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History of ancient Israel and Judah

May 19, 2023

The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant region of Western Asia during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscription from ancient Egypt that dates to about 1208 BCE. According to modern archaeology, ancient Israelite culture developed as an outgrowth from the Semitic Canaanites. Two related Israelite polities known as the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and the Kingdom of Judah had emerged in the region by Iron Age II.

Approximate map of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (blue) and the Kingdom of Judah (gold) with their neighbors (tan) during the Iron Age (9th century BCE)

According to the Hebrew Bible, a "United Monarchy" (consisting of Israel and Judah) existed as early as the 11th century BCE, under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon; the country later would have split into two separate kingdoms: Israel, containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria in the north, and Judah (containing Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple) in the south. The historicity of the United Monarchy is debated as there are no archaeological remains of it that are accepted as consensus, but historians and archaeologists agree that Israel and Judah existed as separate kingdoms by c. 900 BCE[1]: 169–195 [2] and c. 850 BCE,[3] respectively.[4]

Archaeological remains during that time does however, include Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt invading the Levant around 930-925 BCE, conquering many cities and settlements. Unlike the United Monarchy, archaeological evidence of the conquest have been found in various sites in the Levant. However, the 22nd Dynasty did not directly annex the Levant following the conquest and brought the Levant back into Egyptian domination for unknown reasons. It was theorized by Israel Finkelstein that Shoshenq I invaded the Levant in order to prevent the formation of a unified state under the Israelites, thus forming the basis of the biblical story of Jeroboam's Revolt.[5]

The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[6] While the Kingdom of Judah remained intact during this time, it became a client state of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then the Neo-Babylonian Empire. However, Jewish revolts against the Babylonians led to the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE, under the rule of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. According to the biblical account, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem between 589–586 BCE, which led to the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the exile of the Jews to Babylon; this event was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.[7][8] The exilic period, which saw the development of the Israelite religion (Yahwism) towards the distinct monotheism of Judaism, ended with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 538 BCE. Subsequently, Persian king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus, which authorized and encouraged exiled Jews to return to the Land of Israel.[9][10] Cyrus' proclamation began the exiles' return to Zion, inaugurating the formative period in which a more distinctive Jewish identity was developed in the Persian province of Yehud. During this time, the destroyed Solomon's Temple was replaced by the Second Temple, marking the beginning of the Second Temple period.

During the Hellenistic period, Yehud was absorbed into the Hellenistic kingdoms that followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. The 2nd century BCE saw a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire and the subsequent formation of the Hasmonean kingdom—the last nominally independent kingdom of Israel. The Hasmonean kingdom gradually began to lose its independence from 63 BCE onwards, under Pompey the Great. It eventually became a client state of the Roman Republic and later of the Parthian Empire. Following the installation of client kingdoms under the Herodian dynasty, the Roman province of Judaea was wracked by civil disturbances, which culminated in the First Jewish–Roman War. The Jewish defeat by the Roman Empire in this conflict saw the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE as well as the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. The name Judaea (Iudaea) then ceased to be used by the Greco-Romans. After the Bar Kokhba revolt of 135 CE, the majority of Jews in the Levant were expelled, after which Judaea was renamed by the Romans to Syria Palaestina.[11][12][13]

Periods

  • Iron Age I: 1150[14] –950 BCE[15]
  • Iron Age II: 950[16]–586 BCE
  • Neo-Babylonian: 586–539 BCE
  • Persian: 539–332 BCE
  • Hellenistic: 333–53 BCE[17]

Other academic terms often used are:

Late Bronze Age background (1550–1150 BCE)

The eastern Mediterranean seaboard – the Levant – stretches 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula, and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian Desert.[19] The coastal plain of the southern Levant, broad in the south and narrowing to the north, is backed in its southernmost portion by a zone of foothills, the Shfela; like the plain this narrows as it goes northwards, ending in the promontory of Mount Carmel. East of the plain and the Shfela is a mountainous ridge, the "hill country of Judea" in the south, the "hill country of Ephraim" north of that, then Galilee and Mount Lebanon. To the east again lie the steep-sided valley occupied by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the wadi of the Arabah, which continues down to the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia. To the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia. The location and geographical characteristics of the narrow Levant made the area a battleground among the powerful entities that surrounded it.[20]

Canaan in the Late Bronze Age was a shadow of what it had been centuries earlier: many cities were abandoned, others shrank in size, and the total settled population was probably not much more than a hundred thousand.[21] Settlement was concentrated in cities along the coastal plain and along major communication routes; the central and northern hill country which would later become the biblical kingdom of Israel was only sparsely inhabited[22] although letters from the Egyptian archives indicate that Jerusalem was already a Canaanite city-state recognising Egyptian overlordship.[23] Politically and culturally it was dominated by Egypt,[24] each city under its own ruler, constantly at odds with its neighbours, and appealing to the Egyptians to adjudicate their differences.[22]

 
The Merneptah Stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

The Canaanite city state system broke down during the Late Bronze Age collapse,[25] and Canaanite culture was then gradually absorbed into those of the Philistines, Phoenicians and Israelites.[26] The process was gradual[27] and a strong Egyptian presence continued into the 12th century BCE, and, while some Canaanite cities were destroyed, others continued to exist in Iron Age I.[28]

The name "Israel" first appears in the Merneptah Stele c. 1208 BCE: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more."[29] This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity, well enough established for the Egyptians to perceive it as a possible challenge, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state.[30]

Iron Age I (1150–950 BCE)

Archaeologist Paula McNutt says: "It is probably… during Iron Age I [that] a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'," differentiating itself from its neighbours via prohibitions on intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.[31]

In the Late Bronze Age there were no more than about 25 villages in the highlands, but this increased to over 300 by the end of Iron Age I, while the settled population doubled from 20,000 to 40,000.[32] The villages were more numerous and larger in the north, and probably shared the highlands with pastoral nomads, who left no remains.[33] Archaeologists and historians attempting to trace the origins of these villagers have found it impossible to identify any distinctive features that could define them as specifically Israelite – collared-rim jars and four-room houses have been identified outside the highlands and thus cannot be used to distinguish Israelite sites,[34] and while the pottery of the highland villages is far more limited than that of lowland Canaanite sites, it develops typologically out of Canaanite pottery that came before.[35] Israel Finkelstein proposed that the oval or circular layout that distinguishes some of the earliest highland sites, and the notable absence of pig bones from hill sites, could be taken as markers of ethnicity, but others have cautioned that these can be a "common-sense" adaptation to highland life and not necessarily revelatory of origins.[36] Other Aramaean sites also demonstrate a contemporary absence of pig remains at that time, unlike earlier Canaanite and later Philistine excavations.

 
A reconstructed Israelite house, 10th–7th century BCE. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv.

In The Bible Unearthed (2001), Finkelstein and Silberman summarised recent studies. They described how, up until 1967, the Israelite heartland in the highlands of western Palestine was virtually an archaeological terra incognita. Since then, intensive surveys have examined the traditional territories of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. These surveys have revealed the sudden emergence of a new culture contrasting with the Philistine and Canaanite societies existing in the Land of Israel earlier during Iron Age I.[37] This new culture is characterised by a lack of pork remains (whereas pork formed 20% of the Philistine diet in places), by an abandonment of the Philistine/Canaanite custom of having highly decorated pottery, and by the practice of circumcision. The Israelite ethnic identity had originated, not from the Exodus and a subsequent conquest, but from a transformation of the existing Canaanite-Philistine cultures.[38]

These surveys revolutionized the study of early Israel. The discovery of the remains of a dense network of highland villages – all apparently established within the span of few generations – indicated that a dramatic social transformation had taken place in the central hill country of Canaan around 1200 BCE. There was no sign of violent invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group. Instead, it seemed to be a revolution in lifestyle. In the formerly sparsely populated highlands from the Judean hills in the south to the hills of Samaria in the north, far from the Canaanite cities that were in the process of collapse and disintegration, about two-hundred fifty hilltop communities suddenly sprang up. Here were the first Israelites.[39]

Modern scholars therefore see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan.[40]

Extensive archaeological excavations have provided a picture of Israelite society during the early Iron Age period. The archaeological evidence indicates a society of village-like centres, but with more limited resources and a small population. During this period, Israelites lived primarily in small villages, the largest of which had populations of up to 300 or 400.[41][42] Their villages were built on hilltops. Their houses were built in clusters around a common courtyard. They built three- or four-room houses out of mudbrick with a stone foundation and sometimes with a second story made of wood. The inhabitants lived by farming and herding. They built terraces to farm on hillsides, planting various crops and maintaining orchards. The villages were largely economically self-sufficient and economic interchange was prevalent. According to the Bible, prior to the rise of the Israelite monarchy the early Israelites were led by the Biblical judges, or chieftains who served as military leaders in times of crisis. Scholars are divided over the historicity of this account. However, it is likely that regional chiefdoms and polities provided security. The small villages were unwalled but were likely subjects of the major town in the area. Writing was known and available for recording, even at small sites.[43][44][45][46][47]

Iron Age II (950–587 BCE)

See also: Kingdom of Judah, Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), and Capital (architecture) § Proto-Aeolic

According to Israel Finkelstein, after an emergent and large polity was suddenly formed based on the Gibeon-Gibeah plateau and destroyed by Shoshenq I, the biblical Shishak, in the 10th century BCE,[5] a return to small city-states was prevalent in the Southern Levant, but between 950 and 900 BCE another large polity emerged in the northern highlands with its capital eventually at Tirzah, that can be considered the precursor of the Kingdom of Israel.[48] The Kingdom of Israel was consolidated as an important regional power by the first half of the 9th century BCE,[3] before falling to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE, and the Kingdom of Judah began to flourish in the second half of the 9th century BCE.[3]

 
Model of Levantine four-roomed house from circa 900 BCE

Unusually favourable climatic conditions in the first two centuries of Iron Age II brought about an expansion of population, settlements and trade throughout the region.[49] In the central highlands this resulted in unification in a kingdom with the city of Samaria as its capital,[49] possibly by the second half of the 10th century BCE when an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I records a series of campaigns directed at the area.[50] Israel had clearly emerged in the first half of the 9th century BCE,[5] this is attested when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III names "Ahab the Israelite" among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853 BCE). At this time Israel was apparently engaged in a three-way contest with Damascus and Tyre for control of the Jezreel Valley and Galilee in the north, and with Moab, Ammon and Aram Damascus in the east for control of Gilead;[49] the Mesha Stele (c. 830 BCE), left by a king of Moab, celebrates his success in throwing off the oppression of the "House of Omri" (i.e., Israel). It bears what is generally thought to be the earliest extra-biblical reference to the name Yahweh.[51] A century later Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding Neo-Assyrian Empire, which first split its territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria (722 BCE). Both the biblical and Assyrian sources speak of a massive deportation of people from Israel and their replacement with settlers from other parts of the empire – such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy, a means of breaking the old power structure – and the former Israel never again became an independent political entity.[52]

 
Depiction of Jehu King of Israel giving tribute to the Mesopotamian King Shalmaneser III of Assyria, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III from Nimrud  (c. 841–840 BCE)

Judah emerged as an operational kingdom somewhat later than Israel, during the second half of 9th century BCE,[5] but the subject is one of considerable controversy.[53] There are indications that during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, the southern highlands had been divided between a number of centres, none with clear primacy.[54] During the reign of Hezekiah, between c. 715 and 686 BCE, a notable increase in the power of the Judean state can be observed.[55] This is reflected in archaeological sites and findings, such as the Broad Wall; a defensive city wall in Jerusalem; and the Siloam tunnel, an aqueduct designed to provide Jerusalem with water during an impending siege by the Neo-Assyrian Empire led by Sennacherib; and the Siloam inscription, a lintel inscription found over the doorway of a tomb, has been ascribed to comptroller Shebna. LMLK seals on storage jar handles, excavated from strata in and around that formed by Sennacherib's destruction, appear to have been used throughout Sennacherib's 29-year reign, along with bullae from sealed documents, some that belonged to Hezekiah himself and others that name his servants.[56]

 
"To Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah" – royal seal found at the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem

Archaeological records indicate that the Kingdom of Israel was fairly prosperous. The late Iron Age saw an increase in urban development in Israel. Whereas previously the Israelites had lived mainly in small and unfortified settlements, the rise of the Kingdom of Israel saw the growth of cities and the construction of palaces, large royal enclosures, and fortifications with walls and gates. Israel initially had to invest significant resources into defense as it was subjected to regular Aramean incursions and attacks, but after the Arameans were subjugated by the Assyrians and Israel could afford to put less resources into defending its territory, its architectural infrastructure grew dramatically. Extensive fortifications were built around cities such as Dan, Megiddo, and Hazor, including monumental and multi-towered city walls and multi-gate entry systems. Israel's economy was based on multiple industries. It had the largest olive oil production centers in the region, using at least two different types of olive oil presses, and also had a significant wine industry, with wine presses constructed next to vineyards. By contrast, the Kingdom of Judah was significantly less advanced. Some scholars believe it was no more than a small tribal entity limited to Jerusalem and its immediate surroundings. In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE, the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated, limited to small and mostly unfortified settlements. The status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate among scholars. Jerusalem does not show evidence of significant Israelite residential activity until the 9th century BCE. On the other hand, significant administrative structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and Large Stone Structure, which originally formed part of one structure, contain material culture from earlier than that. The ruins of a significant Judahite military fortress, Tel Arad, have also been found in the Negev, and a collection of military orders found there suggest literacy was present throughout the ranks of the Judahite army. This suggests that literacy was not limited to a tiny elite, indicating the presence of a substantial educational infrastructure in Judah.[57][58][59][60][61]

 
Siloam inscription found in the Siloam tunnel, Jerusalem (c. 700 BCE)

In the 7th century Jerusalem grew to contain a population many times greater than earlier and achieved clear dominance over its neighbours.[62] This occurred at the same time that Israel was being destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and was probably the result of a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians to establish Judah as an Assyrian vassal state controlling the valuable olive industry.[62] Judah prospered as a vassal state (despite a disastrous rebellion against Sennacherib), but in the last half of the 7th century BCE, Assyria suddenly collapsed, and the ensuing competition between Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire for control of the land led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582.[62]

Babylonian period

Main article: Yehud (Babylonian province)

Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population[63] and lost the Negev, the Shephelah, and part of the Judean hill country, including Hebron, to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours.[64] Jerusalem, while probably not totally abandoned, was much smaller than previously, and the town of Mizpah in Benjamin in the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud Medinata.[65] (This was standard Babylonian practice: when the Philistine city of Ashkalon was conquered in 604, the political, religious and economic elite [but not the bulk of the population] was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location).[66] There is also a strong probability that for most or all of the period the temple at Bethel in Benjamin replaced that at Jerusalem, boosting the prestige of Bethel's priests (the Aaronites) against those of Jerusalem (the Zadokites), now in exile in Babylon.[67]

The Babylonian conquest entailed not just the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, but the liquidation of the entire infrastructure which had sustained Judah for centuries.[68] The most significant casualty was the state ideology of "Zion theology,"[69] the idea that the god of Israel had chosen Jerusalem for his dwelling-place and that the Davidic dynasty would reign there forever.[70] The fall of the city and the end of Davidic kingship forced the leaders of the exile community – kings, priests, scribes and prophets – to reformulate the concepts of community, faith and politics.[71] The exile community in Babylon thus became the source of significant portions of the Hebrew Bible: Isaiah 40–55; Ezekiel; the final version of Jeremiah; the work of the hypothesized priestly source in the Pentateuch; and the final form of the history of Israel from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings.[72] Theologically, the Babylonian exiles were responsible for the doctrines of individual responsibility and universalism (the concept that one god controls the entire world) and for the increased emphasis on purity and holiness.[72] Most significantly, the trauma of the exile experience led to the development of a strong sense of Hebrew identity distinct from other peoples,[73] with increased emphasis on symbols such as circumcision and Sabbath-observance to sustain that distinction.[74]

 
One of the Al-Yahudu Tablets, written in Akkadian, which documented the condition of the exiled Judean community in Babylon

Hans M. Barstad writes that the concentration of the biblical literature on the experience of the exiles in Babylon disguises that the great majority of the population remained in Judah; for them, life after the fall of Jerusalem probably went on much as it had before.[75] It may even have improved, as they were rewarded with the land and property of the deportees, much to the anger of the community of exiles remaining in Babylon.[76] Conversely, Avraham Faust's writes that archaeological and demographic surveys show that the population of Judah was significantly reduced to barely 10% of what it had been in the time before the Exile.[77] The assassination around 582 of the Babylonian governor by a disaffected member of the former royal House of David provoked a Babylonian crackdown, possibly reflected in the Book of Lamentations, but the situation seems to have soon stabilised again.[78] Nevertheless, those unwalled cities and towns that remained were subject to slave raids by the Phoenicians and intervention in their internal affairs by Samaritans, Arabs, and Ammonites.[79]

Persian period

Main article: Yehud Medinata

When Babylon fell to the founder and king of Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE, Judah (or Yehud medinata, the "province of Yehud") became an administrative division within the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus was succeeded as king by Cambyses, who added Egypt to the empire, incidentally transforming Yehud and the Philistine plain into an important frontier zone. His death in 522 was followed by a period of turmoil until Darius the Great seized the throne in about 521. Darius introduced a reform of the administrative arrangements of the empire including the collection, codification and administration of local law codes, and it is reasonable to suppose that this policy lay behind the redaction of the Jewish Torah.[80] After 404 the Persians lost control of Egypt, which became Persia's main rival outside Europe, causing the Persian authorities to tighten their administrative control over Yehud and the rest of the Levant.[81] Egypt was eventually reconquered, but soon afterward Persia fell to Alexander the Great, ushering in the Hellenistic period in the Levant.

