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The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible
Early Israel's Origins, Settlement, and Ethnogenesis by Ann E. Killebrew 20202020 •
In the Hebrew Bible, God’s covenant and promise of the Land of Canaan as Abraham’s and his descendants’ eternal inheritance mark the emergence of the people of Israel. But before Abraham’s progeny can take possession of the promised land, they embark on a detour to Egypt as recounted in Genesis 37–50. Abraham’s grandson Jacob (whom God renames “Israel,” Gen. 32:28) witnesses his favorite son Joseph’s sale into slavery, orchestrated by jealous brothers. The saga, which continues with Joseph’s subsequent rise to a position of power and the migration of Joseph’s brothers to Egypt during a time of famine, serves as a literary bridge to one of the central themes of Israel’s emergence—their ensuing enslavement in Egypt and escape to freedom as described in the book of Exodus. The books of Joshua and Judges continue to tell the story of how the twelve tribes, or “sons” of Israel, after four decades of desert wanderings, conquer the Land of Canaan and settle there. For millennia, this story was taken for granted as a reliable account of the genesis of Israel as a people in its land. However, with the advent of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century post-Enlightenment methods of text criticism and the discovery of contemporary ancient Near Eastern texts and cultures, the historical reliability of the biblical text came into question. Aided by an ever-growing body of archaeological evidence, our understanding of early Israel has been transformed during the past century. This essay will review the theories of Israel’s emergence that have been advanced by critical scholarship, beginning with a critique of the two schools of thought developed during the first half of the twentieth century that use the Exodus story and the books of Joshua and Judges as their starting point. Subsequently, two additional models, utilizing sociological, anthropological, and archaeological approaches, attempted to write a secular history of early Israel largely independent of the biblical account. The essay concludes with recent efforts to reconcile the biblical, extra-biblical textual, and archaeological primary sources, considered together with contemporary sociological and anthropological models to reconstruct Israel’s ethnogenesis.
in: Bob Becking & Lester L.Grabbe, Between Evidence and Ideology. Essays on the History of Ancient Israel read at the Joint Meeting of the Society for OLd Testament Study and the Oud Testamentisch Werkgezelschap Lincoln, July 2009, OTS 59, Leiden - Boston 2011, 41-82 This paper presented some main lines in the research into the origins of ancient Israel, especially relating to the Egyptian connection and perspective. This includes the famous "Israel Stela" of Merenptah in the light of Egyptian imperial ideology and also the problem of 'Israel'depicted on the walls of the Temple of Amun in Karnak. Israel was and remained on the margins of Egyptian interest until at last 1100. BCE. The confrontation had no lasting impact on Egyptian politics. The vacuum that occured after withdrawal of Egyptian rule from Canaan was initially in the early Iron period not filled by Israel but by the Philistine and Phoenician harbour cities.
Israel as a political entity began with the man named Israel – Abraham’s grandson Jacob. It is ‘Israel’s people’ whom pharaoh Merneptah boasts of defeating on his victory stele. This paper briefly explains how I’ve reached that conclusion.
In this paper I try and analyze the birth of early Israelite identification through anthropological analysis and comparison to other cultures.
2019 •
FOR A COPY OF THIS ARTICLE PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL Abstract: This study aims to discuss the formation of Israelite identity vis-à-vis the formation of the Israelite monarchies (Israel, Judah), while highlighting its kinship association. In order to do so, I first discuss the material remains and settlement patterns in the Iron I–IIA central Canaanite Highlands and the adjacent valleys (Jezreel, Beth-Shean and the central Jordan). Consequently, and in light of the archaeological discussion, I further elaborate on biblical and extra biblical textual sources that may shed light on the nature of Israelite identity and its consolidation vis-à-vis the process of state formation. Full citation: Sergi, O. 2019. Israelite Identity and the Formation of the Israelite Polities in the Iron I-IIA Central Canaanite Highlands. Welts des Orients 49: 206–235.
Vetus Testamentum
The Earliest Reference to Israel and Its Possible Archaeological and Historical Background2017 •
Manfred Görg proposed to read the name Israel on a broken Egyptian inscription ÄM 21687, which is now kept in the storage facilities of the New Museum in Berlin. New research during the last number of years has confirmed this reading, although the writing of the name is different from that of the Merenptah inscription. Some characteristics appear to demonstrate that this inscription is older than the Israel stela of Merenptah and may likely date to the 14th or earlier 13th century BCE. The paper will present some ideas about an earlier beginning of the formation of what is generally called Israel and about the way, how this early Israel came about.
2018 •
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Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
Proto-Israelites: The Story of a Misleading Term2020 •
The Origin of Early Israel – Current Debate, Biblical, Historical and Archaeological Perspectives
Finkelstein, I. 1998. The Rise of Early Israel: Archaeology and Long-Term History, In Ahituv, S. and Oren, E.D. (eds.), The Origin of Early Israel – Current Debate, Biblical, Historical and Archaeological Perspectives. Beer-Sheva (12): 7-39.1998 •
Antiguo Oriente
Why Jews can also be called Israelites. A new Approach to the Question of "Biblical Israel" Antiguo Oriente 19 (2021)2021 •
Biblical Peoples and Enthnicity: An Archaeological Study of Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, and Early Israel
Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300–1100 BCE_by Ann E. Killebrew_20052005 •
SJOT 37/2: 187-209
2023e: Proto-Israelites: The Story of a Misleading TermAmerican Based Research Journal
The Emergence of Israel in Syrian-Palestine; the Archaeological Perspective of History and Religion of Israel2019 •
I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times”: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday
The Emergence of Ancient Israel: The Social Boundaries of a “Mixed Multitude” in Canaan_by Ann E. Killebrew_20062006 •
Research on Israel and Aram
Finkelstein, I. 2019. Between Jeroboam and Jeroboam: Israelite Identity Formation, in Berlejung, A. and Maeir, A.M, (eds.), Research on Israel and Aram, Tubingen: 139-155.2019 •
Near Eastern Archaeology (NEA) 82: 16–23
Earliest Israel in Highland Company2019 •