Revealing the History of Ancient Palestine

335 Pages·2018·2.715 MB·English

by  Keith Whitelam

As an authoritative survey of trends in scholarship over recent decades, this
volume should appeal to those seeking a critical and objective approach to modern
engagement with ancient texts. Whitelam’s work offers a refreshing counterbalance
to pervasive maximalist views on the origin, reception, and ongoing social
function of biblical text. The insightful essays contained in this volume represent
a perspective on the past built on sound evidence and methodological rigour.
– Robert Homsher, Harvard University , USA

Revealing the History of Ancient
Palestine
This volume is part of the C hanging Perspectives sub-series, which is constituted
by anthologies of articles by world-renowned biblical scholars and historians
that have made an impact on the field and changed its course during the last
decades. This volume offers a collection of seminal essays by Keith W. Whitelam
on the early history of ancient Palestine and the origins and emergence of Israel.
Collected together in one volume for the first time, and featuring one unpublished
article, this volume will be of interest to biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars
interested in the politics of historical representation but also on critical ways of
constructing the history of ancient Palestine.
Keith W. Whitelam was previously Professor and Head of the Department of
Religious Studies at the University of Stirling, UK, and later Professor and Head
of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is also
the founder and director for Sheffield Phoenix Press, specialising in the publication
of research in biblical studies. His previous books include T he Invention of Ancient
Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History (Routledge 1996), and T he Emergence
of Early Israel in Historical Perspective (with Robert B. Coote, Almond Press
1987 / Sheffield Phoenix Press 2010).
Emanuel Pfoh is a Researcher at the National Research Council (CONICET)
and teaches in the Department of History of the National University of La Plata,
Argentina. His previous books include T he Emergence of Israel in Ancient
Palestine (Equinox 2009 / Routledge 2016) and S yria-Palestine in the Late Bronze
Age (Routledge 2016), both of which are part of the Copenhagen International
Seminar series.
Copenhagen International Seminar
General Editors:
Ingrid Hjelm
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Emanuel Pfoh
National Research Council, Argentina
Rewriting Peter as an Intertextual Character in the Canonical Gospels
Finn Damgaard
Japheth Ben Ali’s Book of Jeremiah
A Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis of the Judaeo-Islamic Translation
Joshua A. Sabih
Origin Myths and Holy Places in the Old Testament
A Study of Aetiological Narratives
Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spanò
Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity
Edited by Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson
History, Archaeology and the Bible Forty Years After ‘Historicity’
Edited by Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson
The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine
Historical and Anthropological Perspectives
Emanuel Pfoh
Syria–Palestine in the Late Bronze Age
An Anthropology of Politics and Power
Emanuel Pfoh
Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible
Russell E. Gmirkin
Revealing the History of Ancient Palestine
Changing Perspectives 8
Keith W. Whitelam and Emanuel Pfoh
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Copenhagen-International-Seminar/book-series/COPSEM
Revealing the History
of Ancient Palestine
Changing Perspectives 8
K eith W. Whitelam
Edited by Emanuel Pfoh
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Keith W. Whitelam; selection and editorial matter, Emanuel Pfoh.
The right of Keith W. Whitelam to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Whitelam, Keith W., author | Pfoh, Emanuel, editor.
Title: Revealing the history of ancient Palestine / Keith W. Whitelam ;
edited by Emanuel Pfoh.
Description: First. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Copenhagen international seminar | Series: Changing
perspectives ; 8 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018003823 (print) | LCCN 2018009993 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781351260404 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351260398 (web pdf) |
ISBN 9781351260381 (epub) | ISBN 9781351260374 (mobi/kindle) |
ISBN 9780815365914 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Palestine—History—To 70 A.D. | Palestine—Antiquities. |
Jews—History—To 586 B.C.
Classification: LCC DS121 (ebook) | LCC DS121 .W63 2018 (print) |
DDC 933—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003823
ISBN: 978-0-815-36591-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-26040-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
EMANUEL PFOH
1 Recreating the history of Israel 8
2 The emergence of Israel: social transformation and state
formation following the decline in Late Bronze Age trade 27
3 Israel’s traditions of origin: reclaiming the land 61
4 Between history and literature: the social production of Israel’s
traditions of origin 78
5 The identity of early Israel: the realignment and transformation
of Late Bronze–Iron Age Palestine 88
6 Sociology or history: towards a (human) history of ancient
Palestine? 111
7 The search for early Israel: historical perspective 125
8 ‘Israel is laid waste; his seed is no more’: what if Merneptah’s
scribes were telling the truth? 143
9 Palestine during the Iron Age 155
10 The poetics of the history of Israel: shaping Palestinian history 182
viii Contents
11 Representing minimalism: the rhetoric and reality
of revisionism 199
12 Transcending the boundaries: expanding the limits 222
13 Imagining Jerusalem 235
14 Interested parties: history and ideology at the end
of the century 250
15 Resisting the past: ancient Israel in Western memory 267
16 The death of biblical history 281
17 Architectures of enmity 300
Textual references index 315
Author index 317
Abbreviations
AAR American Association of Religion
AHR American Historical Review
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AJS American Journal of Sociology
ARA Annual Review of Anthropology
ASOR American Schools of Oriental Research
BA Biblical Archaeologist
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
Bib Biblica
BR Bible Review
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
EI Eretz Israel
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
ISSJ International Social Science Journal
JAAR Journal of the American Association of Religion
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JARCE Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
Or Orientalia
OrAnt Oriens Antiquus
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly
RSR Religious Studies Review
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
SJOT Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament