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Israel Israel (Ancient) 441 Israel (Ancient), History of 442 his way home. The virtually silent journey opens consisting mainly of people from the former king- with this message: dom of Judah (Ezek 2 : 3; 3 : 1; etc.; Ezra 7 : 13); I tried. I think you would all agree that I tried. To be (6) “true” Israel, consisting of returnees from true, to be strong, to be kind, to love, to be right, but Babylonian exile in contrast to those who had re- I wasn’t. And I know you knew this, in each of your mained in the land who were regarded as compro- ways. And I am sorry. All is lost here, except for soul mised (e.g., Ezra 2 : 59; 4 : 3; 6 : 16; Neh 7 : 61; and body, that is what’s left of it, and a half day’s ra- 11 : 20; 13 : 3). tion. It’s inexcusable, I know that now. How it could For the reception of the Bible in the modern have taken this long to admit that, I’m not sure, but it State of Israel, see “Western Asia.” did. I fought to the end. I’m not sure what that is Steven L. McKenzie worth, but know that I did. I’ve always hoped for more for you all. I will miss you. I’m sorry. See also /Holy Land; /Israel (Ancient), History / / It takes the experience of separation to understand of; Israel, Land of; Israel, People of; / / his life and to see his place in his world. Whether Israelite Religion; Israelites, Children/Sons of / / he finds his way home remains an open question. Israel; Promised Land; Western Asia Bibliography: ■ Heller, C., “The Harrowing Question of All Is Lost: How Do You Mourn Your Own Death?,” The Atlantic Israel (Ancient), History of (October 21, 2013; www.theatlantic.com). Sandie Gravett Any reconstruction of the history of Israel must dif- ferentiate between “biblical Israel” and “historical Israel.” The former denotes the history of Israel as Israel it is found in the books of the Bible, while the latter denotes the reconstruction of historical events on The name “Israel” (MT Yiśrāēl; LXX Ισραηλ) is used the basis of extrabiblical evidence. The biblical texts for different entities in the HB/OT: offer only glimpses of the historical reality during (1) the patriarch Jacob (Gen 32 : 28; 35 : 10; 21– the First and Second Temple periods. For example, 22; etc.), the eponymous ancestor of the Israelites the biblical writers show no awareness of the signif- (see “Jacob [Patriarch]”); icance of the city of Kinneret (Tell el-‘Oreme) on (2) Jacob/Israel’s descendants, the people of Is- the Sea of Genezareth (Josh 19 : 35), which was an rael or the Israelites (e.g., Exod 3 : 16, 18; 5 : 2); they important center as a military fortress during the can also be called the “children” or “sons” of Israel 11th and 10th centuries BCE and as the location of (often translated “Israelites” in the NRSV, Exod an Assyrian palace during the 8th and 7th centuries 3 : 9–10; 5 : 14–15; etc.), the tribes of Israel (e.g., BCE. For the 5th and 4th centuries, recent studies Gen 49 : 28; Deut 29 : 21; Josh 24 : 1), and the have shown that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, “house” of Israel (e.g., Exod 16 : 31; Lev 10 : 6; Num which were often used by previous scholarship in 20 : 29) (see “Israel, People of”; “Israelites, Children/ reconstructing the history of the Second Temple pe- Sons of Israel”); riod, present only one among several different con- (3) the land promised by YHWH to Abraham’s ceptions of “Judaism” in the Persian period. descendants and given to the people of Israel to pos- On the basis of the extrabiblical evidence, the sess, variously defined as the land of the Canaanites history of Israel can be divided into five major peri- (Gen 12), from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates ods, which span from the earliest extant reference (Gen 15 : 18), the hill country, Negev (south), and to “Israel” in the ancient Near East in 1208 BCE up Shephelah (lowlands; Josh 10 : 40), and “from Dan to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to Beer-sheba” (e.g., Judg 20 : 1; 1 Sam 3 : 20) (see and the transition from the Second Temple period “Israel, Land of”); to the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism. (4) the kingdom of Israel, describing different 1. Israel in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. political entities (see “Israel [Ancient], History of”; The origins of Israel remain in obscurity. Every at- “Kingdoms of Israel and Judah”): tempt to associate pre-monarchic Israel or the “He- (a) the “united” kingdom ruled by Saul, David, brews” with the H˚ apiru mentioned in the Amarna and Solomon that included the