Author: Niels Peter Lemche
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
"In Prelude to Israel's Past, Lemche examines the nature and function of Old Testament historical narrative. Is the biblical narrative a reliable source of historical knowledge? Or does it have a literary and theological life of its own - proclaiming a truth that cannot be contested because it recounts "events" that happened once upon a time? Lemche explores these questions from two directions. First, he analyzes the biblical narratives from Abraham to Moses and demonstrates that these narratives are literature, not documents written by professional historians. Second, he compares the biblical portrait of the patriarchs with what we know about this period from other ancient sources. He urges that the Bible continues to guide and console a believing people not because it is a historically accurate record of past events but because its living stories recount a truth unfettered by time and culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Prelude to Israel's Past
Author: Niels Peter Lemche
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
"In Prelude to Israel's Past, Lemche examines the nature and function of Old Testament historical narrative. Is the biblical narrative a reliable source of historical knowledge? Or does it have a literary and theological life of its own - proclaiming a truth that cannot be contested because it recounts "events" that happened once upon a time? Lemche explores these questions from two directions. First, he analyzes the biblical narratives from Abraham to Moses and demonstrates that these narratives are literature, not documents written by professional historians. Second, he compares the biblical portrait of the patriarchs with what we know about this period from other ancient sources. He urges that the Bible continues to guide and console a believing people not because it is a historically accurate record of past events but because its living stories recount a truth unfettered by time and culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
"In Prelude to Israel's Past, Lemche examines the nature and function of Old Testament historical narrative. Is the biblical narrative a reliable source of historical knowledge? Or does it have a literary and theological life of its own - proclaiming a truth that cannot be contested because it recounts "events" that happened once upon a time? Lemche explores these questions from two directions. First, he analyzes the biblical narratives from Abraham to Moses and demonstrates that these narratives are literature, not documents written by professional historians. Second, he compares the biblical portrait of the patriarchs with what we know about this period from other ancient sources. He urges that the Bible continues to guide and console a believing people not because it is a historically accurate record of past events but because its living stories recount a truth unfettered by time and culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Future of Biblical Archaeology
Author: James Karl Hoffmeier
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802821737
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 412
Book Description
In recent times Biblical archaeology has been heavily criticised by some camp who maintain that it has little to offer Near Eastern archaeology. However, some scholars carry on the fight to change people's views and this collection of essays continues the trend towards reassessing and reemphasising the link between the Bible and archaeology.
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802821737
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 412
Book Description
In recent times Biblical archaeology has been heavily criticised by some camp who maintain that it has little to offer Near Eastern archaeology. However, some scholars carry on the fight to change people's views and this collection of essays continues the trend towards reassessing and reemphasising the link between the Bible and archaeology.
The Politics of Ancient Israel
Author: Norman Karol Gottwald
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664219772
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
This work offers a reconstruction of the politics of ancient Israel within the wider political environment of the ancient Near East. Gottwald begins by questioning the view of some biblical scholars that the primary factor influencing Israel's political evolution was its religion.
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664219772
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
This work offers a reconstruction of the politics of ancient Israel within the wider political environment of the ancient Near East. Gottwald begins by questioning the view of some biblical scholars that the primary factor influencing Israel's political evolution was its religion.
The Christian Delusion
Author: John W. Loftus
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616143185
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
In this anthology of recent criticisms aimed at the reasonableness of Christian belief, a former evangelical minister and apologist, author of the critically acclaimed Why I Became an Atheist, has assembled fifteen outstanding articles by leading skeptics, expanding on themes introduced in his first book. Central is a defense of his "outsider test of faith," arguing that believers should test their faith with the same skeptical standards they use to evaluate the other faiths they reject, as if they were outsiders. Experts in medicine, psychology, and anthropology join Loftus to show why, when this test is applied to Christianity, it becomes very difficult to rationally defend. Collectively, these articles reveal that popular Christian beliefs tend to rely on ignorance of the facts. Drawing together experts in diverse fields, including Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, David Eller, and Robert Price, this book deals a powerful blow against Christian faith.