 
Silver coin (gerah) minted in the Persian province of Yehud, dated c. 375–332 BCE. Obv: Bearded head wearing crown, possibly representing the Persian Great King. Rev: Falcon facing, head right, with wings spread; Paleo-Hebrew YHD to right.

Yehud's population over the entire period was probably never more than about 30,000 and that of Jerusalem no more than about 1,500, most of them connected in some way to the Temple.[82] According to the biblical history, one of the first acts of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of Babylon, was to commission Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple, a task which they are said to have completed c. 515.[83] Yet it was probably not until the middle of the next century, at the earliest, that Jerusalem again became the capital of Judah.[84] The Persians may have experimented initially with ruling Yehud as a Davidic client-kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin,[85] but by the mid–5th century BCE, Yehud had become, in practice, a theocracy, ruled by hereditary high priests,[86] with a Persian-appointed governor, frequently Jewish, charged with keeping order and seeing that taxes (tribute) were collected and paid.[87] According to the biblical history, Ezra and Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of the 5th century BCE, the former empowered by the Persian king to enforce the Torah, the latter holding the status of governor with a royal commission to restore Jerusalem's walls.[88] The biblical history mentions tension between the returnees and those who had remained in Yehud, the returnees rebuffing the attempt of the "peoples of the land" to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple; this attitude was based partly on the exclusivism that the exiles had developed while in Babylon and, probably, also partly on disputes over property.[89] During the 5th century BCE, Ezra and Nehemiah attempted to re-integrate these rival factions into a united and ritually pure society, inspired by the prophecies of Ezekiel and his followers.[90]

The Persian era, and especially the period between 538 and 400 BCE, laid the foundations for the unified Judaic religion and the beginning of a scriptural canon.[91] Other important landmarks in this period include the replacement of Hebrew as the everyday language of Judah by Aramaic (although Hebrew continued to be used for religious and literary purposes)[92] and Darius's reform of the empire's bureaucracy, which may have led to extensive revisions and reorganizations of the Jewish Torah.[80] The Israel of the Persian period consisted of descendants of the inhabitants of the old kingdom of Judah, returnees from the Babylonian exile community, Mesopotamians who had joined them or had been exiled themselves to Samaria at a far earlier period, Samaritans, and others.[93]

Hellenistic period

Main articles: Hasmonean, Herodian Dynasty, Judea (Roman province), and Samaria

The beginning of the Hellenistic Period is marked by the conquest of Alexander the Great (333 BCE). When Alexander died in 323, he had no heirs that were able to take his place as ruler of his empire, so his generals divided the empire among themselves.[94] Ptolemy I asserted himself as the ruler of Egypt in 322 and seized Yehud Medinata in 320, but his successors lost it in 198 to the Seleucids of Syria. At first, relations between Seleucids and Jews were cordial, but the attempt of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (174–163) to impose Hellenic cults on Judea sparked the Maccabean Revolt that ended in the expulsion of the Seleucids and the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty. Some modern commentators see this period also as a civil war between orthodox and hellenized Jews.[95][96] Hasmonean kings attempted to revive the Judah described in the Bible: a Jewish monarchy ruled from Jerusalem and including all territories once ruled by David and Solomon. In order to carry out this project, the Hasmoneans forcibly converted one-time Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites to Judaism, as well as the lost kingdom of Israel.[97] Some scholars argue that the Hasmonean dynasty institutionalized the final Jewish biblical canon.[98]

Ptolemaic rule

Ptolemy I took control of Egypt in 322 BCE after the death of Alexander the Great. He also took control of Yehud Medinata in 320 because he was very aware that it was a great place from which to attack Egypt and was also a great defensive position. However, there were others who also had their eyes on that area. Another former general, Antigonus Monophthalmus, had driven out the satrap of Babylon, Seleucus, in 317 and continued on towards the Levant. Seleucus found refuge with Ptolemy and they both rallied troops against Antigonus' son Demetrius, since Antigonus had retreated back to Asia Minor. Demetrius was defeated at the battle of Gaza and Ptolemy regained control of Yehud Medinata. However, not soon after this Antigonus came back and forced Ptolemy to retreat back to Egypt. This went on until the Battle of Ipsus in 301 where Seleucus' armies defeated Antigonus. Seleucus was given the areas of Syria and Palestine, but Ptolemy would not give up those lands, causing the Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids. Not much is known about the happenings of those in Yehud Medinata from the time of Alexander's death until the Battle of Ipsus due to the frequent battles.[99] At first, the Jews were content with Ptolemy's rule over them. His reign brought them peace and economic stability. He also allowed them to keep their religious practices, so long as they paid their taxes and didn't rebel.[100] After Ptolemy I came Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who was able to keep the territory of Yehud Medinata and brought the dynasty to the peak of its power. He was victorious in both the first and second Syrian Wars, but after trying to end the conflict with the Seleucids by arranging a marriage between his daughter Berenice and the Seleucid king Antiochus II, he died. The arranged marriage did not work and Berenice, Antiochus, and their child were killed from an order of Antiochus' former wife. This was one of the reasons for the third Syrian War. Before all of this, Ptolemy II fought and defeated the Nabataeans. In order to enforce his hold on them, he reinforced many cities in Palestine and built new ones. As a result of this, more Greeks and Macedonians moved to those new cities and brought over their customs and culture, or Hellenism. The Ptolemaic Rule also gave rise to 'tax farmers'. These were the bigger farmers who collected the high taxes of the smaller farmers. These farmers made a lot of money off of this, but it also put a rift between the aristocracy and everyone else. During the end of the Third Syrian War, the high priest Onias II would not pay the tax to the Ptolemy III Euergetes. It is thought that this shows a turning point in the Jew's support of the Ptolemies.[101] The Fourth and Fifth Syrian Wars marked the end of the Ptolemaic control of Palestine. Both of these wars hurt Palestine more than the previous three. That and the combination of the ineffective rulers Ptolemy IV Philopater and Ptolemy V and the might of the large Seleucid army ended the century-long rule of the Ptolemaic Dynasty over Palestine.[102]

Seleucid rule and the Maccabean Revolt

 
Coins used in the Seleucid Empire during the Maccabean Revolt
Further information: Coele-Syria and Maccabean Revolt

The Seleucid Rule of the Holy Land began in 198 BCE under Antiochus III. He, like the Ptolemies, let the Jews keep their religion and customs and even went so far as to encourage the rebuilding of the temple and city after they welcomed him so warmly into Jerusalem.[103] However, Antiochus owed the Romans a great deal of money. In order to raise this money, he decided to rob a temple. The people at the temple of Bel in Elam were not pleased, so they killed Antiochus and everyone helping him in 187 BCE. He was succeeded by his son Seleucus IV Philopater. He simply defended the area from Ptolemy V before being murdered by his minister in 175. His brother Antiochus IV Epiphanes took his place. Before he killed the king, the minister Heliodorus had tried to steal the treasures from the temple in Jerusalem. He was informed of this by a rival of the current High Priest Onias III. Heliodorus was not allowed into the temple, but it required Onias to go explain to the king why one of his ministers was denied access somewhere. In his absence, his rivals put up a new high priest. Onias' brother Jason (a Hellenized version of Joshua) took his place.[104] Now with Jason as high priest and Antiochus IV as king, many Jews adopted Hellenistic ways. Some of these ways, as stated in the Book of 1 Maccabees, were the building of a gymnasium, finding ways to hide their circumcision, and just generally not abiding by the holy covenant.[105] This led to the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt.

According to the Book of Maccabees, many Jews were not happy with the way Hellenism had spread into Judea. Some of these Jews were Mattathias and his sons.[105] Mattathias refused to offer sacrifice when the king told him to. He killed a Jew who was going to do so as well as the king's representative. Because of this, Mattathias and his sons had to flee. This marks the true beginning of the Maccabean Revolt. Judas Maccabeus became the leader of the rebels. He proved to be a successful general, defeating an army led by Apollonius. They started to catch the attention of King Antiochus IV in 165, who told his chancellor to put an end to the revolt. The chancellor, Lysias, sent three generals to do just that, but they were all defeated by the Maccabees. Soon after, Lysias went himself but, according to 1 and 2 Maccabees he was defeated. There is evidence to show that it was not that simple and that there was negotiation, but Lysias still left. After the death of Antiochus IV in 164, his son, Antiochus V, gave the Jews religious freedom. Lysias claimed to be his regent. Around this time was the re-dedication of the temple. During the siege of the Acra, one of Judas' brothers, Eleazor, was killed. The Maccabees had to retreat back to Jerusalem, where they should have been beaten badly. However, Lysias had to pull out because of a contradiction of who was to be regent for Antiochus V. Shortly after, both were killed by Demetrius I Soter who became the new king. The new high priest, Alcimus, had come to Jerusalem with the company of an army led by Bacchides.[106] A group of scribes called the Hasideans asked him for his word that he would not harm anyone. He agreed, but killed sixty of them.[107] Around this time Judas was able to make a treaty with the Romans. Soon after this, Judas was killed in Jerusalem fighting Bacchides' army. His brother Jonathan succeeded him. For eight years, Jonathan didn't do much. However, in 153 the Seleucid Empire started to face some problems. Jonathan used this chance to exchange his services of troops for Demetrius so that he could take back Jerusalem. He was appointed high priest by Alexander Balas for the same thing. When conflicts between Egypt and the Seleucids arose, Jonathan occupied the Acra. As conflicts over the throne arose, he completely took control of the Acra. But in 142 he was killed.[108] His brother Simon took his place.[109]

The Hasmonean Dynasty

Further information: Hasmonean dynasty
 
Expansion of the Hasmonean kingdom

Simon was nominated for the title of high priest, general, and leader by a "great assembly". He reached out to Rome to have them guarantee that Judea would be an independent land. Antiochus VII wanted the cities of Gadara, Joppa, and the Acra back. He also wanted a very large tribute. Simon only wanted to pay a fraction of that for only two of the cities, so Antiochus sent his general Cendebaeus to attack. The general was killed and the army fled. Simon and two of his sons were killed in a plot to overthrow the Hasmoneans. His last remaining son, John Hyrcanus, was supposed to be killed as well, but he was informed of the plan and rushed to Jerusalem to keep it safe. Hyrcanus had many issues to deal with as the new high priest. Antiochus invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem in 134 BCE. Due to lack of food, Hyrcanus had to make a deal with Antiochus. He had to pay a large sum of money, tear down the walls of the city, acknowledge Seleucid power over Judea, and help the Seleucids fight against the Parthians. Hyrcanus agreed to this, but the war against the Parthians didn't work and Antiochus died in 128. Hyrcanus was able to take back Judea and keep his power. John Hyrcanus also kept good relations with the Roman and the Egyptians, owing to the large number of Jews living there, and conquered Transjordan, Samaria,[110] and Idumea (also known as Edom).[111][112] Aristobulus I was the first Hasmonean priest-king. He defied his father's wishes that his mother should take over the government and instead had her and all of his brothers except for one thrown in prison. The one not thrown in prison was later killed on his orders. The most significant thing he did during his one-year-reign was conquer most of Galilee. After his death, he was succeeded by his brother Alexander Jannaeus, who was only concerned with power and conquest. He also married his brother's widow, showing little respect for Jewish law. His first conquest was Ptolemais. The people called to Ptolemy IX for aid, as he was in Cyprus. However, it was his mother, Cleopatra III, who came to help Alexander and not her son. Alexander was not a popular ruler. This caused a civil war in Jerusalem that lasted for six years. After Alexander Jannaeus' death, his widow became ruler, but not high priest. The end of the Hasmonean Dynasty was in 63 when the Romans came at the request of the current priest-king Aristobulus II and his competitor Hyrcanus II. In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and the Romans put Hyrcanus II up as high priest, but Judea became a client-kingdom of Rome. The dynasty came to an end in 40 BCE when Herod was crowned king of Judah by the Romans. With their help, Herod had seized Jerusalem by 37.[113]

The Herodian dynasty

Further information: Herodian dynasty

In 40–39 BCE, Herod the Great was appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate, and in 6 CE the last ethnarch of Judea, a descendant of Herod's, was deposed by Emperor Augustus, his territories combined with Idumea and Samaria and annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration.[114]

 
Modern reconstruction of what the Second Temple would have looked like after its renovation during the reign of Herod I

Religion

Although the specific process by which the Israelites came to worship only one God is unknown, it is certain that the transition was a gradual one and was not totally accomplished during the First Temple period.[115] Yet, over time, the number of gods that the Israelites worshipped decreased with time, and figurative images vanished from their shrines. Yahwism, as some scholars name this belief system, is often described as a form of henotheism or monolatry. Over the same time, a folk religion continued to be practiced across Israel and Judah. These practices were influenced by the polytheistic beliefs of the surrounding ethnicities, and were denounced by the prophets.[116][117][118]

In addition to the Temple in Jerusalem, there was public worship practiced all over Israel and Judah in shrines and sanctuaries, outdoors, and close to city gates. In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, the kings Hezekiah and Josiah of Judah implemented a number of significant religious reforms that aimed to center worship of the God of Israel in Jerusalem and eliminate foreign customs.[119][120][121]

Henotheism

Henotheism is the act of worshipping a single god, without denying the existence of other deities.[122] Many scholars believe that before monotheism in ancient Israel, there came a transitional period; in this transitional period many followers of the Israelite religion worshiped the god Yahweh, but did not deny the existence of other deities accepted throughout the region.[115] Henotheistic worship was not uncommon in the Ancient Near East, many Iron Age nation states worshipped an elevated national god which was nonetheless only part of a wider pantheon; examples include Chemosh in Moab, Qos in Edom, Milkom in Ammon, and Ashur in Assyria.[123]

Canaanite religion syncretized elements from neighboring cultures, largely from Mesopotamian religious traditions.[124] Using Canaanite religion as a base was natural due to the fact that the Canaanite culture inhabited the same region prior to the emergence of Israelite culture.[125] Israelite religion was no exception, as during the transitional period, Yahweh and El were syncretized in the Israelite pantheon.[125] El already occupied a reasonably important place in the Israelite religion. Even the name "Israel" is based on the name El, rather than Yahweh.[126][127][128] It was this initial harmonization of Israelite and Canaanite religious thought that lead to Yahweh gradually absorbing several characteristics from Canaanite deities, in turn strengthening his own position as an all-powerful "One." Even still, monotheism in the region of ancient Israel and Judah did not take hold overnight, and during the intermediate stages most people are believed to have remained henotheistic.[124]

 
El, the Canaanite creator deity, Megiddo, Stratum VII, Late Bronze II, 1400–1200 BC, bronze with gold leaf – Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago – DSC07734 The Canaanite god El, who may have been the precursor to the Israelite god Yahweh.

