The Land of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age

249 Pages·2017·1.96 MB·English

by  Lester L. Grabbe

European Seminar in Historical Methodology
10
LIBRARY OF HEBREW BIBLE/
OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES
636
Formerly Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
Editors
Claudia V. Camp, Texas Christian University
Andrew Mein, Westcott House, Cambridge
Founding Editors
David J. A. Clines, Philip R. Davies and David M. Gunn
Editorial Board
Alan Cooper, John Goldingay,
Norman K. Gottwald, James E. Harding, John Jarick, Carol Meyers,
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher,
Carolyn J. Sharp, James W. Watts
ii
The Land of Canaan in
the Late Bronze Age
Edited by Lester L. Grabbe
Bloomsbury T&T Clark
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, T&T CLARK and the Diana logo are trademarks
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2016
© Lester L. Grabbe, 2016
Lester L. Grabbe has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
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,
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from the publishers.
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refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted
by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-5676-7281-0
ePDF: 978-0-5676-7282-7
ePUB: 978-0-5676-7559-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Series: Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, volume 636
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
Contributors vi
Part 1 Introduction and Background
Introduction Lester L. Grabbe 3
1 Late Bronze Age Palestine: If we had only the Bible … Lester L. Grabbe 11
Part 2 Chapters
2 Canaan in the Transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age
from an Egyptian Perspective Meindert Dijkstra 59
3 Canaan under the Rule of the Egyptian New Kingdom: From the
Hyksos to the Sea Peoples Lester L. Grabbe 90
4 Poor by Necessity or by Choice? Ancient Israelite
Egalitarianism Philippe Guillaume 102
5 Land Tenure, Ideology and the Emergence of Ancient Israel: A
Conversation with Philippe Guillaume Raz Kletter 112
6 The Impact of the Late Bronze III Period on the Origins of Israel
Ernst Axel Knauf 125
7 The Amarna Letters and Palestinian Politics Niels Peter Lemche 133
8 International Diplomacy in the Amarna Age Andrew D. H. Mayes 147
9 The Archaeology of the Late Bronze Age in Palestine Eveline van der Steen 159
Part 3 Conclusion
10 Reflections on the Discussion Lester L. Grabbe 179
Bibliography 189
Author Index 226
Citation Index 233
Contributors
Meindert Dijkstra is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at the University of Utrecht,
the Netherlands.
Lester L. Grabbe is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the
University of Hull, England.
Philippe Guillaume is Adjunct Lecturer in the Institut für Bibelwissenschaft at the
University of Bern, Switzerland.
Raz Kletter is Docent for Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Helsinki in
Tallinn, Estonia.
Ernst Axel Knauf is Associate Professor for Old Testament and the Biblical World in
the Institut für Bibelwissenschaft at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Niels Peter Lemche is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Exegesis at the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Andrew D. H. Mayes is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew at Trinity College Dublin,
Ireland.
Eveline van der Steen is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool,
England.
Part One
Introduction and Background
2
Introduction
Lester L. Grabbe
This volume began with the meeting of the European Seminar in Historical
Methodology in Tartu, Estonia, in July 2010. Although there was an interesting
discussion, there were not sufficient original papers tabled at the conference to form a
volume. There were also gaps in the coverage of the papers offered for the conference
discussion. A number of further contributions were invited, and it has taken time to
assemble sufficient papers to make up this volume – too long, for which I apologize.
However, in my view the contents of the volume now give a fairly complete coverage of
the major historical problems of the period. Not every single topic one might associate
with the Late Bronze Age or of the Bible in relation to this period has an independent
paper devoted to it, but most of the issues are covered somewhere within the various
chapters.
I introduce the discussion (in the Introduction) with a background chapter
surveying the main areas of history and current scholarship relating to Late Bronze
Age Palestine and to the Egyptian New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20) domination of the
region, as well as the question of the biblical account of the same geographical area and
historical period. The history of Egypt’s dealing with Canaan is surveyed in chapter 3 by
Grabbe and, especially, by the study of Dijkstra. The Amarna texts are also dealt with
by Lemche, Mayes, Grabbe (especially chapter 3) and Dijkstra to some extent. The
archaeology is surveyed by van der Steen. There is no separate chapter on the question of
the exodus, but the topic is addressed within the main essay by Grabbe (chapter 1; also
Grabbe 2014). The Merenptah Stela mentioning Israel is of considerable interest and
is discussed especially by Dijkstra but also by Grabbe. This leads on to the burning
question of the origins of Israel. This was not a topic that this volume intended to
address in comprehensive fashion, but several writers discuss the question in one form
or another: Dijkstra, Knauf, Grabbe and, to some extent, van der Steen. Another
issue is whether the first Israelite communities practised egalitarianism, an issue taken
up by Guillaume, with a response by Kletter. On the central question, they are in
agreement: early Israel was not an egalitarian society because of a particular ideology.
Summary of chapters
Meindert Dijkstra (‘Canaan in the Transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron
Age from an Egyptian Perspective’) gives a panoramic review of the Egyptian presence