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616143185
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
In this anthology of recent criticisms aimed at the reasonableness of Christian belief, a former evangelical minister and apologist, author of the critically acclaimed Why I Became an Atheist, has assembled fifteen outstanding articles by leading skeptics, expanding on themes introduced in his first book. Central is a defense of his "outsider test of faith," arguing that believers should test their faith with the same skeptical standards they use to evaluate the other faiths they reject, as if they were outsiders. Experts in medicine, psychology, and anthropology join Loftus to show why, when this test is applied to Christianity, it becomes very difficult to rationally defend. Collectively, these articles reveal that popular Christian beliefs tend to rely on ignorance of the facts. Drawing together experts in diverse fields, including Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, David Eller, and Robert Price, this book deals a powerful blow against Christian faith.
Philosophy and Practice in Writing a History of Ancient Israel
Author: Megan Bishop Moore
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567109895
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
An examination of current methodologies for writing Israel's history.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567109895
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
An examination of current methodologies for writing Israel's history.
The A to Z of Ancient Israel
Author: Niels Peter Lemche
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810875659
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
For these very reasons, because Ancient Israel means so much to us and because we actually know so little for sure, The A to Z of Ancient Israel is particularly important. It examines the usual sources in the Old Testament and surveys the findings of more recent archaeological research to help us determine just what happened and when, a far from simple task. It includes entries on most of the persons, places, and events which are generally considered, and shows more broadly what the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were like and what role they played in the ancient world, but it also defines them as closely as possible according to the latest data.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810875659
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
For these very reasons, because Ancient Israel means so much to us and because we actually know so little for sure, The A to Z of Ancient Israel is particularly important. It examines the usual sources in the Old Testament and surveys the findings of more recent archaeological research to help us determine just what happened and when, a far from simple task. It includes entries on most of the persons, places, and events which are generally considered, and shows more broadly what the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were like and what role they played in the ancient world, but it also defines them as closely as possible according to the latest data.
A Brief History of Ancient Israel
Author: Victor Harold Matthews
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664224363
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Grounded in the latest archeological developments, Victor Matthews's A Brief History of Ancient Israel presents a concise history of Israel covering the ancestral period, conquest and settlement, the monarchy, and both the exilic and postexilic periods. Using supplemental figures and insets, the author concentrates on providing a cogent and condensed discussion of events. He examines historical geography, archaeological data, and, where relevant, comparative cultural materials from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations. With an accessible yet high-quality introduction, A Brief History of Ancient Israel will be of immense value to both students of the Old Testament and the scholars who teach them.
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664224363
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Grounded in the latest archeological developments, Victor Matthews's A Brief History of Ancient Israel presents a concise history of Israel covering the ancestral period, conquest and settlement, the monarchy, and both the exilic and postexilic periods. Using supplemental figures and insets, the author concentrates on providing a cogent and condensed discussion of events. He examines historical geography, archaeological data, and, where relevant, comparative cultural materials from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations. With an accessible yet high-quality introduction, A Brief History of Ancient Israel will be of immense value to both students of the Old Testament and the scholars who teach them.
Canaan and Israel in Antiquity
Author: K. L. Noll
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781841273181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description
This is a classroom-tested introduction to academic study of the ancient world that produced the Bible. It offers a general and yet flexible programme of study that enables a range of approaches to be understood and applied.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781841273181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description
This is a classroom-tested introduction to academic study of the ancient world that produced the Bible. It offers a general and yet flexible programme of study that enables a range of approaches to be understood and applied.
History, Politics and the Bible from the Iron Age to the Media Age
Author: James G. Crossley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567670600
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
As biblical studies becomes increasingly fragmented, this collection of essays brings together a number of leading scholars in order to show how historical reconstruction, philology, metacriticism, and reception history can be part of a collective vision for the future of the field. This collection of essays focuses more specifically on critical questions surrounding the construction of ancient Israel(s), 'minimalism', the ongoing significance of lexicography, the development of early Judaism, orientalism, and the use of the Bible in contemporary political discourses. Contributors include John van Seters, Niels Peter Lemche, Ingrid Hjelm, and Philip R. Davies.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567670600
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
As biblical studies becomes increasingly fragmented, this collection of essays brings together a number of leading scholars in order to show how historical reconstruction, philology, metacriticism, and reception history can be part of a collective vision for the future of the field. This collection of essays focuses more specifically on critical questions surrounding the construction of ancient Israel(s), 'minimalism', the ongoing significance of lexicography, the development of early Judaism, orientalism, and the use of the Bible in contemporary political discourses. Contributors include John van Seters, Niels Peter Lemche, Ingrid Hjelm, and Philip R. Davies.
