OUR NEW UNDERSTANDING OF

1600 BC

Major

Powers THE OLD TESTAMENT/TANAKH Middle

BronzeAge  1976 BC. Traditional Rabbinical date of Abraham's 1500 birth. Patriarchs a period of migration, but of Gods of the Patriarchs and encounter El directly through 1476 BC. Traditional Rabbinical sedentarization. There is no dreams and visions (not through the The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Judges date of the Exodus. evidence for a migration into mediation of prophets or priests). Jacob (Israel) and Joseph were Canaan from either Mesopotamia, El and Asherah They build altars and offer traditionally dated anywhere from or from the desert (the Amorite The chief gods of the Patriachs and sacrifices where they see fit (not at 1800 BC (Middle Bronze Age) to the Judges during the conquest of 1400 BC (Late Bronze age). It was hypothesis). The account of Genesis a central temple). El is clearly a is full of anachronisms: camels were Canaan were El (later Elohim in assumed that Genesis preserved family god. not in use at the supposed time of Hebrew), the chief god in the traditions handed down from that 'Israel', a Canaanite word, takes its the patriarchs, and many of the Canaanite pantheon, and his time, more or less accurately name from the god El. places mentioned did not exist until consort Asherah (Astarte, Ishtar). El depicting the realities of the Asherah was later obliterated from after the time of David, about has many titles such as El Elyon post-Exilic Judaism, and remained 1400 patriarchs’ lives, the origins of the ‘God Most High’, El Shaddai ‘God Hebrews in southern Mesopotamia, 1000 BC. only in the OT as a wilfully

Canaan is an Egyptian province It is now believed that the stories of the Destroyer’, or in personal forms misinterpeted linguistic relic taken until the end of the Bronze Age and their migration into Canaan. Genesis are literary creations, and such as the ‘God of Abraham’, Archaeological evidence shows that to be 'totem', 'tree', or 'grove'. Collapse. that the OT has no recoverable ‘God of Jacob’. The patriarchs the period 2000–1650 BC was not

historical information.

Exodus later than an earlier date. Gods of the Kingdoms Yahweh was identified with the old

Bronze Age Bronze Moreover, Canaan was an Traditional dating places Moses Hebrew god El to become the Egyptian province during the entire Yahweh and Asherah and the Exodus anywhere from national god of the Israelite period. Had the Israelites fled to In the OT, while God is often called Pharoah Thutmose III (c. 1450 BC) kingdoms. The OT remembers this

Canaan, they would have only El, his personal name is Yahweh process in the story of Moses’ Hittite Kingdom New Egyptian Kingdom New to Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC). There 1300 emigrated to an area already The lingua franca of the Middle (just as the personal name of the is no extra-Biblical evidence for father-law, Jethro the Kenite. under firm Egyptian control. East is the Semitic language national god of Moab is Chemosh).

Late The identification of El and Yahweh anything like the migration, which Akkadian. Yahweh was the god of several would have occurred during a A telling point is that the pharoah was probably accelerated by King tribes in northern Arabia, in Traditional 20th Christian period of exceptional Egyptian of the Exodus is never named, when Saul, an Edomite. the OT is full of names of foreign particular the Kenites (or scholarship dates the Exodus to strength. The OT reports that the Midianites) and the Edomites. Asherah remained as El-Yahweh's Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC). Israelites met resistance from Moab rulers, many confirmed by consort. and Edom, but there is no evidence archaeological evidence. Modern of settlements in those areas until scholarship concludes that there after 1300 BC, which indicates a was no flight from Egypt. Merneptah stele (c. 1210 BC). Bronze Age Collapse First non-Biblical evidence for the name Israel. Pharaoh Merneptah Origin of the Israelites villages sprang up in this time in sparsely inhabited territory, Greatest catastrophe of the referred to in the Book of Joshua describes his destruction of the The archaeological evidence 1200 Conquest of Canaan replacing the Canaanite city-states Bronze ancient Mediterraneon world, far did not exist in the period, and people of Israel. The text specifi- indicates that the Hebrews/

Middle Assyrian Empire Middle Assyrian worse than the fall of Rome, Joshua and the Judges cally refers to a people rather destroyed during the Collapse. Age those that did show no signs of Israelites emerged out of late 1,600 years later. Cultural The picture of a lightening conquest destruction. than an organised state. Bronze age and Early Iron age These villages probably came to Collapse collapse throughout the Aegean, identify themselves as Israelite of Canaan under Joshua and the However, the Book of Judges Canaanite society (1300-1100 BC)