During this intermediate period of henotheism many families worshiped different gods. Religion was very much centered around the family, as opposed to the community. The region of Israel and Judah was sparsely populated during the time of Moses. As such many different areas worshiped different gods, due to social isolation.[129] It was not until later on in Israelite history that people started to worship Yahweh alone and fully convert to monotheistic values. That switch occurred with the growth of power and influence of the Israelite kingdom and its rulers. Further details of this are contained in the Iron Age Yahwism section below. Evidence from the Bible suggests that henotheism did exist: "They [the Hebrews] went and served alien gods and paid homage to them, gods of whom they had no experience and whom he [Yahweh] did not allot to them" (Deut. 29.26). Many believe that this quote demonstrates that the early Israelite kingdom followed traditions similar to ancient Mesopotamia, where each major urban center had a supreme god. Each culture embraced their patron god but did not deny the existence of other cultures' patron gods. In Assyria, the patron god was Ashur, and in ancient Israel, it was Yahweh; however, both Israelite and Assyrian cultures recognized each other's deities during this period.[129]

 
The Canaanite god Baal, 14th–12th century BCE (Louvre museum, Paris)

Some scholars have used the Bible as evidence to argue that most of the people alive during the events recounted in the Hebrew Bible, including Moses, were most likely henotheists. There are many quotes from the Hebrew Bible that are used to support this view. One such quote from Jewish tradition is the first commandment which in its entirety reads "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods before me."[130] This quote does not deny the existence of other gods; it merely states that Jews should consider Yahweh or God the supreme god, incomparable to other supernatural beings. Some scholars attribute the concept of angels and demons found in Judaism and Christianity to the tradition of henotheism. Instead of completely getting rid of the concept of other supernatural beings, these religions changed former deities into angels and demons.[124] Yahweh became the supreme god governing angels, demons and humans, with angels and demons considered more powerful than the average human. This tradition of believing in multiple forms of supernatural beings is attributed by many to the traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan and their pantheons of gods. Earlier influences from Mesopotamia and Canaan were important in creating the foundation of Israelite religion consistent with the Kingdoms of ancient Israel and Judah, and have left lasting impacts on some of the biggest and most widespread religions in our world today.

Iron Age Yahwism

Main article: Yahwism

The religion of the Israelites of Iron Age I, like the Ancient Canaanite religion from which it evolved and other religions of the ancient Near East, was based on a cult of ancestors and worship of family gods (the "gods of the fathers").[131][132] With the emergence of the monarchy at the beginning of Iron Age II the kings promoted their family god, Yahweh, as the god of the kingdom, but beyond the royal court, religion continued to be both polytheistic and family-centered.[133] The major deities were not numerous – El, Asherah, and Yahweh, with Baal as a fourth god, and perhaps Shamash (the sun) in the early period.[134] At an early stage El and Yahweh became fused and Asherah did not continue as a separate state cult,[134] although she continued to be popular at a community level until Persian times.[135]

 
Pithos sherd found at Kuntillet Ajrud with a drawing below the inscription "Yahweh and his Asherah"

Yahweh, the national god of both Israel and Judah, seems to have originated in Edom and Midian in southern Canaan and may have been brought to Israel by the Kenites and Midianites at an early stage.[136] There is a general consensus among scholars that the first formative event in the emergence of the distinctive religion described in the Bible was triggered by the destruction of Israel by Assyria in c. 722 BCE. Refugees from the northern kingdom fled to Judah, bringing with them laws and a prophetic tradition of Yahweh. This religion was subsequently adopted by the landowners of Judah, who in 640 BCE placed the eight-year-old Josiah on the throne. Judah at this time was a vassal state of Assyria, but Assyrian power collapsed in the 630s, and around 622 Josiah and his supporters launched a bid for independence expressed as loyalty to "Yahweh alone".

Prophecy

In both Israel and Judah, prophets had taken on significant religious and political significance. It is particularly well-known thanks to the prophetic books ("Nevi'im") of the Hebrew Bible. Nearly all of the prophets mentioned in the biblical texts are men, and although they did not necessarily write the prophetic texts, they are undoubtedly the source of those texts. The books of Amos and Hoshea were written in the first half of the 8th century, the First Isaiah ("Proto-Isaiah") a little later, Jeremiah and Ezekiel during the fall of Judah and the early years of the Babylonian captivity, Daniel during the Exile, the Second Isaiah ("Deutero-Isaiah") between the end of the Exile and the start of the post-exilic period, etc.

Prophecy was widespread in the Ancient Near East, as shown by records from Assyria and Mari. Gods communicated with humans (men or women) in order to convey a message meant both specifically for the king and more broadly for the subjects of the kingdom. In some instances, the king requested that the prophet receive a divine message. The context of this function's performance in the Bible is unclear; prophets can be found alone or in groups, at the royal court or in temples (as is most common in other regions of the Near East).

The prophets featured in the biblical accounts were messengers of Yahweh. In the kingdom of Israel, they competed with Ba'al-related prophets.[137] They serve as diviners, and because of their special relationship with Yahweh, they are also said to possess miraculous powers: the Bible records instances of prophets curing the sick, raising the dead, multiplying bread and oil, and bringing rain after a drought.

The prophets of Yahweh from the time of the monarchy have two main messages for the king: to make sure he only worships Yahweh, and to make sure he looks out for the people, especially the least fortunate (the widow and the orphan). The prophets were sometimes supporters of the king's initiatives and his advisors; at other times, they were fierce opponents.[137] They frequently had harsh criticism for how the populace lived. The prophets undoubtedly had a stronger social role than the temple priests, who are a part of the elite group.

The role of the prophets in shaping Yahwism and Monotheism is not clear. Although it has frequently been argued that the prophets were merely intermediaries for the wishes of the Yahwist elites of the court and the Temple, it is possible that they were instrumental in the development and spread of monotheism.

The Babylonian exile and Second Temple Judaism

Main article: Second Temple Judaism

According to the Deuteronomists, as scholars call these Judean nationalists, the treaty with Yahweh would enable Israel's god to preserve both the city and the king in return for the people's worship and obedience. The destruction of Jerusalem, its Temple, and the Davidic dynasty by Babylon in 587/586 BCE was deeply traumatic and led to revisions of the national mythos during the Babylonian exile. This revision was expressed in the Deuteronomistic history, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, which interpreted the Babylonian destruction as divinely-ordained punishment for the failure of Israel's kings to worship Yahweh to the exclusion of all other deities.[138]

 
Magdala stone, discovered in the ancient city of Magdala. Two ancient synagogues dated to the 1st-century CE were unearthed in Magdala

The Second Temple period (520 BCE – 70 CE) differed in significant ways from what had gone before.[139] Strict monotheism emerged among the priests of the Temple establishment during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, as did beliefs regarding angels and demons.[140] At this time, circumcision, dietary laws, and Sabbath-observance gained more significance as symbols of Jewish identity, and the institution of the synagogue became increasingly important, and most of the biblical literature, including the Torah, was substantially revised during this time.[141]

Administrative and judicial structure

 
"To Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah" – royal seal found at the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem

As was customary in the ancient Near East, a king (Hebrew: מלך, romanized: melekh) ruled over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The national god Yahweh, who selects those to rule his realm and his people, is depicted in the Hebrew Bible as having a hand in the establishment of the royal institution. In this sense, the true king is God, and the king serves as his earthly envoy and is tasked with ruling his realm. In some Psalms that appear to be related to the coronation of kings, they are referred to as "sons of Yahweh". The kings actually had to succeed one another according to a dynastic principle, even though the succession was occasionally decided through coups d'état. The coronation seemed to take place in a sacred place, and was marked by the anointing of the king who then becomes the "anointed one (māšîaḥ ,the origin of the word Messiah) of Yahweh"; the end of the ritual seems marked by an acclamation by the people (or at least their representatives, the Elders), followed by a banquet.[142]

The Bible's descriptions of the lists of dignitaries from the reigns of David and Solomon show that the king is supported by a group of high dignitaries. Those include the chief of the army (Hebrew: שר הצבא, romanized: śar haṣṣābā), the great scribe (Hebrew: שר הצבא, romanized: śar haṣṣābā) who was in charge of the management of the royal chancellery, the herald (Hebrew: מזכיר, romanized: mazkîr), as well as the high priest (Hebrew: כהן הגדול, romanized: kōhēn hāggādôl) and the master of the palace (Hebrew: על הבית, סוכן, romanized: ʿal-habbayit, sōkēn), who has a function of stewardship of the household of the king at the beginning and seems to become a real prime minister of Judah during the later periods. The attributions of most of these dignitaries remain debated, as illustrated in particular by the much-discussed case of the “king's friend” mentioned under Solomon.[142][143]