tribe of Judah (e.g., Letters or with the seminomadic Shasu in Egyptian 1 Sam 13 : 13; 15 : 28; 24 : 20; 2 Sam 5 : 12); texts remains hypothetical. If one is to start with (b) the northern kingdom of Israel which sepa- historically certain evidence, one must begin with rated from the kingdom of Judah and its Davidic the victory stela of the Egyptian pharaoh Mernep- dynasty following Solomon (1 Kgs 12 : 16–33; tah (1208 BCE). This stela knows of “Israel” as a 15 : 9; etc.); people in the southern Levant (COS 2.6). Thus, “Is- (c) the kingdom of Judah after the fall of north- rael” is first mentioned as a group of people in the ern Israel in 722 BCE and including refugees from land of Palestine and not, for instance, in Egypt there (2 Chr 31 : 1; 33 : 18; 35 : 25); (Exod 1) or in Mesopotamia (Gen 11–12). (5) in continuity with 4c, the remnant of the During the time of Merneptah, the Southern Le- people of Israel after the fall of Judah in 586 BCE, vant was under Egyptian control. The pharaohs of Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 13 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2016 Download Date | 1/1/19 11:25 PM 443 Israel (Ancient), History of 444 the 18th and 19th Dynasties had created a system main significant for the 11th and 10th centuries: of vassal states to which pre-Israelite Jerusalem also (1) not only “Israelites,” “Philistines,” or “Sea Peo- belonged, as the Amarna Letters attest (COS 3.92A). ples” (cf. the Report of Wenamun, COS 1.41) lived in Archaeological surveys and excavations document the southern Levant, but so did the descendants of the existence of a new village-centered culture in the Late Bronze Age city states. Moreover, (2) the the hill country during Iron Age I. Archaeological transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age evidence gives no indication of nomadic origins for I and Iron Age IIA is characterized by both continu- Israel; rather, the Israelites were presumably peas- ities and discontinuities; for example, at Beth ants who lived within the orbit of Late Bronze Age Shean, the conditions of the Late Bronze Age per- cities and used the decline of Egyptian control in sisted up to the Iron Age IIA. the southern Levant as well as changes in urban cul- 2. From the Late 10th century to the Fall of Sa- ture to their advantage. It is unclear whether a maria (722/720 BCE). The period from the end of group of Yhwh-worshipers from Egypt joined these the time of David and Solomon up to the fall of peasants or whether the historical kernel of the exo- Samaria in 722/720 BCE was characterized by the dus tradition arose instead out of a liberation from western expansion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Al- Egyptian rule in the southern Levant itself. “Is- ready in the 9th century, the city- and territorial rael’s” presence in Egypt is not attested historically, states of the northern Syro-Palestinian land-bridge and a possible historical context for the exodus can- used their commercial relations to form a military not be found. Israel’s “settlement” is therefore pri- alliance. The inscriptions of Shalmaneser III (859– marily to be understood as a process that took place 824) attest to a coalition of “12 kings,” of which the within the land. northern kingdom of Israel was a part; at the battle Just as unclear as its beginnings is “Israel’s” of Qarqar in 853, Ahab, king of Israel, supplied the transition from early Iron Age village culture to the largest contingent of chariots (COS 2.113A: 263– two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The campaign 64). After its defeat by the Assyrians, the northern of the Egyptian pharaoh Sheshonq I in 926 BCE kingdom under Jehu was required to pay tribute (Weippert: 102) highlights the relations between in 841 (COS 2.113F: 270). This dependence on the the two kingdoms during the 10th century: the Assyrians persisted up to the capture of Samaria in north, i.e., the later northern kingdom, was of in- 722/720. From a historical perspective, and in con- terest to Egypt, while the south, including Jerusa- trast to the biblical account, the northern kingdom lem, was not (in contrast to 1 Kgs 14 : 25–26). At the was more important than the southern kingdom. same time, Sheshonq’s campaign reveals a principle According to the Mesha inscription (ca. 835, COS that continued to apply into the Hellenistic period: 2.23), Omri, the founder of a northern Israelite dy- the various imperial powers were less interested in nasty, managed to expand as far as Transjordan.
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