Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition (JSOT Supplement Series) PDF
Preview Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition (JSOT Supplement Series)
JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SUPPLEMENT SERIES 381 Editors David J.A. Clines Philip R. Davies Executive Editor Andrew Mein Editorial Board Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, J. Cheryl Exum, John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald, John Jarick, Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller COPENHAGEN INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR 13 General Editors Thomas L. Thompson Niels Peter Lemche Associate Editors Modens Müller Hakan Ulfgard This page intentionally left blank Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition edited by Thomas L. Thompson with the collaboration of Salma Khadra Jayyusi T&.T CLARK INTERNATIONAL A Continuum imprint LONDON • NEW YORK Copyright © 2003 T&T Clark International A Continuum imprint Published by T&T Clark International The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010 www.tandtclark.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset and edited for Continuum by Forthcoming Publications Ltd www.forthcomingpublications.com Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire. ISBN 0-8264-6664-8 (hardback) 0-5670-8360-8 (paperback) CONTENTS Foreword vii Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvi Abbreviations xviii List of Contributors xxi THOMAS L. THOMPSON An Introduction: Can a History of Ancient Jerusalem and Palestine be Written? 1 MICHAEL PRIOR A Moral Reading of the Bible in Jerusalem 16 NIELS PETER LEMCHE 'House of David': The Tel Dan Inscription(s) 46 MARGREET STEINER Expanding Borders: The Development of Jerusalem in the Iron Age 68 SARA MANDELL Rome, Syria and the Jerusalem High Priest: The International Bases of the High Priest's Rule of the Jerusalem City-State: 175-63 BCE 80 JOHN STRANGE Herod and Jerusalem: The Hellenization of an Oriental City 97 FIRAS SAWAH Jerusalem in the Time of the Kingdom of Judah 114 vi Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition LESTER L. GRABBE Ethnic Groups in Jerusalem 145 PHILIP R. DAVIES From Zion to Zion: Jerusalem in the Dead Sea Scrolls 164 THOMAS M. BOLIN The Making of the Holy City: On the Foundations of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible 171 INGRID HJELM Brothers Fighting Brothers: Jewish and Samaritan Ethnocentrism in Tradition and History 197 THOMAS L. THOMPSON Holy War at the Center of Biblical Theology: Shalom and the Cleansing of Jerusalem 223 DAVID M. GUNN 'Next Year in Jerusalem': Bible, Identity and Myth on the Web 258 KEITH W. WHITELAM Imagining Jerusalem 272 Index of References 290 Index of Authors 0 FOREWORD The hijacking of commercial airplanes and their use in the destruction of New York's World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 created much uncertainty about plans to have a small conference in Jordan on 12-14 October on the theme of Jerusalem in ancient history and tradition. Three members of the biblical institute at the University of Copenhagen were to take part and the present writer had been responsible for planning the conference together with Dr Salma Khadra Jayyusi. Altogether twelve historians, archaeologists and biblical scholars from six different countries were to meet for two days in Amman to discuss new perspectives on the history of ancient Jerusalem and its relationship to biblical tradition. The audience was to include teachers and scholars from universities in Jordan, Palestine and Syria. In spite of the uncertain political situation, we decided to hold the con- ference. For myself, this included accepting a long-standing invitation to visit Riyadh. Accordingly, on 6 October, I flew to that hyper-modern Phoenix-like, big-city of the desert to give a lecture at the King Faisal Islamic research center on the history of Palestine. My hosts were taken up with the task of reassuring their American-Danish guest in a rapidly dete- riorating political situation. Within a day of my arrival, the Americans had decided to begin bombing Afghanistan rather than consider negotiations, which would be brokered by either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. The Saudis expressed understanding for the American need to avenge the horrible and murderous attack on innocent people in New York, but they were also aware of the thousands of innocent Afghanis who would die in a military action that perhaps might be avoided. It was inevitable that my visit was taken up with many long theological discussions about 'holy war' (to be fought only by God) and revenge (which belongs only to God). We also struggled with the fine distinctions of journalists between Islamic terror and American bombing and—central to all our discussions—about the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis which is at the core of any peaceful development in the Middle East. The academic study of religion and freedom of discussion were defended. So also, the misuse of religious viii Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition language to manipulate society through fundamentalism and uncritical theology was viewed as extremely dangerous. In all these discussions was the awareness that we were on the threshold of just such a dangerous world of competing fundamentalisms. As the bombing in Afghanistan continued as I flew to Amman