Language and literature

A writing system unique to the Israelites emerged from the Phoenician alphabet around the 10th century. This system is today known as the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Consonantal in nature, this abjad contains twenty-two letters. The language spoken during this period was Biblical Hebrew, an ancient variant of Hebrew, a Northwest Semitic language related to Phoenician and Aramaic. As evidenced by ancient inscriptions, dialect variations existed, particularly between the northern Kingdom of Israel ("Israelian Hebrew") and the South (Judah). The biblical texts are predominantly written in the Judahite dialect.[144]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2001). The Bible unearthed : archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its stories (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-86912-4.
  2. ^ Wright, Jacob L. (July 2014). . The Bible and Interpretation. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Finkelstein, Israel, (2020). "Saul and Highlands of Benjamin Update: The Role of Jerusalem", in Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart (eds.), Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives, SBL Press, Atlanta, GA, p. 48, footnote 57: "...They became territorial kingdoms later, Israel in the first half of the ninth century BCE and Judah in its second half..."
  4. ^ The Pitcher Is Broken: Memorial Essays for Gosta W. Ahlstrom, Steven W. Holloway, Lowell K. Handy, Continuum, 1 May 1995 Quote: "For Israel, the description of the battle of Qarqar in the Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III (mid-ninth century) and for Judah, a Tiglath-pileser III text mentioning (Jeho-) Ahaz of Judah (IIR67 = K. 3751), dated 734–733, are the earliest published to date."
  5. ^ a b c d Finkelstein, Israel (2020). "Saul and Highlands of Benjamin Update: The Role of Jerusalem". In Joachim J. Krause; Omer Sergi; Kristin Weingart (eds.). Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0884144519. ...Shoshenq I, the founder of the Twenty-Second Dynasty and seemingly the more assertive of the Egyptian rulers of the time, reacted to the north Israelite challenge. He campaigned into the highlands and took over the Saulide power bases in the Gibeon plateau and the area of the Jabbok River in the western Gilead. The fortified sites of Khirbet Qeiyafa, Khirbet Dawwara, et-Tell, and Gibeon were destroyed or abandoned. Shoshenq reorganized the territory of the highlands - back to the traditional situation of two city-states under his domination... (p. 48)
  6. ^ Broshi, Maguen (2001). Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-84127-201-6.
  7. ^ . Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  8. ^ . www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Second Temple Period (538 BCE to 70 CE) Persian Rule". Biu.ac.il. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  10. ^ Harper's Bible Dictionary, ed. by Achtemeier, etc., Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985, p. 103
  11. ^ Ben-Sasson (1976), page 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature."
  12. ^ Lewin, Ariel (2005). The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine. Getty Publications, p. 33. "It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name – one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (Palestine), already known from the writings of Herodotus - Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land." ISBN 0-89236-800-4
  13. ^ Schäfer, Peter, ed. (2003). The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome. Texts and studies in ancient Judaism. Vol. 100. Mohr Siebeck. p. 33. ISBN 3161480767. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  14. ^ The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities,Megiddo. in Archaeology & History of the Land of the Bible International MA in Ancient Israel Studies, Tel Aviv University: "...Megiddo has...a fascinating picture of state-formation and social evolution in the Bronze Age (ca. 3500-1150 B.C.) and Iron Age (ca. 1150-600 B.C.)..."
  15. ^ Finkelstein, Israel, (2019).First Israel, Core Israel, United (Northern) Israel, in Near Eastern Archaeology 82.1 (2019), p. 8: "...The late Iron I system came to an end during the tenth century BCE..."
  16. ^ Finkelstein, Israel, and Eli Piasetzky, 2010. "The Iron I/IIA Transition in the Levant: A Reply to Mazar and Bronk Ramsey and a New Perspective", in Radiocarbon, Vol 52, No. 4, The Arizona Board of Regents in behalf of the University of Arizona, pp. 1667 and 1674: "The Iron I/IIA transition occurred during the second half of the 10th century...We propose that the late Iron I cities came to an end in a gradual process and interpret this proposal with Bayesian Model II...The process results in a transition date of 915-898 BCE (68% range), or 927-879 BCE (95% range)..."
  17. ^ King & Stager 2001, p. xxiii.
  18. ^ Jerusalem in the First Temple period (c.1000-586 B.C.E.) 9 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, Bar-Ilan University, last modified 1997, accessed 11 February 2019
  19. ^ Miller 1986, p. 36.
  20. ^ Coogan 1998, pp. 4–7.
  21. ^ Finkelstein 2001, p. 78.
  22. ^ a b Killebrew (2005), pp. 38–39.
  23. ^ Cahill in Vaughn 1992, pp. 27–33.
  24. ^ Kuhrt 1995, p. 317.
  25. ^ Killebrew 2005, pp. 10–16.
  26. ^ Golden 2004b, pp. 61–62.
  27. ^ McNutt (1999), p. 47.
  28. ^ Golden 2004a, p. 155.
  29. ^ Stager in Coogan 1998, p. 91.
  30. ^ Dever 2003, p. 206.
  31. ^ McNutt 1999, p. 35.
  32. ^ McNutt (1999), pp. 46–47.
  33. ^ McNutt (1999), p. 69.
  34. ^ Miller 1986, p. 72.
  35. ^ Killebrew (2005), p. 13.
  36. ^ Edelman in Brett 2002, pp. 46–47.
  37. ^ Finkelstein and Silberman (2001), p. 107
  38. ^ Avraham Faust, "How Did Israel Become a People? The Genesis of Israelite Identity", Biblical Archaeology Review 201 (2009): 62–69, 92–94.
  39. ^ Finkelstein and Silberman (2001), p. 107.
  40. ^ Compare: Gnuse, Robert Karl (1997). No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. Journal for the study of the Old Testament: Supplement series. Vol. 241. Sheffield: A&C Black. p. 31. ISBN 9781850756576. Retrieved 2 June 2016. Out of the discussions a new model is beginning to emerge, which has been inspired, above all, by recent archaeological field research. There are several variations in this new theory, but they share in common the image of an Israelite community which arose peacefully and internally in the highlands of Palestine.
  41. ^ McNutt (1999), p. 70.
  42. ^ Miller 2005, p. 98.
  43. ^ McNutt (1999), p. 72.
  44. ^ Miller 2005, p. 99.
  45. ^ Miller 2005, p. 105.
  46. ^ Lehman in Vaughn 1992, pp. 156–62.
  47. ^ "Daily Life in Ancient Israel". Biblical Archaeology Society. 13 September 2022.
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  50. ^ Mazar in Schmidt, p. 163.
  51. ^ Miller, Patrick D. (2000). The Religion of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-0-664-22145-4.
  52. ^ Lemche 1998, p. 85.
  53. ^ Grabbe (2008), pp. 225–26.
  54. ^ Lehman in Vaughn 1992, p. 149.
  55. ^ David M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature, Oxford University Press, 2005, 164.
  56. ^ "LAMRYEU-HNNYEU-OBD-HZQYEU". www.lmlk.com.
  57. ^ Brown, William. "Ancient Israelite Technology". World History Encyclopedia.
  58. ^ "The Keys to the Kingdom". Haaretz.
  59. ^ Mazar, Amihai (19 September 2010). "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy". One God – One Cult – One Nation: 29–58. doi:10.1515/9783110223583.29. ISBN 978-3-11-022357-6 – via www.academia.edu.
  60. ^ Moore, Megan Bishop; Kelle, Brad E. (17 May 2011). Biblical History and Israel S Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History. ISBN 9780802862600.
  61. ^ "New look at ancient shards suggests Bible even older than thought". Times of Israel.
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  63. ^ Grabbe 2004, p. 28.
  64. ^ Lemaire in Blenkinsopp 2003, p. 291.
  65. ^ Davies 2009.
  66. ^ Lipschits 2005, p. 48.
  67. ^ Blenkinsopp in Blenkinsopp 2003, pp. 103–05.
  68. ^ Blenkinsopp 2009, p. 228.
  69. ^ Middlemas 2005, pp. 1–2.
  70. ^ Miller 1986, p. 203.
  71. ^ Middlemas 2005, p. 2.
  72. ^ a b Middlemas 2005, p. 10.
  73. ^ Middlemas 2005, p. 17.
  74. ^ Bedford 2001, p. 48.
  75. ^ Barstad 2008, p. 109.
  76. ^ Albertz 2003a, p. 92.
  77. ^ Faust, Avraham (2012). Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The Archaeology of Desolation. Society of Biblical Lit. p. 140
  78. ^ Albertz 2003a, pp. 95–96.
  79. ^ Albertz 2003a, p. 96.
  80. ^ a b Blenkinsopp 1988, p. 64.
  81. ^ Lipschits in Lipschits 2006, pp. 86–89.
  82. ^ Grabbe 2004, pp. 29–30.
  83. ^ Nodet 1999, p. 25.
  84. ^ Davies in Amit 2006, p. 141.
  85. ^ Niehr in Becking 1999, p. 231.
  86. ^ Wylen 1996, p. 25.
  87. ^ Grabbe 2004, pp. 154–55.
  88. ^ Soggin 1998, p. 311.
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  90. ^ Blenkinsopp 2009, p. 229.
  91. ^ Albertz 1994, pp. 437–38.
  92. ^ Kottsieper in Lipschits 2006, pp. 109–10.
  93. ^ Becking in Albertz 2003b, p. 19.
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  100. ^ Grabbe, Lester L. (1992). Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian. Fortress Press. p. 216. OCLC 716308928.
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  102. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. pp. 29–35. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
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  104. ^ Pearlman, Moshe (1973). The Maccabees. Macmillan. OCLC 776163.
  105. ^ a b New American Bible. p. 521.
  106. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. pp. 59–63. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
  107. ^ New American Bible. p. 532.
  108. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. pp. 63–67. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
  109. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. p. 79. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
  110. ^ On the destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus, see for instance: Menahem Mor, "The Persian, Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period," in The Samaritans (ed. Alan D. Crown; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1989) 1–18; Jonathan Bourgel (2016). "The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration". Journal of Biblical Literature. 135 (153/3): 505. doi:10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.3129.
  111. ^ Berthelot, Katell (2017). In Search of the Promised Land?. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 240–41. doi:10.13109/9783666552526. ISBN 9783525552520. S2CID 194798792.
  112. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. pp. 80–85. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
  113. ^ Jagersma, H. (Hendrik) (1994). A history of Israel to Bar Kochba. SCM. pp. 87–102. ISBN 033402577X. OCLC 906667007.
  114. ^ Ben-Sasson (1976), p. 246.
  115. ^ a b Taliaferro, Charles; Harrison, Victoria S.; Goetz, Stewart (2012). The Routledge Companion to Theism. Routledge.
  116. ^ Dever, William G. (12 December 2019). "Archaeology and Folk or Family Religion in Ancient Israel". Religions. 10 (12): 667. doi:10.3390/rel10120667. ISSN 2077-1444.
  117. ^ Becking, Bob (2002). Only One God? : Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-23212-0. OCLC 1052587466.
  118. ^ Stern, Ephraim (2001). "Pagan Yahwism: The folk religion of ancient Israel". Biblical Archaeology Review. 27 (3): 20–29.
  119. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2006). "Temple and Dynasty: Hezekiah, the Remaking of Judah and the Rise of the Pan-Israelite Ideology". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 30 (3): 259–285. doi:10.1177/0309089206063428. ISSN 0309-0892. S2CID 145087584.
  120. ^ Moulis, David Rafael (8 November 2019), "Hezekiah's Cultic Reforms according to the Archaeological Evidence", The Last Century in the History of Judah, SBL Press, pp. 167–180, doi:10.2307/j.ctvr7fc18.11, S2CID 211652647, retrieved 18 February 2023
  121. ^ Na’aman, Nadav (1 January 2011). "The Discovered Book and the Legitimation of Josiah's Reform". Journal of Biblical Literature. 130 (1): 47–62. doi:10.2307/41304187. ISSN 0021-9231. JSTOR 41304187. S2CID 153646048.
  122. ^ "the definition of henotheism". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  123. ^ Levine, Baruch A. (2005). "Assyrian Ideology and Israelite Monotheism". British Institute for the Study of Iraq. 67 (1): 411–27. JSTOR 4200589.
  124. ^ a b c Meek, Theophile James (1942). "Monotheism and the Religion of Israel". Journal of Biblical Literature. 61 (1): 21–43. doi:10.2307/3262264. JSTOR 3262264.
  125. ^ a b Dever, William (1987). "Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: The Middle Bronze Age: The Zenith of the Urban Canaanite Era". The Biblical Archaeologist. 50 (3): 149–77. doi:10.2307/3210059. JSTOR 3210059. S2CID 165335710.
  126. ^ Coogan, Michael David; Coogan, Michael D. (2001). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press. p. 54. ISBN 9780195139372. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  127. ^ Smith, Mark S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 9780802839725.
  128. ^ Giliad, Elon (20 April 2015). "Why Is Israel Called Israel?". Haaretz. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  129. ^ a b Caquot, André (2000). "At the Origins of the Bible". Near Eastern Archaeology. 63 (4): 225–27. doi:10.2307/3210793. JSTOR 3210793. S2CID 164106346.
  130. ^ "Exodus 20:2". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  131. ^ Tubbs, Jonathan (2006) "The Canaanites" (BBC Books)
  132. ^ Van der Toorn 1996, p. 4.
  133. ^ Van der Toorn 1996, pp. 181–82.
  134. ^ a b Smith (2002), p. 57.
  135. ^ Dever (2005), p.
  136. ^ Van der Toorn 1999, pp. 911–13.
  137. ^ a b Aster, Shawn Z. (2022). "Israelite Prophecy from Its Origins to the Exile". In Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce, George A. (eds.). The Ancient Israelite World. Taylor & Francis. pp. 498–500. ISBN 978-1-000-77324-8.
  138. ^ Dunn and Rogerson, pp. 153–54
  139. ^ Peck & Neusner, eds. (2003), p. 58
  140. ^ Grabbe (2004), pp. 243–44.
  141. ^ Peck & Neusner, eds. (2003), p. 59
  142. ^ a b Ahlström, G.W. (1995). "Administration of the State in Canaan and Ancient Israel". In Sasson, Jack, M. (ed.). Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Hendrickson Publishers. pp. 590–595. ISBN 1-56563-607-4. OCLC 213021257.
  143. ^ Eph’al Jaruzelska, I. (2010). "Officialdom and Society in the Book of Kings: The Social Relevance of the State." In The Books of Kings (pp. 471–480). Brill.
  144. ^ J. Blau, "Hebrew Language and Literature", OEANE 1995 vol. 3, p. 5-7 ; DEB 2002, pp. 579–580

Sources

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  • Albertz, Rainer (1994). A History of Israelite Religion, Volume II: From the Exile to the Maccabees. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664227203.
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  • Avery-Peck, Alan; et al., eds. (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Judaism. Blackwell. ISBN 9781577180593.
  • Barstad, Hans M. (2008). History and the Hebrew Bible. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161498091.
  • Becking, Bob (2003b). "Law as Expression of Religion (Ezra 7–10)". In Albertz, Rainer; Becking, Bob (eds.). Yahwism After the Exile: Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era. Koninklijke Van Gorcum. ISBN 9789023238805.
  • Bedford, Peter Ross (2001). Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah. Brill. ISBN 978-9004115095.
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  • Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2003). "Bethel in the Neo-Babylonian Period". In Blenkinsopp, Joseph; Lipschits, Oded (eds.). Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060736.
  • Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2009). Judaism, the First Phase: The Place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Origins of Judaism. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802864505.
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  • Davies, Philip R. (1992). In Search of Ancient Israel. Sheffield. ISBN 9781850757375.
  • Davies, Philip R. (2006). "The Origin of Biblical Israel". In Amit, Yaira; et al. (eds.). Essays on Ancient Israel in its Near Eastern Context: A Tribute to Nadav Na'aman. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061283.
  • Davies, Philip R. (2009). . Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 9 (47). Archived from the original on 28 May 2008.
  • Dever, William (2003). Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802809759.
  • Dever, William (2005). Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802828521.
  • Dever, William (2017). Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah. SBL Press. ISBN 9780884142171.
  • Dunn, James D.G.; Rogerson, John William, eds. (2003). Eerdmans commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837110.
  • Edelman, Diana (2002). "Ethnicity and Early Israel". In Brett, Mark G. (ed.). Ethnicity and the Bible. Brill. ISBN 978-0391041264.
  • Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2001). The Bible Unearthed. ISBN 9780743223386.
  • Gnuse, Robert Karl (1997). No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9781850756576.
  • Golden, Jonathan Michael (2004a). Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195379853.
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  • Grabbe, Lester L. (2004). A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. T&T Clark International. ISBN 9780567043528.
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  • King, Philip J.; Stager, Lawrence E. (2001). Life in Biblical Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22148-5. Life in biblical Israel By Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager.
  • Kottsieper, Ingo (2006). "And They Did Not Care to Speak Yehudit". In Lipschits, Oded; et al. (eds.). Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061306.
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  • Lemaire, André (2003). "Nabonidus in Arabia and Judea During the Neo-Babylonian Period". In Blenkinsopp, Joseph; Lipschits, Oded (eds.). Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060736.
  • Lemche, Niels Peter (1998). The Israelites in History and Tradition. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664227272.
  • Lipschits, Oded (2005). The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060958.
  • Lipschits, Oded; Vanderhooft, David (2006). "Yehud Stamp Impressions in the Fourth Century B.C.E.". In Lipschits, Oded; et al. (eds.). Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061306.
  • Mazar, Amihay (2007). "The Divided Monarchy: Comments on Some Archaeological Issues". In Schmidt, Brian B. (ed.). The Quest for the Historical Israel. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 9781589832770.
  • McNutt, Paula (1999). Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664222659.
  • Middlemas, Jill Anne (2005). The Troubles of Templeless Judah. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199283866.
  • Miller, James Maxwell; Hayes, John Haralson (1986). A History of Ancient Israel and Judah. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-21262-9.
  • Niehr, Herbert (1999). "Religio-Historical Aspects of the Early Post-Exilic Period". In Becking, Bob; Korpel, Marjo Christina Annette (eds.). The Crisis of Israelite Religion: Transformation of Religious Tradition in Exilic and Post-Exilic Times. Brill. ISBN 978-9004114968.
  • Nodet, Étienne (1999). A Search for the Origins of Judaism: From Joshua to the Mishnah. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9781850754459.
  • Smith, Mark S.; Miller, Patrick D. (2002). The Early History of God. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802839725.
  • Soggin, Michael J. (1998). An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah. Paideia. ISBN 9780334027881.
  • Stager, Lawrence E. (1998). "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel". In Coogan, Michael D. (ed.). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195139372.
  • Thompson, Thomas L. (1992). Early History of the Israelite People. Brill. ISBN 978-9004094833.
  • Van der Toorn, Karel (1996). Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel. Brill. ISBN 978-9004104105.
  • Van der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; Van der Horst, Pieter Willem (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2d ed.). Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 9780802824912.
  • Wylen, Stephen M. (1996). The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809136100.