Anatolia, the Near East, and united tribes of Israel in any broadly accords with in the northern central hill country through common experiences in the Egypt following mass population highlands, prohibitions on possible traditionally accepted archaeological evidence, depicting between the river Jordan and the movements and invasions. period for the Conquest (anywhere a collection of warring tribes plains occupied by the Philistines. intermarriage, and an allegiance to Widespread destruction of trade from 1400–1200 BC) is uniting briefly under a leader to Large numbers of new agricultural the god El-Yahweh. routes and cities, leaving only contradicted by archaeological launch raids from the hill country. isolated villages. evidence. Many of the cities Canaanite city-states decay, 1100 replaced by small villages. Canaanite culture is absorbed Foundation of the Kingdom power beyond their borders. The Samuel because Saul failed to heed God's Hittites were long gone. In Syria command to kill all the Amalekite into the Philistines, Phoenicians The Israelite united kingdom was Samuel is traditionally held to be and Canaan, only small kingdoms women, children and infants and Israelites. founded in an unusual time when the last of the Judges and first of and city-states existed (the Syro- (1Samuel). Samuel thereafter Only Assyria – and to a lesser there were no strong states in the the Prophets. He installed Saul as

Hittite states), of which Israel and supported David over Saul. extent Babylonia – escaped the region. Assyria, Babylon and Egypt king, but later denounced him The geopolitical situation during the time of the two kingdoms of the Judah were to become typical effects of the Collapse. were in no condition to project their Hebrews, about 900–750 BC. examples. Samuel Saul 

Iron Age I Iron Age David Ish-bosheth  1000 United Kingdom Solomon's Kingdom kings was very small, with perhaps David no more than 1,000 inhabitants. Monumental architecture formerly There is no evidence for urban life All the kings of Israel were poly- dated to David and Solomon has Solomon's Temple nant. Later tradition held that the theists. Nine were murdered by states or a state-based society, let alone - Temple rendered the old cultic sites been re-dated to the Omride Solomon built the first temple in Solomon's mini-empire depicted in their successors. ('high places') venerated during the Solomon (Jedidiah) dynasty. Evidence now indicates Jerusalem to be the dwelling place the OT. period of the Judges not only re- that the Jerusalem of these two of El-Yahweh and repository of His

dundant but blasphemous. Rehoboam relics, such as the Ark of the Cove- Jeroboam I Nadab  Abijah (Abijam) Philistine city Elah  Israel and Judah 900 Asa Baasha

Some scholars hold that there Kingdom of Judah never was an ethnic, political or Kingdom of Israel Omri

Iron Iron II religious bond between the two Although the OT Zimri  Jehoshaphat Ahab Jehoram (Joram) Judah was an insignificant rural state until an domains of Israel and Judah; and Elijah derides the

that the supposed relation was a Damascus Omrides, their - influx of refugees after the fall of the kingdom of Israel. This turned Jerusalem into a major fabrication of the Maccabean dynasty provides kings to justify their annexation of the earliest Ahaziah  All the kings of town for the first time, increasing its population Mesha stele (840-10). First Jehu Israel (Samaria as it was known evidence of Judah descend from 1,000 to perhaps 10,000. non-Biblical evidence for Jehoram Athaliah  by that time). Elisha significant archi- Jehoash (Joash)  from David. Five of the god Yahweh (Joram) Ahaziah The evidence of the OT is that tecture, urban life, Jehoahaz them were (Jehoahaz I) David, a Judean warlord, and state  assassinated, and 800  Triumph of Monotheism imposed his rule on Israel after organisation in Jehoash (Joash) Amaziah  J three were taken

Kingdom Aram of the death of Saul's son Ish- captive by their Hezekiah and Josiah Judah/Israel. Azariah (Uzziah) In Hezekiah's reign Jerusalem was flooded with bosheth. David's dynasty lost  enemies. control of Israel to Jeroboam Jeroboam II Zechariah  Israelite refugees, and Judean peasantry Amos Shallum  fleeing Assyrian depredations in the rural upon the accession of Solomon's Jotham areas. despotic son Rehoboam. Hosea Assyrian EmpireAssyrian

- Menahem Ahaz The urban priestly elites at Jerusalem exploited E the situation to insist on the worship of Yahweh

