Galilee;
- in the Central Hill Country: evidence of intensive
settlement:
- largest villages were 10-20 acres in area;
- others ranged between 2-5 acres or less;
- in Ephraim: very small, extending from a few houses
to 1.1.5 acres of built-up area;
- for example: Shiloh, `Ai, Bethel, Khirbet Raddanah,
and `Izbet Sartah.
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Settlement:
-In the land of Benjamin:
- some 12 Iron Age I (1200-1000 BC) sites, for
example, Tell en-Nasbeh, Tell el-Ful.
- In the hills of Judah:
- sites attributable to the Israelite settlement is almost
completely non-existent in the Hebron hills south of
Bethlehem;
- the site of Giloh, south of Jerusalem, in an exception.
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Settlement:
- In the region of Arad and the Beersheba Valley:
- no Late Bronze Age settlements, and only a few sites
established in the Iron Age I, for example, Tel Masos
(a 20-acre site);
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Settlement:
- Population: 60, 000 according to Finkelstein.
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Settlement:
- Many of the early Iron Age I agricultural settlements
abandoned at the end of the 11th century BC;
- is this related to the concentration of population in the
emerging towns in the period of the Monarchy, from the
10th century onward?
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Finkelstein’s Position on the Emergence of Israel:
- Much in common with two previous waves of occupation
in these areas;
- processes of sedentarization and nomadization of
indigenous groups in response to changing conditions;
- much of Iron I settlement was part of a long-term cycle:
- the early Israelites were, in fact, Canaanites.
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Finkelstein’s Position on the Emergence of Israel:
- the outcome: the emergence of the Israelite and
Judahite territorial states;
-The historical emergence of the Israelite state around
900 BC in the northern highlands;
- the biblical depiction of the rise of early Israel was
shaped by the rise of the Judahite state in the late Iron II
period;
- this depiction cast by the Deuteronomistic Historian to
serve Judah’s purposes;
- the biblical narrative of the emergence of Israel held
sway until archaeology came to the center stage of
historical research on Canaan-Israel.
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Mazar’s Position:
- Nothing in the archaeological findings points to the
foreign origin of the hill-country settlers;
- a combination of components from all three theories on
the Conquest/Settlement may explain the hill-country
settlement as a complex process;
- the origins of the groups could have been quite diverse:
- some could have been local pastoralists;
- others could have been pastoralists arriving from
Transjordan or other parts of the country;
- the archaeological evidence appears to depict a
settlement process involving tribal groups;
- possibly included are displaced Canaanites or
immigrants from Syria, that is, refugees.
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Mazar’s Position:
- Who was responsible for the traditions concerning the
sojourn in Egypt, the Exodus, Mount Sinai, and the figure
of Moses?
- perhaps the “Shasu of Se`ir” of the Egyptian inscriptions;
- Shasu Yahwi: in Egyptian texts as well;
- Yahweh comes from Seir, that is, Edom (Judg 5.4, see
also Deut 33.2);
- Shasu are related to Edom in the Egyptian sources;
- Frank Cross: the “Moses group” migrated during the
13th-12th centuries BC from Egypt to Midian (see Exodus
2.15-22; 3.1) then to Edom and Canaan bringing the new
religion, Yahwism, with them.
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