Further reading

  • Arnold, Bill T.; Hess, Richard S., "Ancient Israel's History: An Introduction to Issues and Sources" (Baker, 2014)
  • Brettler, Marc Z., "The Creation of History in Ancient Israel" (Routledge, 1995)
  • Cook, Stephen L., "The social roots of biblical Yahwism" (Society of Biblical Literature, 2004)
  • Day, John (ed.), "In search of pre-exilic Israel: proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar" (T&T Clark International, 2004)
  • Frevel, Christian, "History of Ancient Israel" (SBL Press, 2023)
  • Hess, Richard S., "Israelite religions: an archaeological and biblical survey" (Baker, 2007)
  • Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce, George A. (eds.), "The Ancient Israelite World" (Taylor & Francis, 2022)
  • Kelle, Brad E.; Strawn, Brent A. (eds.), "The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible" (Oxford University Press, 2020)
  • Knauf, Ernst Axel; Niemann, Hermann Michael "Geschichte Israels und Judas im Altertum" (Walter de Gruyter, 2021)
  • Lemche, Neils Peter, "The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey" (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008)
  • Levine, Lee I., "Jerusalem: portrait of the city in the second Temple period (538 B.C.E.–70 C.E.)" (Jewish Publication Society, 2002)
  • Na'aman, Nadav, "Ancient Israel and its neighbours" (Eisenbrauns, 2005)
  • Niditch, Susan (ed.), "The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel" (John Wiley & Sons, 2016)
  • Sparks, Kenton L., "Ethnicity and identity in ancient Israel" (Eisenbrauns, 1998)
  • Vanderkam, James, "An introduction to early Judaism (2nd edition)" (Eerdmans, 2022)

May 19, 2023
history, ancient, israel, judah, history, ancient, israel, judah, begins, southern, levant, region, western, asia, during, late, bronze, early, iron, israel, people, tribal, confederation, israelites, appears, first, time, merneptah, stele, inscription, from, . The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant region of Western Asia during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Israel as a people or tribal confederation see Israelites appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele an inscription from ancient Egypt that dates to about 1208 BCE According to modern archaeology ancient Israelite culture developed as an outgrowth from the Semitic Canaanites Two related Israelite polities known as the Kingdom of Israel Samaria and the Kingdom of Judah had emerged in the region by Iron Age II Approximate map of the Northern Kingdom of Israel blue and the Kingdom of Judah gold with their neighbors tan during the Iron Age 9th century BCE According to the Hebrew Bible a United Monarchy consisting of Israel and Judah existed as early as the 11th century BCE under the reigns of Saul David and Solomon the country later would have split into two separate kingdoms Israel containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria in the north and Judah containing Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in the south The historicity of the United Monarchy is debated as there are no archaeological remains of it that are accepted as consensus but historians and archaeologists agree that Israel and Judah existed as separate kingdoms by c 900 BCE 1 169 195 2 and c 850 BCE 3 respectively 4 Archaeological remains during that time does however include Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt invading the Levant around 930 925 BCE conquering many cities and settlements Unlike the United Monarchy archaeological evidence of the conquest have been found in various sites in the Levant However the 22nd Dynasty did not directly annex the Levant following the conquest and brought the Levant back into Egyptian domination for unknown reasons It was theorized by Israel Finkelstein that Shoshenq I invaded the Levant in order to prevent the formation of a unified state under the Israelites thus forming the basis of the biblical story of Jeroboam s Revolt 5 The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo Assyrian Empire 6 While the Kingdom of Judah remained intact during this time it became a client state of first the Neo Assyrian Empire and then the Neo Babylonian Empire However Jewish revolts against the Babylonians led to the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE under the rule of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II According to the biblical account the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem between 589 586 BCE which led to the destruction of Solomon s Temple and the exile of the Jews to Babylon this event was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles 7 8 The exilic period which saw the development of the Israelite religion Yahwism towards the distinct monotheism of Judaism ended with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 538 BCE Subsequently Persian king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus which authorized and encouraged exiled Jews to return to the Land of Israel 9 10 Cyrus proclamation began the exiles return to Zion inaugurating the formative period in which a more distinctive Jewish identity was developed in the Persian province of Yehud During this time the destroyed Solomon s Temple was replaced by the Second Temple marking the beginning of the Second Temple period During the Hellenistic period Yehud was absorbed into the Hellenistic kingdoms that followed the conquests of Alexander the Great The 2nd century BCE saw a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire and the subsequent formation of the Hasmonean kingdom the last nominally independent kingdom of Israel The Hasmonean kingdom gradually began to lose its independence from 63 BCE onwards under Pompey the Great It eventually became a client state of the Roman Republic and later of the Parthian Empire Following the installation of client kingdoms under the Herodian dynasty the Roman province of Judaea was wracked by civil disturbances which culminated in the First Jewish Roman War The Jewish defeat by the Roman Empire in this conflict saw the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE as well as the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity The name Judaea Iudaea then ceased to be used by the Greco Romans After the Bar Kokhba revolt of 135 CE the majority of Jews in the Levant were expelled after which Judaea was renamed by the Romans to Syria Palaestina 11 12 13 Contents 1 Periods 2 Late Bronze Age background 1550 1150 BCE 3 Iron Age I 1150 950 BCE 4 Iron Age II 950 587 BCE 5 Babylonian period 6 Persian period 7 Hellenistic period 7 1 Ptolemaic rule 7 2 Seleucid rule and the Maccabean Revolt 7 3 The Hasmonean Dynasty 7 4 The Herodian dynasty 8 Religion 8 1 Henotheism 8 2 Iron Age Yahwism 8 3 Prophecy 8 4 The Babylonian exile and Second Temple Judaism 9 Administrative and judicial structure 10 Language and literature 11 See also 12 References 12 1 Citations 12 2 Sources 13 Further readingPeriods EditIron Age I 1150 14 950 BCE 15 Iron Age II 950 16 586 BCE Neo Babylonian 586 539 BCE Persian 539 332 BCE Hellenistic 333 53 BCE 17 Other academic terms often used are First Temple period Israelite period c 1000 586 BCE 18 Second Temple period c 516 BCE 70 CE Late Bronze Age background 1550 1150 BCE EditThe eastern Mediterranean seaboard the Levant stretches 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian Desert 19 The coastal plain of the southern Levant broad in the south and narrowing to the north is backed in its southernmost portion by a zone of foothills the Shfela like the plain this narrows as it goes northwards ending in the promontory of Mount Carmel East of the plain and the Shfela is a mountainous ridge the hill country of Judea in the south the hill country of Ephraim north of that then Galilee and Mount Lebanon To the east again lie the steep sided valley occupied by the Jordan River the Dead Sea and the wadi of the Arabah which continues down to the eastern arm of the Red Sea Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert separating the Levant from Mesopotamia To the southwest is Egypt to the northeast Mesopotamia The location and geographical characteristics of the narrow Levant made the area a battleground among the powerful entities that surrounded it 20 Canaan in the Late Bronze Age was a shadow of what it had been centuries earlier many cities were abandoned others shrank in size and the total settled population was probably not much more than a hundred thousand 21 Settlement was concentrated in cities along the coastal plain and along major communication routes the central and northern hill country which would later become the biblical kingdom of Israel was only sparsely inhabited 22 although letters from the Egyptian archives indicate that Jerusalem was already a Canaanite city state recognising Egyptian overlordship 23 Politically and culturally it was dominated by Egypt 24 each city under its own ruler constantly at odds with its neighbours and appealing to the Egyptians to adjudicate their differences 22 The Merneptah Stele While alternative translations exist the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as Israel representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record The Canaanite city state system broke down during the Late Bronze Age collapse 25 and Canaanite culture was then gradually absorbed into those of the Philistines Phoenicians and Israelites 26 The process was gradual 27 and a strong Egyptian presence continued into the 12th century BCE and while some Canaanite cities were destroyed others continued to exist in Iron Age I 28 The name Israel first appears in the Merneptah Stele c 1208 BCE Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more 29 This Israel was a cultural and probably political entity well enough established for the Egyptians to perceive it as a possible challenge but an ethnic group rather than an organised state 30 Iron Age I 1150 950 BCE EditArchaeologist Paula McNutt says It is probably during Iron Age I that a population began to identify itself as Israelite differentiating itself from its neighbours via prohibitions on intermarriage an emphasis on family history and genealogy and religion 31 In the Late Bronze Age there were no more than about 25 villages in the highlands but this increased to over 300 by the end of Iron Age I while the settled population doubled from 20 000 to 40 000 32 The villages were more numerous and larger in the north and probably shared the highlands with pastoral nomads who left no remains 33 Archaeologists and historians attempting to trace the origins of these villagers have found it impossible to identify any distinctive features that could define them as specifically Israelite collared rim jars and four room houses have been identified outside the highlands and thus cannot be used to distinguish Israelite sites 34 and while the pottery of the highland villages is far more limited than that of lowland Canaanite sites it develops typologically out of Canaanite pottery that came before 35 Israel Finkelstein proposed that the oval or circular layout that distinguishes some of the earliest highland sites and the notable absence of pig bones from hill sites could be taken as markers of ethnicity but others have cautioned that these can be a common sense adaptation to highland life and not necessarily revelatory of origins 36 Other Aramaean sites also demonstrate a contemporary absence of pig remains at that time unlike earlier Canaanite and later Philistine excavations A reconstructed Israelite house 10th 7th century BCE Eretz Israel Museum Tel Aviv In The Bible Unearthed 2001 Finkelstein and Silberman summarised recent studies They described how up until 1967 the Israelite heartland in the highlands of western Palestine was virtually an archaeological terra incognita Since then intensive surveys have examined the traditional territories of the tribes of Judah Benjamin Ephraim and Manasseh These surveys have revealed the sudden emergence of a new culture contrasting with the Philistine and Canaanite societies existing in the Land of Israel earlier during Iron Age I 37 This new culture is characterised by a lack of pork remains whereas pork formed 20 of the Philistine diet in places by an abandonment of the Philistine Canaanite custom of having highly decorated pottery and by the practice of circumcision The Israelite ethnic identity had originated not from the Exodus and a subsequent conquest but from a transformation of the existing Canaanite Philistine cultures 38 These surveys revolutionized the study of early Israel The discovery of the remains of a dense network of highland villages all apparently established within the span of few generations indicated that a dramatic social transformation had taken place in the central hill country of Canaan around 1200 BCE There was no sign of violent invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group Instead it seemed to be a revolution in lifestyle In the formerly sparsely populated highlands from the Judean hills in the south to the hills of Samaria in the north far from the Canaanite cities that were in the process of collapse and disintegration about two hundred fifty hilltop communities suddenly sprang up Here were the first Israelites 39 Modern scholars therefore see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan 40 Extensive archaeological excavations have provided a picture of Israelite society during the early Iron Age period The archaeological evidence indicates a society of village like centres but with more limited resources and a small population During this period Israelites lived primarily in small villages the largest of which had populations of up to 300 or 400 41 42 Their villages were built on hilltops Their houses were built in clusters around a common courtyard They built three or four room houses out of mudbrick with a stone foundation and sometimes with a second story made of wood The inhabitants lived by farming and herding They built terraces to farm on hillsides planting various crops and maintaining orchards The villages were largely economically self sufficient and economic interchange was prevalent According to the Bible prior to the rise of the Israelite monarchy the early Israelites were led by the Biblical judges or chieftains who served as military leaders in times of crisis Scholars are divided over the historicity of this account However it is likely that regional chiefdoms and polities provided security The small villages were unwalled but were likely subjects of the major town in the area Writing was known and available for recording even at small sites 43 44 45 46 47 Iron Age II 950 587 BCE EditSee also Kingdom of Judah Kingdom of Israel Samaria and Capital architecture Proto AeolicAccording to Israel Finkelstein after an emergent and large polity was suddenly formed based on the Gibeon Gibeah plateau and destroyed by Shoshenq I the biblical Shishak in the 10th century BCE 5 a return to small city states was prevalent in the Southern Levant but between 950 and 900 BCE another large polity emerged in the northern highlands with its capital eventually at Tirzah that can be considered the precursor of the Kingdom of Israel 48 The Kingdom of Israel was consolidated as an important regional power by the first half of the 9th century BCE 3 before falling to the Neo Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE and the Kingdom of Judah began to flourish in the second half of the 9th century BCE 3 Model of Levantine four roomed house from circa 900 BCE Unusually favourable climatic conditions in the first two centuries of Iron Age II brought about an expansion of population settlements and trade throughout the region 49 In the central highlands this resulted in unification in a kingdom with the city of Samaria as its capital 49 possibly by the second half of the 10th century BCE when an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I records a series of campaigns directed at the area 50 Israel had clearly emerged in the first half of the 9th century BCE 5 this is attested when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III names Ahab the Israelite among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar 853 BCE At this time Israel was apparently engaged in a three way contest with Damascus and Tyre for control of the Jezreel Valley and Galilee in the north and with Moab Ammon and Aram Damascus in the east for control of Gilead 49 the Mesha Stele c 830 BCE left by a king of Moab celebrates his success in throwing off the oppression of the House of Omri i e Israel It bears what is generally thought to be the earliest extra biblical reference to the name Yahweh 51 A century later Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding Neo Assyrian Empire which first split its territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital Samaria 722 BCE Both the biblical and Assyrian sources speak of a massive deportation of people from Israel and their replacement with settlers from other parts of the empire such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy a means of breaking the old power structure and the former Israel never again became an independent political entity 52 Depiction of Jehu King of Israel giving tribute to the Mesopotamian King Shalmaneser III of Assyria on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III from Nimrud c 841 840 BCE Judah emerged as an operational kingdom somewhat later than Israel during the second half of 9th century BCE 5 but the subject is one of considerable controversy 53 There are indications that during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE the southern highlands had been divided between a number of centres none with clear primacy 54 During the reign of Hezekiah between c 715 and 686 BCE a notable increase in the power of the Judean state can be observed 55 This is reflected in archaeological sites and findings such as the Broad Wall a defensive city wall in Jerusalem and the Siloam tunnel an aqueduct designed to provide Jerusalem with water during an impending siege by the Neo Assyrian Empire led by Sennacherib and the Siloam inscription a lintel inscription found over the doorway of a tomb has been ascribed to comptroller Shebna LMLK seals on storage jar handles excavated from strata in and around that formed by Sennacherib s destruction appear to have been used throughout Sennacherib s 29 year reign along with bullae from sealed documents some that belonged to Hezekiah himself and others that name his servants 56 To Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah royal seal found at the Ophel excavations in JerusalemArchaeological records indicate that the Kingdom of Israel was fairly prosperous The late Iron Age saw an increase in urban development in Israel Whereas previously the Israelites had lived mainly in small and unfortified settlements the rise of the Kingdom of Israel saw the growth of cities and the construction of palaces large royal enclosures and fortifications with walls and gates Israel initially had to invest significant resources into defense as it was subjected to regular Aramean incursions and attacks but after the Arameans were subjugated by the Assyrians and Israel could afford to put less resources into defending its territory its architectural infrastructure grew dramatically Extensive fortifications were built around cities such as Dan Megiddo and Hazor including monumental and multi towered city walls and multi gate entry systems Israel s economy was based on multiple industries It had the largest olive oil production centers in the region using at least two different types of olive oil presses and also had a significant wine industry with wine presses constructed next to vineyards By contrast the Kingdom of Judah was significantly less advanced Some scholars believe it was no more than a small tribal entity limited to Jerusalem and its immediate surroundings In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated limited to small and mostly unfortified settlements The status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate among scholars Jerusalem does not show evidence of significant Israelite residential activity until the 9th century BCE On the other hand significant administrative structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and Large Stone Structure which originally formed part of one structure contain material culture from earlier than that The ruins of a significant Judahite military fortress Tel Arad have also been found in the Negev and a collection of military orders found there suggest literacy was present throughout the ranks of the Judahite army This suggests that literacy was not limited to a tiny elite indicating the presence of a substantial educational infrastructure in Judah 57 58 59 60 61 Siloam inscription found in the Siloam tunnel Jerusalem c 700 BCE In the 7th century Jerusalem grew to contain a population many times greater than earlier and achieved clear dominance over its neighbours 62 This occurred at the same time that Israel was being destroyed by the Neo Assyrian Empire and was probably the result of a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians to establish Judah as an Assyrian vassal state controlling the valuable olive industry 62 Judah prospered as a vassal state despite a disastrous rebellion against Sennacherib but in the last half of the 7th century BCE Assyria suddenly collapsed and the ensuing competition between Egypt and the Neo Babylonian Empire for control of the land led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582 62 Babylonian period EditMain article Yehud Babylonian province Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population 63 and lost the Negev the Shephelah and part of the Judean hill country including Hebron to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours 64 Jerusalem while probably not totally abandoned was much smaller than previously and the town of Mizpah in Benjamin in the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud Medinata 65 This was standard Babylonian practice when the Philistine city of Ashkalon was conquered in 604 the political religious and economic elite but not the bulk of the population was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location 66 There is also a strong probability that for most or all of the period the temple at Bethel in Benjamin replaced that at Jerusalem boosting the prestige of Bethel s priests the Aaronites against those of Jerusalem the Zadokites now in exile in Babylon 67 The Babylonian conquest entailed not just the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple but the liquidation of the entire infrastructure which had sustained Judah for centuries 68 The most significant casualty was the state ideology of Zion theology 69 the idea that the god of Israel had chosen Jerusalem for his dwelling place and that the Davidic dynasty would reign there forever 70 The fall of the city and the end of Davidic kingship forced the leaders of the exile community kings priests scribes and prophets to reformulate the concepts of community faith and politics 71 The exile community in Babylon thus became the source of significant portions of the Hebrew Bible Isaiah 40 55 Ezekiel the final version of Jeremiah the work of the hypothesized priestly source in the Pentateuch and the final form of the history of Israel from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings 72 Theologically the Babylonian exiles were responsible for the doctrines of individual responsibility and universalism the concept that one god controls the entire world and for the increased emphasis on purity and holiness 72 Most significantly the trauma of the exile experience led to the development of a strong sense of Hebrew identity distinct from other peoples 73 with increased emphasis on symbols such as circumcision and Sabbath observance to sustain that distinction 74 One of the Al Yahudu Tablets written in Akkadian which documented the condition of the exiled Judean community in Babylon Hans M Barstad writes that the concentration of the biblical literature on the experience of the exiles in Babylon disguises that the great majority of the population remained in Judah for them life after the fall of Jerusalem probably went on much as it had before 75 It may even have improved as they were rewarded with the land and property of the deportees much to the anger of the community of exiles remaining in Babylon 76 Conversely Avraham Faust s writes that archaeological and demographic surveys show that the population of Judah was significantly reduced to barely 10 of what it had been in the time before the Exile 77 The assassination around 582 of the Babylonian governor by a disaffected member of the former royal House of David provoked a Babylonian crackdown possibly reflected in the Book of Lamentations but the situation seems to have soon stabilised again 78 Nevertheless those unwalled cities and towns that remained were subject to slave raids by the Phoenicians and intervention in their internal affairs by Samaritans Arabs and Ammonites 79 Persian period EditMain article Yehud Medinata When Babylon fell to the founder and king of Achaemenid Empire Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE Judah or Yehud medinata the province of Yehud became an administrative division within the Achaemenid Empire Cyrus was succeeded as king by Cambyses who added Egypt to the empire incidentally transforming Yehud and the Philistine plain into an important frontier zone His death in 522 was followed by a period of turmoil until Darius the Great seized the throne in about 521 Darius introduced a reform of the administrative arrangements of the empire including the collection codification and administration of local law codes and it is reasonable to suppose that this policy lay behind the redaction of the Jewish Torah 80 After 404 the Persians lost control of Egypt which became Persia s main rival outside Europe causing the Persian authorities to tighten their administrative control over Yehud and the rest of the Levant 81 Egypt was eventually reconquered but soon afterward Persia fell to Alexander the Great ushering in the Hellenistic period in the Levant Silver coin gerah minted in the Persian province of Yehud dated c 375 332 BCE Obv Bearded head wearing crown possibly representing the Persian Great King Rev Falcon facing head right with wings spread Paleo Hebrew YHD to right Yehud s population over the entire period was probably never more than about 30 000 and that of Jerusalem no more than about 1 500 most of them connected in some way to the Temple 82 According to the biblical history one of the first acts of Cyrus the Persian conqueror of Babylon was to commission Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple a task which they are said to have completed c 515 83 Yet it was probably not until the middle of the next century at the earliest that Jerusalem again became the capital of Judah 84 The Persians may have experimented initially with ruling Yehud as a Davidic client kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin 85 but by the mid 5th century BCE Yehud had become in practice a theocracy ruled by hereditary high priests 86 with a Persian appointed governor frequently Jewish charged with keeping order and seeing that taxes tribute were collected and paid 87 According to the biblical history Ezra and Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of the 5th century BCE the former empowered by the Persian king to enforce the Torah the latter holding the status of governor with a royal commission to restore Jerusalem s walls 88 The biblical history mentions tension between the returnees and those who had remained in Yehud the returnees rebuffing the attempt of the peoples of the land to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple this attitude was based partly on the exclusivism that the exiles had developed while in Babylon and probably also partly on disputes over property 89 During the 5th century BCE Ezra and Nehemiah attempted to re integrate these rival factions into a united and ritually pure society inspired by the prophecies of Ezekiel and his followers 90 The Persian era and especially the period between 538 and 400 BCE laid the foundations for the unified Judaic religion and the beginning of a scriptural canon 91 Other important landmarks in this period include the replacement of Hebrew as the everyday language of Judah by Aramaic although Hebrew continued to be used for religious and literary purposes 92 and Darius s reform of the empire s bureaucracy which may have led to extensive revisions and reorganizations of the Jewish Torah 80 The Israel of the Persian period consisted of descendants of the inhabitants of the old kingdom of Judah returnees from the Babylonian exile community Mesopotamians who had joined them or had been exiled themselves to Samaria at a far earlier period Samaritans and others 93 Hellenistic period EditMain articles Hasmonean Herodian Dynasty Judea Roman province and Samaria The beginning of the Hellenistic Period is marked by the conquest of Alexander the Great 333 BCE When Alexander died in 323 he had no heirs that were able to take his place as ruler of his empire so his generals divided the empire among themselves 94 Ptolemy I asserted himself as the ruler of Egypt in 322 and seized Yehud Medinata in 320 but his successors lost it in 198 to the Seleucids of Syria At first relations between Seleucids and Jews were cordial but the attempt of Antiochus IV Epiphanes 174 163 to impose Hellenic cults on Judea sparked the Maccabean Revolt that ended in the expulsion of the Seleucids and the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty Some modern commentators see this period also as a civil war between orthodox and hellenized Jews 95 96 Hasmonean kings attempted to revive the Judah described in the Bible a Jewish monarchy ruled from Jerusalem and including all territories once ruled by David and Solomon In order to carry out this project the Hasmoneans forcibly converted one time Moabites Edomites and Ammonites to Judaism as well as the lost kingdom of Israel 97 Some scholars argue that the Hasmonean dynasty institutionalized the final Jewish biblical canon 98 Ptolemaic rule Edit Ptolemy I took control of Egypt in 322 BCE after the death of Alexander the Great He also took control of Yehud Medinata in 320 because he was very aware that it was a great place from which to attack Egypt and was also a great defensive position However there were others who also had their eyes on that area Another former general Antigonus Monophthalmus had driven out the satrap of Babylon Seleucus in 317 and continued on towards the Levant Seleucus found refuge with Ptolemy and they both rallied troops against Antigonus son Demetrius since Antigonus had retreated back to Asia Minor Demetrius was defeated at the battle of Gaza and Ptolemy regained control of Yehud Medinata However not soon after this Antigonus came back and forced Ptolemy to retreat back to Egypt This went on until the Battle of Ipsus in 301 where Seleucus armies defeated Antigonus Seleucus was given the areas of Syria and Palestine but Ptolemy would not give up those lands causing the Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids Not much is known about the happenings of those in Yehud Medinata from the time of Alexander s death until the Battle of Ipsus due to the frequent battles 99 At first the Jews were content with Ptolemy s rule over them His reign brought them peace and economic stability He also allowed them to keep their religious practices so long as they paid their taxes and didn t rebel 100 After Ptolemy I came Ptolemy II Philadelphus who was able to keep the territory of Yehud Medinata and brought the dynasty to the peak of its power He was victorious in both the first and second Syrian Wars but after trying to end the conflict with the Seleucids by arranging a marriage between his daughter Berenice and the Seleucid king Antiochus II he died The arranged marriage did not work and Berenice Antiochus and their child were killed from an order of Antiochus former wife This was one of the reasons for the third Syrian War Before all of this Ptolemy II fought and defeated the Nabataeans In order to enforce his hold on them he reinforced many cities in Palestine and built new ones As a result of this more Greeks and Macedonians moved to those new cities and brought over their customs and culture or Hellenism The Ptolemaic Rule also gave rise to tax farmers These were the bigger farmers who collected the high taxes of the smaller farmers These farmers made a lot of money off of this but it also put a rift between the aristocracy and everyone else During the end of the Third Syrian War the high priest Onias II would not pay the tax to the Ptolemy III Euergetes It is thought that this shows a turning point in the Jew s support of the Ptolemies 101 The Fourth and Fifth Syrian Wars marked the end of the Ptolemaic control of Palestine Both of these wars hurt Palestine more than the previous three That and the combination of the ineffective rulers Ptolemy IV Philopater and Ptolemy V and the might of the large Seleucid army ended the century long rule of the Ptolemaic Dynasty over Palestine 102 Seleucid rule and the Maccabean Revolt Edit Coins used in the Seleucid Empire during the Maccabean RevoltFurther information Coele Syria and Maccabean Revolt The Seleucid Rule of the Holy Land began in 198 BCE under Antiochus III He like the Ptolemies let the Jews keep their religion and customs and even went so far as to encourage the rebuilding of the temple and city after they welcomed him so warmly into Jerusalem 103 However Antiochus owed the Romans a great deal of money In order to raise this money he decided to rob a temple The people at the temple of Bel in Elam were not pleased so they killed Antiochus and everyone helping him in 187 BCE He was succeeded by his son Seleucus IV Philopater He simply defended the area from Ptolemy V before being murdered by his minister in 175 His brother Antiochus IV Epiphanes took his place Before he killed the king the minister Heliodorus had tried to steal the treasures from the temple in Jerusalem He was informed of this by a rival of the current High Priest Onias III Heliodorus was not allowed into the temple but it required Onias to go explain to the king why one of his ministers was denied access somewhere In his absence his rivals put up a new high priest Onias brother Jason a Hellenized version of Joshua took his place 104 Now with Jason as high priest and Antiochus IV as king many Jews adopted Hellenistic ways Some of these ways as stated in the Book of 1 Maccabees were the building of a gymnasium finding ways to hide their circumcision and just generally not abiding by the holy covenant 105 This led to the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt According to the Book of Maccabees many Jews were not happy with the way Hellenism had spread into Judea Some of these Jews were Mattathias and his sons 105 Mattathias refused to offer sacrifice when the king told him to He killed a Jew who was going to do so as well as the king s representative Because of this Mattathias and his sons had to flee This marks the true beginning of the Maccabean Revolt Judas Maccabeus became the leader of the rebels He proved to be a successful general defeating an army led by Apollonius They started to catch the attention of King Antiochus IV in 165 who told his chancellor to put an end to the revolt The chancellor Lysias sent three generals to do just that but they were all defeated by the Maccabees Soon after Lysias went himself but according to 1 and 2 Maccabees he was defeated There is evidence to show that it was not that simple and that there was negotiation but Lysias still left After the death of Antiochus IV in 164 his son Antiochus V gave the Jews religious freedom Lysias claimed to be his regent Around this time was the re dedication of the temple During the siege of the Acra one of Judas brothers Eleazor was killed The Maccabees had to retreat back to Jerusalem where they should have been beaten badly However Lysias had to pull out because of a contradiction of who was to be regent for Antiochus V Shortly after both were killed by Demetrius I Soter who became the new king The new high priest Alcimus had come to Jerusalem with the company of an army led by Bacchides 106 A group of scribes called the Hasideans asked him for his word that he would not harm anyone He agreed but killed sixty of them 107 Around this time Judas was able to make a treaty with the Romans Soon after this Judas was killed in Jerusalem fighting Bacchides army His brother Jonathan succeeded him For eight years Jonathan didn t do much However in 153 the Seleucid Empire started to face some problems Jonathan used this chance to exchange his services of troops for Demetrius so that he could take back Jerusalem He was appointed high priest by Alexander Balas for the same thing When conflicts between Egypt and the Seleucids arose Jonathan occupied the Acra As conflicts over the throne arose he completely took control of the Acra But in 142 he was killed 108 His brother Simon took his place 109 The Hasmonean Dynasty Edit Further information Hasmonean dynasty Expansion of the Hasmonean kingdom Simon was nominated for the title of high priest general and leader by a great assembly He reached out to Rome to have them guarantee that Judea would be an independent land Antiochus VII wanted the cities of Gadara Joppa and the Acra back He also wanted a very large tribute Simon only wanted to pay a fraction of that for only two of the cities so Antiochus sent his general Cendebaeus to attack The general was killed and the army fled Simon and two of his sons were killed in a plot to overthrow the Hasmoneans His last remaining son John Hyrcanus was supposed to be killed as well but he was informed of the plan and rushed to Jerusalem to keep it safe Hyrcanus had many issues to deal with as the new high priest Antiochus invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem in 134 BCE Due to lack of food Hyrcanus had to make a deal with Antiochus He had to pay a large sum of money tear down the walls of the city acknowledge Seleucid power over Judea and help the Seleucids fight against the Parthians Hyrcanus agreed to this but the war against the Parthians didn t work and Antiochus died in 128 Hyrcanus was able to take back Judea and keep his power John Hyrcanus also kept good relations with the Roman and the Egyptians owing to the large number of Jews living there and conquered Transjordan Samaria 110 and Idumea also known as Edom 111 112 Aristobulus I was the first Hasmonean priest king He defied his father s wishes that his mother should take over the government and instead had her and all of his brothers except for one thrown in prison The one not thrown in prison was later killed on his orders The most significant thing he did during his one year reign was conquer most of Galilee After his death he was succeeded by his brother Alexander Jannaeus who was only concerned with power and conquest He also married his brother s widow showing little respect for Jewish law His first conquest was Ptolemais The people called to Ptolemy IX for aid as he was in Cyprus However it was his mother Cleopatra III who came to help Alexander and not her son Alexander was not a popular ruler This caused a civil war in Jerusalem that lasted for six years After Alexander Jannaeus death his widow became ruler but not high priest The end of the Hasmonean Dynasty was in 63 when the Romans came at the request of the current priest king Aristobulus II and his competitor Hyrcanus II In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and the Romans put Hyrcanus II up as high priest but Judea became a client kingdom of Rome The dynasty came to an end in 40 BCE when Herod was crowned king of Judah by the Romans With their help Herod had seized Jerusalem by 37 113 The Herodian dynasty Edit Further information Herodian dynasty In 40 39 BCE Herod the Great was appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate and in 6 CE the last ethnarch of Judea a descendant of Herod s was deposed by Emperor Augustus his territories combined with Idumea and Samaria and annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration 114 Modern reconstruction of what the Second Temple would have looked like after its renovation during the reign of Herod IReligion EditAlthough the specific process by which the Israelites came to worship only one God is unknown it is certain that the transition was a gradual one and was not totally accomplished during the First Temple period 115 Yet over time the number of gods that the Israelites worshipped decreased with time and figurative images vanished from their shrines Yahwism as some scholars name this belief system is often described as a form of henotheism or monolatry Over the same time a folk religion continued to be practiced across Israel and Judah These practices were influenced by the polytheistic beliefs of the surrounding ethnicities and were denounced by the prophets 116 117 118 In addition to the Temple in Jerusalem there was public worship practiced all over Israel and Judah in shrines and sanctuaries outdoors and close to city gates In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE the kings Hezekiah and Josiah of Judah implemented a number of significant religious reforms that aimed to center worship of the God of Israel in Jerusalem and eliminate foreign customs 119 120 121 Henotheism Edit Henotheism is the act of worshipping a single god without denying the existence of other deities 122 Many scholars believe that before monotheism in ancient Israel there came a transitional period in this transitional period many followers of the Israelite religion worshiped the god Yahweh but did not deny the existence of other deities accepted throughout the region 115 Henotheistic worship was not uncommon in the Ancient Near East many Iron Age nation states worshipped an elevated national god which was nonetheless only part of a wider pantheon examples include Chemosh in Moab Qos in Edom Milkom in Ammon and Ashur in Assyria 123 Canaanite religion syncretized elements from neighboring cultures largely from Mesopotamian religious traditions 124 Using Canaanite religion as a base was natural due to the fact that the Canaanite culture inhabited the same region prior to the emergence of Israelite culture 125 Israelite religion was no exception as during the transitional period Yahweh and El were syncretized in the Israelite pantheon 125 El already occupied a reasonably important place in the Israelite religion Even the name Israel is based on the name El rather than Yahweh 126 127 128 It was this initial harmonization of Israelite and Canaanite religious thought that lead to Yahweh gradually absorbing several characteristics from Canaanite deities in turn strengthening his own position as an all powerful One Even still monotheism in the region of ancient Israel and Judah did not take hold overnight and during the intermediate stages most people are believed to have remained henotheistic 124 El the Canaanite creator deity Megiddo Stratum VII Late Bronze II 1400 1200 BC bronze with gold leaf Oriental Institute Museum University of Chicago DSC07734 The Canaanite god El who may have been the precursor to the Israelite god Yahweh During this intermediate period of henotheism many families worshiped different gods Religion was very much centered around the family as opposed to the community The region of Israel and Judah was sparsely populated during the time of Moses As such many different areas worshiped different gods due to social isolation 129 It was not until later on in Israelite history that people started to worship Yahweh alone and fully convert to monotheistic values That switch occurred with the growth of power and influence of the Israelite kingdom and its rulers Further details of this are contained in the Iron Age Yahwism section below Evidence from the Bible suggests that henotheism did exist They the Hebrews went and served alien gods and paid homage to them gods of whom they had no experience and whom he Yahweh did not allot to them Deut 29 26 Many believe that this quote demonstrates that the early Israelite kingdom followed traditions similar to ancient Mesopotamia where each major urban center had a supreme god Each culture embraced their patron god but did not deny the existence of other cultures patron gods In Assyria the patron god was Ashur and in ancient Israel it was Yahweh however both Israelite and Assyrian cultures recognized each other s deities during this period 129 The Canaanite god Baal 14th 12th century BCE Louvre museum Paris Some scholars have used the Bible as evidence to argue that most of the people alive during the events recounted in the Hebrew Bible including Moses were most likely henotheists There are many quotes from the Hebrew Bible that are used to support this view One such quote from Jewish tradition is the first commandment which in its entirety reads I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage You shall have no other gods before me 130 This quote does not deny the existence of other gods it merely states that Jews should consider Yahweh or God the supreme god incomparable to other supernatural beings Some scholars attribute the concept of angels and demons found in Judaism and Christianity to the tradition of henotheism Instead of completely getting rid of the concept of other supernatural beings these religions changed former deities into angels and demons 124 Yahweh became the supreme god governing angels demons and humans with angels and demons considered more powerful than the average human This tradition of believing in multiple forms of supernatural beings is attributed by many to the traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan and their pantheons of gods Earlier influences from Mesopotamia and Canaan were important in creating the foundation of Israelite religion consistent with the Kingdoms of ancient Israel and Judah and have left lasting impacts on some of the biggest and most widespread religions in our world today Iron Age Yahwism Edit Main article Yahwism The religion of the Israelites of Iron Age I like the Ancient Canaanite religion from which it evolved and other religions of the ancient Near East was based on a cult of ancestors and worship of family gods the gods of the fathers 131 132 With the emergence of the monarchy at the beginning of Iron Age II the kings promoted their family god Yahweh as the god of the kingdom but beyond the royal court religion continued to be both polytheistic and family centered 133 The major deities were not numerous El Asherah and Yahweh with Baal as a fourth god and perhaps Shamash the sun in the early period 134 At an early stage El and Yahweh became fused and Asherah did not continue as a separate state cult 134 although she continued to be popular at a community level until Persian times 135 Pithos sherd found at Kuntillet Ajrud with a drawing below the inscription Yahweh and his Asherah Yahweh the national god of both Israel and Judah seems to have originated in Edom and Midian in southern Canaan and may have been brought to Israel by the Kenites and Midianites at an early stage 136 There is a general consensus among scholars that the first formative event in the emergence of the distinctive religion described in the Bible was triggered by the destruction of Israel by Assyria in c 722 BCE Refugees from the northern kingdom fled to Judah bringing with them laws and a prophetic tradition of Yahweh This religion was subsequently adopted by the landowners of Judah who in 640 BCE placed the eight year old Josiah on the throne Judah at this time was a vassal state of Assyria but Assyrian power collapsed in the 630s and around 622 Josiah and his supporters launched a bid for independence expressed as loyalty to Yahweh alone Prophecy Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed November 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message In both Israel and Judah prophets had taken on significant religious and political significance It is particularly well known thanks to the prophetic books Nevi im of the Hebrew Bible Nearly all of the prophets mentioned in the biblical texts are men and although they did not necessarily write the prophetic texts they are undoubtedly the source of those texts The books of Amos and Hoshea were written in the first half of the 8th century the First Isaiah Proto Isaiah a little later Jeremiah and Ezekiel during the fall of Judah and the early years of the Babylonian captivity Daniel during the Exile the Second Isaiah Deutero Isaiah between the end of the Exile and the start of the post exilic period etc Prophecy was widespread in the Ancient Near East as shown by records from Assyria and Mari Gods communicated with humans men or women in order to convey a message meant both specifically for the king and more broadly for the subjects of the kingdom In some instances the king requested that the prophet receive a divine message The context of this function s performance in the Bible is unclear prophets can be found alone or in groups at the royal court or in temples as is most common in other regions of the Near East The prophets featured in the biblical accounts were messengers of Yahweh In the kingdom of Israel they competed with Ba al related prophets 137 They serve as diviners and because of their special relationship with Yahweh they are also said to possess miraculous powers the Bible records instances of prophets curing the sick raising the dead multiplying bread and oil and bringing rain after a drought The prophets of Yahweh from the time of the monarchy have two main messages for the king to make sure he only worships Yahweh and to make sure he looks out for the people especially the least fortunate the widow and the orphan The prophets were sometimes supporters of the king s initiatives and his advisors at other times they were fierce opponents 137 They frequently had harsh criticism for how the populace lived The prophets undoubtedly had a stronger social role than the temple priests who are a part of the elite group The role of the prophets in shaping Yahwism and Monotheism is not clear Although it has frequently been argued that the prophets were merely intermediaries for the wishes of the Yahwist elites of the court and the Temple it is possible that they were instrumental in the development and spread of monotheism The Babylonian exile and Second Temple Judaism Edit Main article Second Temple Judaism According to the Deuteronomists as scholars call these Judean nationalists the treaty with Yahweh would enable Israel s god to preserve both the city and the king in return for the people s worship and obedience The destruction of Jerusalem its Temple and the Davidic dynasty by Babylon in 587 586 BCE was deeply traumatic and led to revisions of the national mythos during the Babylonian exile This revision was expressed in the Deuteronomistic history the books of Joshua Judges Samuel and Kings which interpreted the Babylonian destruction as divinely ordained punishment for the failure of Israel s kings to worship Yahweh to the exclusion of all other deities 138 Magdala stone discovered in the ancient city of Magdala Two ancient synagogues dated to the 1st century CE were unearthed in Magdala The Second Temple period 520 BCE 70 CE differed in significant ways from what had gone before 139 Strict monotheism emerged among the priests of the Temple establishment during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE as did beliefs regarding angels and demons 140 At this time circumcision dietary laws and Sabbath observance gained more significance as symbols of Jewish identity and the institution of the synagogue became increasingly important and most of the