The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine
Author: Emanuel Pfoh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134947828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Taking advantage of critical methodology for history-writing and the use of anthropological insights and ethnographic data from the modern Middle East, this study aims at providing new understandings on the emergence of Israel in ancient Palestine and the socio-political dynamics at work in the Levant during antiquity. The book begins with a discussion of matters of historiography and history-writing, both in ancient and modern times, and an evaluation on the incidence of the modern theological discourse in relation to history and history-writing. Chapter 2 evaluates the methodology used by biblical scholars for gaining knowledge on ancient Israelite society. Pfoh argues that such attempts often apply socio-scientific models on biblical narratives without external evidence of the reconstructed past, producing a virtual past reality which cannot be confirmed concretely. Chapter 3 deals with the archaeological remains usually held as clear evidence of Israelite statehood in the tenth century BCE. The main criticism is directed towards archaeological interpretations of the data which are led by the biblical narratives of the books of Judges and Samuel, resulting in a harmonic blend of ancient literature and modern anthropological models on state-formation. Chapter 4 continues with the discussion on how anthropological models should be employed for history-writing. Socio-political concepts, such as chiefdom society or state formation should not be imposed on the contents of ancient literary sources (i.e., the Bible) but used instead to analyse our primary sources (the archaeological and epigraphic records), in order to create a socio-historical account. The final chapter attempts to provide an historical explanation regarding the emergence of Israel in ancient Palestine without relying on the Bible but only on archaeology, epigraphy and anthropological insights. This Israel is not the biblical one. This is the Israel from history, the one that the modern historian aims at recovering from the study of ancient epigraphic and archaeological remains. The arguments presented challenge the idea that the biblical writers were recording historical events as we understand this practice nowadays and that we can use the biblical records for creating critical histories of Israel in ancient Palestine. It also questions the existence of undisputable traces of statehood in the archaeological record from the Iron Age, as the biblical images about a United Monarchy might lead us to believe. Thus, drawing on ethnographic insights, we may gain a better knowledge on how ancient Levantine societies functioned, providing us with a context for understanding the emergence of historical Israel as a major highland patronate, with a socio-political life of almost two centuries. It is during the later periods of ancient Palestines history, the Persian and the Graeco-Roman, that we find the proper context into which biblical Israel is created, beginning a literary life of more than two millennia.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134947828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Taking advantage of critical methodology for history-writing and the use of anthropological insights and ethnographic data from the modern Middle East, this study aims at providing new understandings on the emergence of Israel in ancient Palestine and the socio-political dynamics at work in the Levant during antiquity. The book begins with a discussion of matters of historiography and history-writing, both in ancient and modern times, and an evaluation on the incidence of the modern theological discourse in relation to history and history-writing. Chapter 2 evaluates the methodology used by biblical scholars for gaining knowledge on ancient Israelite society. Pfoh argues that such attempts often apply socio-scientific models on biblical narratives without external evidence of the reconstructed past, producing a virtual past reality which cannot be confirmed concretely. Chapter 3 deals with the archaeological remains usually held as clear evidence of Israelite statehood in the tenth century BCE. The main criticism is directed towards archaeological interpretations of the data which are led by the biblical narratives of the books of Judges and Samuel, resulting in a harmonic blend of ancient literature and modern anthropological models on state-formation. Chapter 4 continues with the discussion on how anthropological models should be employed for history-writing. Socio-political concepts, such as chiefdom society or state formation should not be imposed on the contents of ancient literary sources (i.e., the Bible) but used instead to analyse our primary sources (the archaeological and epigraphic records), in order to create a socio-historical account. The final chapter attempts to provide an historical explanation regarding the emergence of Israel in ancient Palestine without relying on the Bible but only on archaeology, epigraphy and anthropological insights. This Israel is not the biblical one. This is the Israel from history, the one that the modern historian aims at recovering from the study of ancient epigraphic and archaeological remains. The arguments presented challenge the idea that the biblical writers were recording historical events as we understand this practice nowadays and that we can use the biblical records for creating critical histories of Israel in ancient Palestine. It also questions the existence of undisputable traces of statehood in the archaeological record from the Iron Age, as the biblical images about a United Monarchy might lead us to believe. Thus, drawing on ethnographic insights, we may gain a better knowledge on how ancient Levantine societies functioned, providing us with a context for understanding the emergence of historical Israel as a major highland patronate, with a socio-political life of almost two centuries. It is during the later periods of ancient Palestines history, the Persian and the Graeco-Roman, that we find the proper context into which biblical Israel is created, beginning a literary life of more than two millennia.