Comments on: Israelite Religions and Material Culture

By: Calvin

Calvin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:29:28 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'm currently reading through The Early History of God and have Did God have a Wife on my shelf. I almost picked up Lemche's The Israelites in History and Tradition, but I couldn't justify it with all of my other recent purchases. There's always this Summer, I suppose.

By: Bryan Bibb

Bryan Bibb — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:22:28 +0000

As long as we’re recommending other books for Calvin to read, haha, another piece of this puzzle is the work done by Mark Smith (and others such as John Day, Judith Hadley, and Pat Miller) in trying to understand the ideological (or theological) world of Israelite religion based on historical and biblical information. I would start with Smith’s The Early History of God and move to The Origins of Biblical Monotheism.

I hope you continue to enjoy your seminar. Thanks for writing about your experiences.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:49:07 +0000

Hey Calvin,

I have not read a lot of Lemche and Davies, but I am familiar with Van Seters work, especially In Search of History. Van Seters is concerned with historiography in the Bible and the formation of the text, not the history of Isrealite religion(s) per se (although those subjects are obviously connected). He concludes that the Hebrew Bible has more in common with Greek historiography than with historiographical works from other Near Eastern cultures. He also flips the classic doc. hypothesis upside down, placing the Yahwist in the post-exilic period, and proposing that J is the editor that tied everything together. (That’s a quick, probably over-simplified summary of what I got out of Van Seters.)

By: art

art — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:49:16 +0000

Calvin, I would wholeheartedly recommend The Old Testament Between Theology and History: A Critical Survey by N.P. Lemche. It's his latest (and, IMO, best) work on the subject and reflects much of the criticism that some of his earlier work has gotten. For a really good and easy to read introduction, I would suggest Philip Davies' Memories of Ancient Israel. It is a short work (less that 200 pgs) and was written for intro courses, so it isn't lodged full of footnotes like his other work. I might start off with this and then move to Lemche or to Davies' In Search of Ancient Israel. The fourth (and last!) that I would recommend is John Van Seters' In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History. (Side note: Van Seters was Kenton Sparks' adviser at UNC). Van Seters does really well in comparing the historiography of the ANE with the Hebrew Bible and shows how we can better understand how the 'history' of the Hebrew Bible actually functioned in its original context.

By: Adam Couturier

Adam Couturier — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:23:07 +0000

Calvin,

I own Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures by Davies (50cents at the last CBD sale), and The Israelites in History and Tradition by Lemche. Both are in the Library of Ancient Israel Series. You are welcome to borrow one or both.

By: Calvin

Calvin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:58:17 +0000

Art, thanks for the comment. I imagine that Dever isn’t as concerned with the form and function of the Hebrew Bible since he is an archaeologist.

We were required to read a few essays by Davies, and one by Lemche for last week. To be honest, I think that Lemche, Davies, et al don’t completely hit the point much more than others–though that is primarily because I disagree with their dating of texts.

Do you have a book or two you’d recommend by Lemche, et al as an entrance into their work. I’ve read several articles by them, but my book-length reading on the topic of historical Israel has primarily been Stager, Dever, Mazar, etc–who I suppose would be considered “maximalists.”

By: art

art — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:28:25 +0000

I read Dever’s Did God Have a Wife? over Christmas and found his work pretty interesting.
When it comes to Israelite historiography, I much prefer the work of N.P. Lemche, Philip Davies, Thomas Thompson, and John Van Seters (aka, the so-called ‘minimalist’ school or ‘Copenhagen’ school).
The reason is because I find it quite difficult to understand why a) Dever finds it helpful to understand the ‘religion on the ground’ via archeology and vague allusions in the Biblical text when that is only tangentially helpful in understanding the function and form of the Hebrew Bible, b) why moderns want to believe that Scripture has some sort of strong connection with history, and c) why some scholars, especially evangelical scholars, want to attempt to reconstruct an ‘historical Israel’ from the Hebrew Bible.
If one follows the Hebrew Bible and views it as history, one will find that the ultimate vision of the ‘historical’ Israel it presents cannot be upheld in light of our knowledge of the cultures of the ‘biblical’ time period.
The Copenhagen school, quite rightly, realizes this and then attempts to answer the question, ‘So what is the Hebrew Bible actually saying if it is not history?’ Their answers are, for me, much more persuasive than Dever, Longman, Hess, Walton, or other evangelical or conservative types (Dever being the later as a non-practicing Jewish convert).
Are you required to read any of the Copenhagen school’s work in this class?