biblical literature including the Torah was substantially revised during this time 141 Administrative and judicial structure Edit To Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah royal seal found at the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem As was customary in the ancient Near East a king Hebrew מלך romanized melekh ruled over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah The national god Yahweh who selects those to rule his realm and his people is depicted in the Hebrew Bible as having a hand in the establishment of the royal institution In this sense the true king is God and the king serves as his earthly envoy and is tasked with ruling his realm In some Psalms that appear to be related to the coronation of kings they are referred to as sons of Yahweh The kings actually had to succeed one another according to a dynastic principle even though the succession was occasionally decided through coups d etat The coronation seemed to take place in a sacred place and was marked by the anointing of the king who then becomes the anointed one masiaḥ the origin of the word Messiah of Yahweh the end of the ritual seems marked by an acclamation by the people or at least their representatives the Elders followed by a banquet 142 The Bible s descriptions of the lists of dignitaries from the reigns of David and Solomon show that the king is supported by a group of high dignitaries Those include the chief of the army Hebrew שר הצבא romanized sar haṣṣaba the great scribe Hebrew שר הצבא romanized sar haṣṣaba who was in charge of the management of the royal chancellery the herald Hebrew מזכיר romanized mazkir as well as the high priest Hebrew כהן הגדול romanized kōhen haggadol and the master of the palace Hebrew על הבית סוכן romanized ʿal habbayit sōken who has a function of stewardship of the household of the king at the beginning and seems to become a real prime minister of Judah during the later periods The attributions of most of these dignitaries remain debated as illustrated in particular by the much discussed case of the king s friend mentioned under Solomon 142 143 Language and literature EditA writing system unique to the Israelites emerged from the Phoenician alphabet around the 10th century This system is today known as the Paleo Hebrew alphabet Consonantal in nature this abjad contains twenty two letters The language spoken during this period was Biblical Hebrew an ancient variant of Hebrew a Northwest Semitic language related to Phoenician and Aramaic As evidenced by ancient inscriptions dialect variations existed particularly between the northern Kingdom of Israel Israelian Hebrew and the South Judah The biblical texts are predominantly written in the Judahite dialect 144 See also Edit Jewish portal Judaism portalBiblical archaeology History of Canaan Chronology of the Bible Early Israelite campaigns Habiru History of Israel History of Palestine History of the Jews in Egypt History of the Jews in Iran History of the Jews in Iraq Assyrian captivity Babylonian captivity History of the Jews in the Roman Empire History of the ancient Levant Intertestamental period Jewish diaspora Kingdom of Israel united monarchy Kings of Israel and Judah Kings of Judah Lachish reliefs Prehistory of the Levant Shasu Tanakh Timeline of Jewish history Timeline of the Palestine region Time periods in the Palestine regionReferences EditCitations Edit Finkelstein Israel Silberman Neil Asher 2001 The Bible unearthed archaeology s new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its stories 1st Touchstone ed New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 684 86912 4 Wright Jacob L July 2014 David King of Judah Not Israel The Bible and Interpretation Archived from the original on 1 March 2021 Retrieved 15 May 2021 a b c Finkelstein Israel 2020 Saul and Highlands of Benjamin Update The Role of Jerusalem in Joachim J Krause Omer Sergi and Kristin Weingart eds Saul Benjamin and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives SBL Press Atlanta GA p 48 footnote 57 They became territorial kingdoms later Israel in the first half of the ninth century BCE and Judah in its second half The Pitcher Is Broken Memorial Essays for Gosta W Ahlstrom Steven W Holloway Lowell K Handy Continuum 1 May 1995 Quote For Israel the description of the battle of Qarqar in the Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III mid ninth century and for Judah a Tiglath pileser III text mentioning Jeho Ahaz of Judah IIR67 K 3751 dated 734 733 are the earliest published to date a b c d Finkelstein Israel 2020 Saul and Highlands of Benjamin Update The Role of Jerusalem In Joachim J Krause Omer Sergi Kristin Weingart eds Saul Benjamin and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives Atlanta GA SBL Press p 48 ISBN 978 0884144519 Shoshenq I the founder of the Twenty Second Dynasty and seemingly the more assertive of the Egyptian rulers of the time reacted to the north Israelite challenge He campaigned into the highlands and took over the Saulide power bases in the Gibeon plateau and the area of the Jabbok River in the western Gilead The fortified sites of Khirbet Qeiyafa Khirbet Dawwara et Tell and Gibeon were destroyed or abandoned Shoshenq reorganized the territory of the highlands back to the traditional situation of two city states under his domination p 48 Broshi Maguen 2001 Bread Wine Walls and Scrolls Bloomsbury Publishing p 174 ISBN 978 1 84127 201 6 British Museum Cuneiform tablet with part of the Babylonian Chronicle 605 594 BCE Archived from the original on 30 October 2014 Retrieved 30 October 2014 ABC 5 Jerusalem Chronicle Livius www livius org Archived from the original on 5 May 2019 Retrieved 8 February 2022 Second Temple Period 538 BCE to 70 CE Persian Rule Biu ac il Retrieved 15 March 2014 Harper s Bible Dictionary ed by Achtemeier etc Harper amp Row San Francisco 1985 p 103 Ben Sasson 1976 page 334 In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judaea to Syria Palestina a name that became common in non Jewish literature Lewin Ariel 2005 The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine Getty Publications p 33 It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity Palestine already known from the writings of Herodotus Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land ISBN 0 89236 800 4 Schafer Peter ed 2003 The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome Texts and studies in ancient Judaism Vol 100 Mohr Siebeck p 33 ISBN 3161480767 Retrieved 24 September 2021 The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities Megiddo in Archaeology amp History of the Land of the Bible International MA in Ancient Israel Studies Tel Aviv University Megiddo has a fascinating picture of state formation and social evolution in the Bronze Age ca 3500 1150 B C and Iron Age ca 1150 600 B C Finkelstein Israel 2019 First Israel Core Israel United Northern Israel in Near Eastern Archaeology 82 1 2019 p 8 The late Iron I system came to an end during the tenth century BCE Finkelstein Israel and Eli Piasetzky 2010 The Iron I IIA Transition in the Levant A Reply to Mazar and Bronk Ramsey and a New Perspective in Radiocarbon Vol 52 No 4 The Arizona Board of Regents in behalf of the University of Arizona pp 1667 and 1674 The Iron I IIA transition occurred during the second half of the 10th century We propose that the late Iron I cities came to an end in a gradual process and interpret this proposal with Bayesian Model II The process results in a transition date of 915 898 BCE 68 range or 927 879 BCE 95 range King amp Stager 2001 p xxiii Jerusalem in the First Temple period c 1000 586 B C E Archived 9 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies Bar Ilan University last modified 1997 accessed 11 February 2019 Miller 1986 p 36 Coogan 1998 pp 4 7 Finkelstein 2001 p 78 a b Killebrew 2005 pp 38 39 Cahill in Vaughn 1992 pp 27 33 Kuhrt 1995 p 317 Killebrew 2005 pp 10 16 Golden 2004b pp 61 62 McNutt 1999 p 47 Golden 2004a p 155 Stager in Coogan 1998 p 91 Dever 2003 p 206 McNutt 1999 p 35 McNutt 1999 pp 46 47 McNutt 1999 p 69 Miller 1986 p 72 Killebrew 2005 p 13 Edelman in Brett 2002 pp 46 47 Finkelstein and Silberman 2001 p 107 Avraham Faust How Did Israel Become a People The Genesis of Israelite Identity Biblical Archaeology Review 201 2009 62 69 92 94 Finkelstein and Silberman 2001 p 107 Compare Gnuse Robert Karl 1997 No Other Gods Emergent Monotheism in Israel Journal for the study of the Old Testament Supplement series Vol 241 Sheffield A amp C Black p 31 ISBN 9781850756576 Retrieved 2 June 2016 Out of the discussions a new model is beginning to emerge which has been inspired above all by recent archaeological field research There are several variations in this new theory but they share in common the image of an Israelite community which arose peacefully and internally in the highlands of Palestine McNutt 1999 p 70 Miller 2005 p 98 McNutt 1999 p 72 Miller 2005 p 99 Miller 2005 p 105 Lehman in Vaughn 1992 pp 156 62 Daily Life in Ancient Israel Biblical Archaeology Society 13 September 2022 Finkelstein Israel 2019 First Israel Core Israel United Northern Israel Near Eastern Archaeology American Schools of Oriental Research ASOR 82 1 12 doi 10 1086 703321 S2CID 167052643 Retrieved 22 March 2020 the emergence of the Tirzah polity the first fifty years of the Northern Kingdom in the middle of the tenth century BCE a b c Thompson 1992 p 408 Mazar in Schmidt p 163 Miller Patrick D 2000 The Religion of Ancient Israel Westminster John Knox Press pp 40 ISBN 978 0 664 22145 4 Lemche 1998 p 85 Grabbe 2008 pp 225 26 Lehman in Vaughn 1992 p 149 David M Carr Writing on the Tablet of the Heart Origins of Scripture and Literature Oxford University Press 2005 164 LAMRYEU HNNYEU OBD HZQYEU www lmlk com Brown William Ancient Israelite Technology World History Encyclopedia The Keys to the Kingdom Haaretz Mazar Amihai 19 September 2010 Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative The Case of the United Monarchy One God One Cult One Nation 29 58 doi 10 1515 9783110223583 29 ISBN 978 3 11 022357 6 via www academia edu Moore Megan Bishop Kelle Brad E 17 May 2011 Biblical History and Israel S Past The Changing Study of the Bible and History ISBN 9780802862600 New look at ancient shards suggests Bible even older than thought Times of Israel a b c Thompson 1992 pp 410 11 Grabbe 2004 p 28 Lemaire in Blenkinsopp 2003 p 291 Davies 2009 Lipschits 2005 p 48 Blenkinsopp in Blenkinsopp 2003 pp 103 05 Blenkinsopp 2009 p 228 Middlemas 2005 pp 1 2 Miller 1986 p 203 Middlemas 2005 p 2 a b Middlemas 2005 p 10 Middlemas 2005 p 17 Bedford 2001 p 48 Barstad 2008 p 109 Albertz 2003a p 92 Faust Avraham 2012 Judah in the Neo Babylonian Period The Archaeology of Desolation Society of Biblical Lit p 140 Albertz 2003a pp 95 96 Albertz 2003a p 96 a b Blenkinsopp 1988 p 64 Lipschits in Lipschits 2006 pp 86 89 Grabbe 2004 pp 29 30 Nodet 1999 p 25 Davies in Amit 2006 p 141 Niehr in Becking 1999 p 231 Wylen 1996 p 25 Grabbe 2004 pp 154 55 Soggin 1998 p 311 Miller 1986 p 458 Blenkinsopp 2009 p 229 Albertz 1994 pp 437 38 Kottsieper in Lipschits 2006 pp 109 10 Becking in Albertz 2003b p 19 Jagersma H 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM p 16 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Weigel David 22 December 2005 Hanukkah as Jewish civil war Slate com Slate Magazine Retrieved 15 August 2012 The Revolt of the Maccabees Simpletoremember com Retrieved 15 August 2012 Davies 1992 pp 149 50 Philip R Davies in The Canon Debate p 50 With many other scholars I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty Jagersma H 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 17 18 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Grabbe Lester L 1992 Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian Fortress Press p 216 OCLC 716308928 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 22 29 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 29 35 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Kosmin Paul J 2018 The land of the elephant kings space territory and ideology in the Seleucid Empire p 154 ISBN 978 0674986886 OCLC 1028624877 Pearlman Moshe 1973 The Maccabees Macmillan OCLC 776163 a b New American Bible p 521 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 59 63 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 New American Bible p 532 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 63 67 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM p 79 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 On the destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus see for instance Menahem Mor The Persian Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period in The Samaritans ed Alan D Crown Tubingen Mohr Siebeck 1989 1 18 Jonathan Bourgel 2016 The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus A Reconsideration Journal of Biblical Literature 135 153 3 505 doi 10 15699 jbl 1353 2016 3129 Berthelot Katell 2017 In Search of the Promised Land Gottingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht pp 240 41 doi 10 13109 9783666552526 ISBN 9783525552520 S2CID 194798792 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 80 85 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Jagersma H Hendrik 1994 A history of Israel to Bar Kochba SCM pp 87 102 ISBN 033402577X OCLC 906667007 Ben Sasson 1976 p 246 a b Taliaferro Charles Harrison Victoria S Goetz Stewart 2012 The Routledge Companion to Theism Routledge Dever William G 12 December 2019 Archaeology and Folk or Family Religion in Ancient Israel Religions 10 12 667 doi 10 3390 rel10120667 ISSN 2077 1444 Becking Bob 2002 Only One God Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 0 567 23212 0 OCLC 1052587466 Stern Ephraim 2001 Pagan Yahwism The folk religion of ancient Israel Biblical Archaeology Review 27 3 20 29 Finkelstein Israel Silberman Neil Asher 2006 Temple and Dynasty Hezekiah the Remaking of Judah and the Rise of the Pan Israelite Ideology Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 30 3 259 285 doi 10 1177 0309089206063428 ISSN 0309 0892 S2CID 145087584 Moulis David Rafael 8 November 2019 Hezekiah s Cultic Reforms according to the Archaeological Evidence The Last Century in the History of Judah SBL Press pp 167 180 doi 10 2307 j ctvr7fc18 11 S2CID 211652647 retrieved 18 February 2023 Na aman Nadav 1 January 2011 The Discovered Book and the Legitimation of Josiah s Reform Journal of Biblical Literature 130 1 47 62 doi 10 2307 41304187 ISSN 0021 9231 JSTOR 41304187 S2CID 153646048 the definition of henotheism www dictionary com Retrieved 26 April 2019 Levine Baruch A 2005 Assyrian Ideology and Israelite Monotheism British Institute for the Study of Iraq 67 1 411 27 JSTOR 4200589 a b c Meek Theophile James 1942 Monotheism and the Religion of Israel Journal of Biblical Literature 61 1 21 43 doi 10 2307 3262264 JSTOR 3262264 a b Dever William 1987 Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine The Middle Bronze Age The Zenith of the Urban Canaanite Era The Biblical Archaeologist 50 3 149 77 doi 10 2307 3210059 JSTOR 3210059 S2CID 165335710 Coogan Michael David Coogan Michael D 2001 The Oxford History of the Biblical World Oxford University Press p 54 ISBN 9780195139372 Retrieved 3 November 2019 Smith Mark S 2002 The Early History of God Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel Wm B Eerdmans Publishing p 32 ISBN 9780802839725 Giliad Elon 20 April 2015 Why Is Israel Called Israel Haaretz Retrieved 3 November 2019 a b Caquot Andre 2000 At the Origins of the Bible Near Eastern Archaeology 63 4 225 27 doi 10 2307 3210793 JSTOR 3210793 S2CID 164106346 Exodus 20 2 www sefaria org Retrieved 21 January 2023 Tubbs Jonathan 2006 The Canaanites BBC Books Van der Toorn 1996 p 4 Van der Toorn 1996 pp 181 82 a b Smith 2002 p 57 Dever 2005 p Van der Toorn 1999 pp 911 13 a b Aster Shawn Z 2022 Israelite Prophecy from Its Origins to the Exile In Keimer Kyle H Pierce George A eds The Ancient Israelite World Taylor amp Francis pp 498 500 ISBN 978 1 000 77324 8 Dunn and Rogerson pp 153 54 Peck amp Neusner eds 2003 p 58 Grabbe 2004 pp 243 44 Peck amp Neusner eds 2003 p 59 a b Ahlstrom G W 1995 Administration of the State in Canaan and Ancient Israel In Sasson Jack M ed Civilizations of the Ancient Near East Hendrickson Publishers pp 590 595 ISBN 1 56563 607 4 OCLC 213021257 Eph al Jaruzelska I 2010 Officialdom and Society in the Book of Kings The Social Relevance of the State In The Books of Kings pp 471 480 Brill J Blau Hebrew Language and Literature OEANE 1995harvnb error no target CITEREFOEANE1995 help vol 3 p 5 7 DEB 2002 pp 579 580harvnb error no target CITEREFDEB2002 help Sources Edit Albertz Rainer 1994 A History of Israelite Religion Volume I From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664227197 Albertz Rainer 1994 A History of Israelite Religion Volume II From the Exile to the Maccabees Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664227203 Albertz Rainer 2003a Israel in Exile The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B C E Society of Biblical Literature ISBN 9781589830554 Avery Peck Alan et al eds 2003 The Blackwell Companion to Judaism Blackwell ISBN 9781577180593 Barstad Hans M 2008 History and the Hebrew Bible Mohr Siebeck ISBN 9783161498091 Becking Bob 2003b Law as Expression of Religion Ezra 7 10 In Albertz Rainer Becking Bob eds Yahwism After the Exile Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era Koninklijke Van Gorcum ISBN 9789023238805 Bedford Peter Ross 2001 Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah Brill ISBN 978 9004115095 Ben Sasson H H 1976 A History of the Jewish People Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 39731 6 Blenkinsopp Joseph 1988 Ezra Nehemiah A Commentary Eerdmans ISBN 9780664221867 Blenkinsopp Joseph 2003 Bethel in the Neo Babylonian Period In Blenkinsopp Joseph Lipschits Oded eds Judah and the Judeans in the Neo Babylonian Period Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575060736 Blenkinsopp Joseph 2009 Judaism the First Phase The Place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Origins of Judaism Eerdmans ISBN 9780802864505 Cahill Jane M 1992 Jerusalem at the Time of the United Monarchy In Vaughn Andrew G Killebrew Ann E eds Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology The First Temple Period Sheffield ISBN 9781589830660 Coogan Michael D ed 1998 The Oxford History of the Biblical World Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195139372 Davies Philip R 1992 In Search of Ancient Israel Sheffield ISBN 9781850757375 Davies Philip R 2006 The Origin of Biblical Israel In Amit Yaira et al eds Essays on Ancient Israel in its Near Eastern Context A Tribute to Nadav Na aman Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575061283 Davies Philip R 2009 The Origin of Biblical Israel Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 47 Archived from the original on 28 May 2008 Dever William 2003 Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From Eerdmans ISBN 9780802809759 Dever William 2005 Did God Have a Wife Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel Eerdmans ISBN 9780802828521 Dever William 2017 Beyond the Texts An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah SBL Press ISBN 9780884142171 Dunn James D G Rogerson John William eds 2003 Eerdmans commentary on the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 9780802837110 Edelman Diana 2002 Ethnicity and Early Israel In Brett Mark G ed Ethnicity and the Bible Brill ISBN 978 0391041264 Finkelstein Israel Silberman Neil Asher 2001 The Bible Unearthed ISBN 9780743223386 Gnuse Robert Karl 1997 No Other Gods Emergent Monotheism in Israel Sheffield Academic Press ISBN 9781850756576 Golden Jonathan Michael 2004a Ancient Canaan and Israel An Introduction Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195379853 Golden Jonathan Michael 2004b Ancient Canaan and Israel New Perspectives ABC CLIO ISBN 9781576078976 Grabbe Lester L 2004 A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period T amp T Clark International ISBN 9780567043528 Grabbe Lester L ed 2008 Israel in Transition From Late Bronze II to Iron IIa c 1250 850 B C E T amp T Clark International ISBN 9780567027269 Killebrew Ann E 2005 Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity An Archaeological Study of Egyptians Canaanites and Early Israel 1300 1100 B C E Society of Biblical Literature ISBN 9781589830974 King Philip J Stager Lawrence E 2001 Life in Biblical Israel Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 978 0 664 22148 5 Life in biblical Israel By Philip J King Lawrence E Stager Kottsieper Ingo 2006 And They Did Not Care to Speak Yehudit In Lipschits Oded et al eds Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B C E Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575061306 Kuhrt Amelie 1995 The Ancient Near East c 3000 330 BCE Routledge ISBN 9780415167635 Lehman Gunnar 1992 The United Monarchy in the Countryside In Vaughn Andrew G Killebrew Ann E eds Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology The First Temple Period Sheffield ISBN 9781589830660 Lemaire Andre 2003 Nabonidus in Arabia and Judea During the Neo Babylonian Period In Blenkinsopp Joseph Lipschits Oded eds Judah and the Judeans in the Neo Babylonian Period Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575060736 Lemche Niels Peter 1998 The Israelites in History and Tradition Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664227272 Lipschits Oded 2005 The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575060958 Lipschits Oded Vanderhooft David 2006 Yehud Stamp Impressions in the Fourth Century B C E In Lipschits Oded et al eds Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B C E Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575061306 Mazar Amihay 2007 The Divided Monarchy Comments on Some Archaeological Issues In Schmidt Brian B ed The Quest for the Historical Israel Society of Biblical Literature ISBN 9781589832770 McNutt Paula 1999 Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664222659 Middlemas Jill Anne 2005 The Troubles of Templeless Judah Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199283866 Miller James Maxwell Hayes John Haralson 1986 A History of Ancient Israel and Judah Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 978 0 664 21262 9 Niehr Herbert 1999 Religio Historical Aspects of the Early Post Exilic Period In Becking Bob Korpel Marjo Christina Annette eds The Crisis of Israelite Religion Transformation of Religious Tradition in Exilic and Post Exilic Times Brill ISBN 978 9004114968 Nodet Etienne 1999 A Search for the Origins of Judaism From Joshua to the Mishnah Sheffield Academic Press ISBN 9781850754459 Smith Mark S Miller Patrick D 2002 The Early History of God Eerdmans ISBN 9780802839725 Soggin Michael J 1998 An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah Paideia ISBN 9780334027881 Stager Lawrence E 1998 Forging an Identity The Emergence of Ancient Israel In Coogan Michael D ed The Oxford History of the Biblical World Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195139372 Thompson Thomas L 1992 Early History of the Israelite People Brill ISBN 978 9004094833 Van der Toorn Karel 1996 Family Religion in Babylonia Syria and Israel Brill ISBN 978 9004104105 Van der Toorn Karel Becking Bob Van der Horst Pieter Willem 1999 Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible 2d ed Koninklijke Brill ISBN 9780802824912 Wylen Stephen M 1996 The Jews in the Time of Jesus An Introduction Paulist Press ISBN 9780809136100 Further reading EditArnold Bill T Hess Richard S Ancient Israel s History An Introduction to Issues and Sources Baker 2014 Brettler Marc Z The Creation of History in Ancient Israel Routledge 1995 Cook Stephen L The social roots of biblical Yahwism Society of Biblical Literature 2004 Day John ed In search of pre exilic Israel proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar T amp T Clark International 2004 Frevel Christian History of Ancient Israel SBL Press 2023 Hess Richard S Israelite religions an archaeological and biblical survey Baker 2007 Keimer Kyle H Pierce George A eds The Ancient Israelite World Taylor amp Francis 2022 Kelle Brad E Strawn Brent A eds The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible Oxford University Press 2020 Knauf Ernst Axel Niemann Hermann Michael Geschichte Israels und Judas im Altertum Walter de Gruyter 2021 Lemche Neils Peter The Old Testament between theology and history a critical survey Westminster John Knox Press 2008 Levine Lee I Jerusalem portrait of the city in the second Temple period 538 B C E 70 C E Jewish Publication Society 2002 Na aman Nadav Ancient Israel and its neighbours Eisenbrauns 2005 Niditch Susan ed The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel John Wiley amp Sons 2016 Sparks Kenton L Ethnicity and identity in ancient Israel Eisenbrauns 1998 Vanderkam James An introduction to early Judaism 2nd edition Eerdmans 2022 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of ancient Israel and Judah amp oldid 1151888077, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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