Neo Micah Pekahiah Isaiah alone, ban all other gods – especially Yahweh's  Hoshea  Pekah  Hezekiah consort Asherah – centralise all worship at P Jerusalem, and proscribe the ancient rural cultic Assyrian Conquest of Israel by genetic evidence) claim to Aramaic supplants 700 sites. be the descendants of the popu- Akkadian as the The earliest Sargon II of Assyria completed lation that was not deported. lingua franca of the After a long lapse under Manasseh, Josiah re- clear the conquest of Israel (722), Manasseh introduced Hezekiah's reforms, backed by the examples of and its ten of the twelve He- Rabbinical Judaism holds that Middle East. 'discovery' of Deuteronomy. brew tribes. Following their usu- the Ten Lost Tribes disappeared Assyrian

monotheism in the OT are al practice, the Assyrians de- from history, and that later in- habitants were Gentile immi- Jehoahaz II Amon  found in ported and dispersed perhaps Province grants. It denounces the Samari- Isaiah. 25% of its population, mainly (Shallum) tans as syncretrists with no He- Jehoiakim Deuteronomy from urban areas.  Josiah  Zephaniah brew ancestry. (Eliakim) Modern Samaritans (supported

Jeremiah Nahum Lamentations 600 Habbakuk Joshua Judges 1 & 2 Samuel 1 & 2 Kings Jehoiachin Zedakiah Babylonian Empire Babylonian Egyptian XXVIth EgyptianDynasty Exile - (Jeconiah) (Mattaniah) Ezekiel

Exile The Babylonian Conquest of These books constitute the Deuteronomistic can rule (an attack on the legitimacy of the

Neo  Judah history, created during the Exile by the former kingdom Israel). Province Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon same school that created Deuteronomy in The books present a cyclic view of history in Sheshbazzar ? captured Jerusalem (599) in- Josiah’s reign, and possibly associated with which the Jews alternate between fidelity Zerubbabel stalling Zedakiah as a puppet. Jeremiah. The history insists that the Jews and apostasy to Yahweh. They rationalise Zedakiah's failed rebellion led to must worship only Yawheh (but it is not clear the Babylonian destruction of Judah as the Cyrus the Great of Persia allows Haggai Zechariah the destruction of Jerusalem. Per- if the existence of other gods is denied); long-delayed vengeance of Yahweh on the the Jewish deportees to return haps the elite 10% of the popu- that this worship can only rightfully occur at sins of wicked king Manasseh, the virtues of 500 home, and commands the rebuild- lation were deported to Babylon. Jerusalem; and that only the line of David good king Josiah notwithstanding. ing of their temple. Yahweh's dwelling place, Solo- Malachi mon's Temple, was destroyed (587) and with it the ancient sa-

cred relics of the Ark of the Cov- Nehemiah enant, Aaron's Rod, and the tab- Persian lets of the Ten Commandments. Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Aramaic– the language that Jesus spoke– be- During the Exile, the Judean comes the common language of the Jews. He- scribes were forced to construct a Province brew lives on as a liturgical and literary lan- new theology and a new religion These books (and some of Deuteronomy) • J (kingdom of Judah). J refers to God as guage, much like Latin in the Middle Ages. to explain their god's defeat by were compiled in the Persian period by an Yahweh, a more anthropomorphic figure. J 400 Ezra the Babylonians. editor referred to as the Redactor, possibly emphasises mankind's relationship to the Ezra. The Redactor used three sources: land, mankind's corruption, and the • E (from the kingdom of Israel). E refers to boundary between human and divine. God as El. El only communicates in visions, • P. P was produced by the Temple intermediary angelic messengers, or priesthood as a theologically acceptable Return suppressed, expunged, or through natural phenomena. replacement for J and E. reinterpreted in the sacred texts: the Joel ? Obadiah ? Jonah ? Nehemiah and Ezra tree of life, symbol of Yahweh's wife Modern scholarhsip reverses the order Asherah, survived only in the menorah. of the Biblical books and places The returnees demanded a Nehemiah about 50 years before preservation of bloodlines that Septuagint (LXX) the OT from Hebrew and Aramaic texts, Ezra. excluded those who never left, and later compiled into what is known as the 300 The returnees recast themselves as elite A translation of the OT into the Greek especially the inhabitants of the widely spoken by the Jewish diaspora at Masoretic text, which was standardised Psalms Ruth Esther Daniel 'exiles' with a claim to Judean land northern kingdom of Israel. only in the 9th century AD. superior those who never left Judah, to the time, begun in the Egypt of Ptolemy II Thus begins Second Temple Judaism, about 270 BC. Tradition holds that the The LXX shows that the canon of the Torah the extent that they claim that they which emphasises new and more and the Deuteronomistic history was return to an empty land (against all Torah (first five books of the OT) was first 1 & 2 Song of

