Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy

532 Pages·1986·44.96 MB·English

by  Niels Peter Lemche

EARLY ISRAEL
SUPPLEMENTS
TO
VETUS TESTAMENTUM,
EDITED BY
THE BOARD OF THE QUARTERLY
J. A. EMERTON - w. L. HOLLADAY - A. LEMAIRE
R. E. MURPHY - E. NIELSEN - R. SMEND
J. A. SOGGIN - M. WEINFELD
VOLUME XXXVII
LEIDEN
E.]. BRILL
1985
EARLY ISRAEL
Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society
Before the Monarchy
BY
NIELS PETER LEMCHE
LEIDEN
E.J. BRILL
1985
For
Elsebeth
Denne afhandling er af det teologiske fakultet ved Kebenhavns universitet antaget til
offendigt at forsvares for den teologiske doktorgrad.
Kebenhavn den 15. december 1983 Jens Glebe-MBIler
Dehn
Forsvaret finder sted onsdag den 11. december 1985 kl. 13 pr.rcis i anneksauditorium
A. Studiestr.rde 6, over ghden.
ISBN 9004078533
Copyright 1985 IJy E. J. Brill, Leidtn, The Netherlands
Translated IJy Frederick H. Cryer, MA
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in a~ form, IJy print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN DENMARK BY FR. BAGGES KGL. HOFBOGTRYKKERI
TABLE OF CONTENS
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. XIII
I. The Revolution Hypothesis: Its Formulation and
Presuppositions .................................... .
1. Revolution as Alternative ............................ . 1
§ 1. G.E. Mendenhall: The "Hebrew« Conquest of Palestine 1
§ 2. N.K. Gottwald: "Liberated« Israel ................ . 12
§ 3. The Reception ................................ . 22
2. Immigration or Conquest ............................ . 35
§ 1. A. Alt and M. Noth: Immigration of Israelite
Semi-Nomads into Palestine ..................... . 35
§ 2. W. F. Albright: The Israelite Conquest of Palestine ... . 48
Excursus: The Study of Israelite History from
J. Wellhausen to A. Alt ................... . 62
3. Israel in the Period of the Judges ...................... . 66
§ 1. C.H.J. de Geus: Social Structure in the Period
of the Judges ................................. . 66
Conclusion to Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
11. The Presuppositions of the Revolution Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . 80
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1. Norrnads ......................................... . 84
§ 1. N.K. Gottwald's Description of Pastoral Nomadism .. . 84
§ 2. A Test of Gottwald's Description of Pastoral Nomadism 87
§ 3. The Popular Understanding of Nomadism and its
Influence of the Scholarly Discussion .............. . 90
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
§ 4: Nomadic Ways of Life: Examples of Normadic
Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
1. Al-Murrah (Rub' al-Khali) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2. Basseri (Fars in Iran) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3. Bahtiyari (Persia: Zagros) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4. Y6riik (Southeast Turkey). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5. The Bedouin of the Negev ..................... 108
§ 5. Nomadic Ways of Life II: Pastoral Nomads. . . . . . . . . . 110
§ 6. From Nomadic to Sedentary Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Excursus: The desert as the Place of Origin of the Se mites . 148
§ 7. Nomads in the Second Millenium BCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
2. Farmers and Urban Dwellers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
§ 1. Introduction................................... 164
§ 2. N.K. Gottwald's Theory of Village and City as
Anti-Morphemes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
§ 3. Village and City I: Examples of Village Societies. . . . .. 170
1. Tell Toqaan (Syria) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
2. Al-Munsif (Lebanon) ......................... 173
3. Kufr el-Ma Oordan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
§ 4. Village and City II: Examples ofInteraction Between
City and Country. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
1. Al-Karak Oordan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
2. Kerman (Iran) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
§ 5. Village and City III: Concluding Remarks .......... 184
Excursus: Community Property, or the Musa' System. . . . 196
§ 6. Conclusion: Nomad, Farmer, and City-Dweller
in the Near East. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
3. Egalitarianism and Segmentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
§ 1. Introduction................................... 202
§ 2. N . K. Gottwald' s Description of Israelite Tribal Society. 204
§ 3. The Logical Structure Underlying Gottwald's
Description of israelite Tribal Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
§ 4. Segmentary Societies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Excursus: On Evolutionism, the "Systems« Approach,
and the "New Archeology« . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
§ 5. Segmentary Societies in the Near East .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
§ 6. The Exogamous Clan and Tribal Organization. . . . . . . 231
4. Social Structure in Israel in the Pre-National Period. . . . . . . . 245
§ 1. :::DC l1':l: Family, Household, Minimal Lineage, Lineage 245
§ 2. ~: Clan, Maximal Lineage, Lineage. . .. ... . . . . . 260
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
Excursus: Marriage in Israel ........................ 272
§ 3. i1tm. tm1: The Tribe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Excursus: The Tribal Boundaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
