History and the Hebrew Bible: Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern HistoriographyIn this collection of essays, Hans M. Barstad deals thoroughly with the recent history debate, and demonstrates its relevancy for the study of ancient Israelite history and historiography. He takes an independent stand in the heated maximalist/minimalist debate on the historicity of the Hebrew Bible. Vital to his understanding is the necessity to realize the narrative nature of the ancient Hebrew and of the Near Eastern sources. Equally important is his claim that stories, too, may convey positivistic historical "facts." The other major topic he deals with in the book is the actual history of ancient Judah in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. Here, the author makes extensive use of extant ancient Near Eastern sources, both textual and archaeological, and he puts much weight on economic aspects. He shows that the key to understanding the role of Judah in the 1st millennium lays in the proper evaluation of Judah and its neighbouring city states within their respective imperial contexts. A proper understanding of the history of Judah during the 6th century BCE, consequently, can only be obtained when Judah is studied as a part of the much wider Neo-Babylonian imperial policy. |
Contents
History and the Hebrew Bible | 1 |
Issues in the Narrative Truth Debate | 25 |
Bibliophobia in Ancient Israelite Historiography | 39 |
The Dating of the Israelite Tradition | 46 |
Is the Hebrew Bible A Hellenistic Book? | 70 |
The Myth of the Empty Land | 90 |
Judah in the NeoBabylonian Period | 135 |
Sources and Acknowledgements | 161 |
| 201 | |
| 208 | |
Common terms and phrases
Achaemenid History agricultural Alten Testament ancient Israel Ancient Near East ancient Near Eastern Antiquity appears Archaeology Assyrian Babylon Babylonian biblical texts centre chapter Chronicler claim co-author co-editor context culture DANDAMAEV dating dealing debate deity deportations Deuteronomistic history discussion Early economic Egypt ELAYI Empty Land evidence Excavations Ezra fact fiction genre Geschichte Gibeon Greek Hebrew Bible Hellenistic Book Herodotus historians historiography History of Ancient History of Israel history writing Ideology important Inscriptions instance Iron Age Israelite Jehoiachin Jerusalem Jewish JSOTSup Judah Judean king l'époque Leiden Lemche Lemche's LIPSCHITS literary literature Mesopotamia Millennium Myth Nebuchadnezzar Nehemiah Neo-Babylonian Empire Neo-Babylonian Period Old Testament olive oil Palestine perse Persian Empire Persian Period Phoenician population positivistic Postmodernism problems production reality recent referred scholarly scholars SETERS Sheffield SJOT society sources story Studies Sumerian Sumerian King List survey Syria Tell en-Nasbeh Temple Theology tion trade traditions Winona Lake YHWH