In Search of ‘Ancient Israel’: A Study in Biblical Origins

Description

The appearance of In Search of ‘Ancient Israel’ generated a still–raging controversy about the historical reality of what biblical scholars call ‘Ancient Israel’. But its argument not only takes in the problematic relationship between Iron Age Palestinian archaeology and the biblical ‘Israel’ but also outlines the processes that created the literature of the Hebrew bible-the ideological matrix, the scribal milieu, and the cultural adoption of a national literary archive as religious scripture as part of the process of creating ‘Judaisms’. As such, in this volume Philip R. Davies challenges the whole spectrum of scholarly consensus about the origins of ‘Israel’ and its scriptures, in a manner that is both learned and accessible. For this new edition Davies has provided a new extended introduction, in which he considers how the debate has raged since the book was first published, and in which he repositions this classic work within the present scholarly context. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface to Second Edition (1994) 1. The logic of ‘Biblical archaeology’ 2. Replacing a paradigm 3. The Bible as history Chapter 1 Preliminaries Shifting paradigms ‘Ancient Israel’ Summary of the argument Chapter 2 Searching for ‘Ancient Israel’ What are we looking for? What society has ‘ancient Israel’ displaced? Double vision Tail chasing Common sense and credulity ‘Ancient Israel’ as a theological construct Chapter 3 Defining the Biblical Israel Critique of the biblical Israel Chapter 4 A Search for Historical Israel The name ‘Israel’ The population from which Israel was composed The Israelite state Judah The religion of Israel and Judah Historical and literary Israels Chapter 5 The Social Context of the Biblical Israel Where does the name ‘Israel’ persist? Post-monarchic Judah The creation of an idealized Israel in Yehud Chapter 6 Who Wrote the Biblical Literature, and Where? Sources The theological view of biblical origins The society ‘Biblical Hebrew’ Scribes Temples Chapter 7 How was the Biblical Literature Written, and Why? Ideological preconditions A model of scribal activity The problem of prophecy ‘Law’ Priestly versus scribal interest? Function of the end-product From writing to reading and critique Chapter 8 From Literature to Scripture In what sense can we speak of ‘Scripture’? From cultural archive to religious tract Manticism Conclusions Chapter 9 The Emergence of Israel The Hasmonaean library References to Preface Index of References Index of Authors