5. The "Period of the Judges« and the All-Israelite Tradition .. . 291
§ 1. Introduction .................................. . 291
§ 2. N.K. Gottwald's Understanding of the Tradition .... . 294
§ 3. Is there Anything New in Gottwald's Understanding
ofIsraelite Tribal Society in the Period of the Judges ... 300
6. Another Path? The Formation of the Israelite
Historical Tradition ................................. 306
§ 1. Historical Tradition and the Prophets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
1. Amos . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . 308
2. Hosea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
3. Isaiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
4. Micah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
5. Jeremiah ................................... 316
6. Ezekiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
7. Deutero Isaiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8. The Post-Exilic Prophets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
9. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
§ 2. Historical Tradition in the Psalms ................. 336
1. Psalm 80 ................................... 336
2. Psalm 68 338
3. Psalm 81 340
4. Psalm 77 342
Excursus: ?la and iT'll and the Exodus from Egypt ...... 344
5. Psalm 66 ................................... 348
6. Psalm 78 ................................... 350
7. Psalms 104-106 .............................. 351
8. Psalms 135-136 .............................. 352
9. Psalm 114. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
§ 3. The Yahwist, Deuteronomism, and the Israelite
Historical Tradition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
§ 4. Conclusion.................................... 377
7. From the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age:
The Archeological Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
§ 1. The Bible and Archeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
§ 2. Settlement Pattern I: Introduction ................. 392
§ 3. Settlement Pattern II: The Cities ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS
§ 4. Settlement Pattern Ill: The Villages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
§ 5. Conclusion.................................... 405
Conclusion to Part 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Conclusion: Evolutionary Israel: An Alternative Explanation
of Israel's Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
§ 1. The Old Testament and the Immigration Theories. . . . 411
§ 2. Palestine in the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron
Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
§ 3. Future Perspectives: Israelite Religion .... . . . . . . . . . . 432
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Indicies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
FOREWORD
This work represent the fruits of af series of studies which I have published
within the last twelve to thirteen years dealing with such matters as the
»Hebrew-babiru« issue, social conditions in Israel, and the study of the history
of Israel. My work has now been additionally supplemented by the publica
tion of my history of Israel, Det gamle Israel (»Ancient Israel«), which appeared
in 1984, but which was written after the completion of the manuscript of the
present work. The maniscript of this dissertation was finished in November
of 1982, for which reason literature which has appeared since that date has not
been included. This by no means signifies that I will not deal with such contri
butions at a later date. It would be quite impossible merely to mention such
recent works by name, since such a list would encompass several hundred
titels, which would necessarily have to be distributed throughout the present
work.
Many individuals have influenced my thinking about ancient Israel, both
in the course of my undergraduate training and, later, during my graduate
education in Copenhagen. The list would include Svend Holm-Nielsen,
John Strange, Ame Munk, Heike Friis, and many others whom it would be
impossible to name here. The work itself was written after I acceded to a
lectureship at the University of Arhus in 1978; accordingly, it also bears the
imprint of the fresh insights provided by my new circle of colleagues. In parti
cular I should like to thank Benedikt Otzen, Knud Jeppesen, Hans Gottlieb,
Bent Mogensen, and Kirsten Nielsen for many helpful and useful discussions.
I should also like to address special thanks to my friend, colleague, and
translator, Frederick Harris Cryer, who has lived with my book for more than
a year and had the thankless task of wrestling with its often difficult Danish
idiom. No one who is familiar with the Danish text of this work will be able to
avoid acknowledging how the English translation of it also contributes to the
»translation« of my ideas.
Yet another friend to whom thanks should be directed on the conclusion of
this work is my theacher, judge, and publisher, Eduard Nielsen, who hopefully
or
does not feel today that he has helped to plant a »cockoo in the nest« of his
colleagues. Although I have in the course of time gone my own way on many
issues, the entire approach of this work would have been unthinkable without
or
the thorough training in the discipline which I recei~ed at the hands of
Eduard Nielsen, or without the attitude to scholarly research which has always
been implicit in his teaching and counseling.