on 12 October, disjointed thoughts of discussing Jeru- salem's ancient past evoked a surrealistic giddiness that replaced my earlier sense of vulnerability with nausea. I was unhappy that the theme of the conference, 'Jerusalem in ancient history and tradition' did not seem as tame and comfortable in Amman in October 2001 as it had in Copenhagen the previous summer when we planned it. It quickly became clear that many of my colleagues had re- written their talks after 11 September. History and tradition had become two palpably distinct realities that competed with each other; not just now, but also in the ancient past. The meeting began where many of us already were in our own private thoughts, as the opening speaker, Michael Prior, bluntly demanded that we distinguish between the good and the bad in religious traditions. In doing so he argued for a view of the Bible as a means of oppression as well as that our scholarship be ethically responsi- ble in recognizing its relationship to modern politics. His illustrations with the biblical traditions of the Promised Land and of David's eternal covenant were not less significant for their Palestinian audience. Prior's lecture set a question for the conference, to which each speaker in turn attempted to contribute. Niels Peter Lemche presented a computer-driven discussion on the 'House of David' inscription fragments from the eighth century, which had been found at Tell el-Qadi, an Iron Age ruin at the headwaters of the Jordan. This inscription has been the center of a decade-long debate among biblical archaeologists and historians. Claimed by some to be direct historical evidence for the Bible's kingdom of David, other scholars have given the fragments a wide range of readings and interpretations, dating them from as early as the ninth to late in the eighth century. Some have suggested that the fragments come from more than a single inscription and a few have raised the possibility that the texts show signs of being for- geries. Modern political concerns have encouraged charges of bias, dis- honesty and even anti-Semitism, sprinkled freely wherever the issue has been discussed. While Lemche's demonstration showed that the possibility that we are dealing with a forgery is substantial, his decision not to give a decisive judgment on the issue was frustrating for some. His lecture was followed by Margreet Steiner's presentation of Kathleen Kenyon's 40- year-old excavation of Jerusalem's absent strata from the tenth century. Foreword ix Steiner, nevertheless, refused to interpret this as unambiguous evidence that Jerusalem had not existed during this period, which the Bible presents as the time of David's great kingdom. She rather—like Lemche—pre- ferred uncertainty in her conclusions and spoke of the likely existence of a town and perhaps a small 'chieftainship' in her historical reconstruction. The reader will also face a similar frustration with two of the papers included in this volume, which could not be presented at the meeting in Amman. Sara MandelPs article discusses the international character of Jerusalem's politics during the second and first centuries. This historian's understanding of the 'Hellenization' of Jerusalem and Palestine disagrees considerably with the understanding implicit in the archaeologist John Strange's paper, which places the development of Hellenization much later. Strange's paper on the policies of Herod the Great during the last half of the first century BCE, moreover, reinterprets the 'Wailing Wall' as a retaining wall for an agora, rather than as a wall belonging to a temple. Both papers significantly change our understanding of Jerusalem at this period, without being reconcilable with each other. Such implicit disharmony between the various presentations, and be- tween the speakers and the audience, can also be noticed in Firas Sawah's comprehensive presentation of Palestine's history during the first half of the first millennium BCE. This survey was not only based on the Kenyon excavations that Steiner discusses, but also substantially disagrees with Steiner's understanding of Jerusalem's tenth century. An even greater dif- ference can be seen in Sawah's presentation of the seventh-century reign of Josiah, especially in his effort to integrate biblical and historical infor- mation, and the understanding of this period as it is discussed in Ingrid Hjelm's paper. Here, a dominant Samaria had not ceased to exist as an integral part of Palestine's political life at this time. One of the confer- ence's most successful results, in my view, has been the recognition and acceptance of the necessity of the freedom and independence for each scholar to draw conclusions based on very limited historical evidence for the past, whatever political interests might dictate. The distinction between tradition and history's distinct views of the past as comprising two sepa- rate realities, which could be harmonized with only the greatest caution, was the invaluable and unanimous gain of the congress's open discussions. The disagreements support understanding and keep the discussion open. While most of the differences in our interpretations of historical events, contexts and periods dealt with major issues that are in fact irreconcilable, no disagreements were so extreme or so far-reaching as those presented on the theme of ethnicity. The disagreement regarding the understanding
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