important roles for the priesthood, a translated by 72 scholars, hence the name. decided by this time, but not the Writings. archaeological evidence). Proverbs Ecclesiastes focus on the written law, and a Later parts of the OT were translated and The LXX contains many books (known as Chronicles Solomon Under Ezra and Nehemiah, they determination not to be polluted by incorporated over several centuries. the Apocrypha) that are accepted as Hellenistic radically reconstructed their religion. foreign blood. canon by Catholic and Orthodox These books, known in the Jewish canon as the Ketuvim or Writings, were written in Persian Traditional Judean polytheism was The LXX became the standard for early Christians, and partly for this reason was Christians, but rejected both by Jews and and Hellenistic times. They did not secure a firm place in the OT until the 2nd century AD. Client State rejected by the Jews by the 2nd century most Protestant churches (following Martin AD. They developed their own versions of Luther's lead). 200 Judas Maccabeus  The Maccabean Revolt terns dating back to Saul and then through the divided kingdoms, the Maccabean (or Daniel Judas Maccabeus revolted against the

Hasmonean) kingdom collapsed into mur- Jonathon  Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom (celebrated in derous civil war, ended only by the impo- John Hyracanus conquers and enslaves Hanukkah). His immediate successors re- Simon  sition of a Roman peace. ‘What have the Samaria – the former northern kingdom established independent rule over Judah Romans ever done for us?’ Second Temple Period Temple Second John Hyracanus of Israel – and destroys its temple at Mt and Samaria. Following the regicidal pat- Gerizim.

Maccabean 100 BC Alexandra Salome Alexander Jannaeus Aristobulus I Kingdom

Aristobulus II Hyrcanus II Second Temple Judaism the existence of the afterlife. Second Temple Literature from the past, such as Enoch or 63 BC. The Roman They disappear after the 1st Antigonus Abraham. They portray the general Pompey Major Prophet The three major divisions or This is a large body of Jewish present as bleak, but assert The Romans install brings Judah into sects of Judaism described by Jewish-Roman War. religious literature flourishing Herod the Great through often fantastical Herod as king after the Roman orbit as the Roman historian Josephus The Pharisees, of whom the Archaelaus from the Hellenistic period; much Minor Prophet imagery the ultimate triumph of a civil war with the a client state. are the Sadducees, Essenes and apostle Paul was one, insisted influenced by Persian last of the Pharisees, all of which formed in on the existence of an Zoroastrianism, and in turn God and the nation of Israel. 1 AD Maccabeans. Other Prophet the Maccabean period. independent oral law. It is Herod influential in early Christian Unlike the OT prophets, the believed that modern Judaism Philip authors assert the resurrection of Herod vastly There is little evidence for the Antipas thought. the dead; the existence of an enlarges the Sadducees apart from Josephus. descends from them. The only work of this genre Roman This work by Garry Stevens is licensed under afterlife; and introduce ideas of temple. He describes them as elites The Essenes were a smaller Herod Agrippa accepted into the OT is Daniel, Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC-ND, and is a Messiah.

separatist movement dedicated available for free from www.garryscharts.com. See associated with the Temple and although some elements are to an ascetic and communal life. In this literature, God becomes Client State terms of use there. Vsn 2.0. Main sources: T. L. the apparatus of the state, present in Joel, Haggai, Isaiah, 70 AD. 1st Jewish- There is little evidence they more transcendant; and vengeful Thompson, The Mythic Past (Basic Books, 1999); M. adopting a realpolitik in and Zechariah. Roman War. influenced later Judaism or rather than just. Contrariwise, B. Moore and B. E. Kelle, Biblical History and Israel's accomodating their Hellenistic Agrippa II The works provide a vision of the Jerusalem burnt to evil becomes personified as Past (Eerdmans, 2011); Religions of the Ancient masters. They rejected any Christianity. end times; as related by a the ground. Second Satan and a fallen host of World at www.philipharland.com/Blog. notion of an oral law outside heavenly messenger, or a figure Temple destroyed. angels, now termed demons. the written Torah, and denied Roman governors thereafter End of classical 100 AD

Judaism Judaism. Rabbinical