The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Isreal and the Origin of Sacred Texts

Prologue: In the Days of King Josiah

Introduction: Archaeology and the Bible

PART ONE

The Bible as History?

Chapter 1: Searching for the Patriarchs

Chapter 2: Did the Exodus Happen?

Chapter 3: The Conquest of Canaan

Chapter 4: Who Were the Israelites?

Chapter 5: Memories of a Golden Age?

PART TWO

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel

Chapter 6: One State, One Nation, One People? (c.
930–720
BCE
)

Chapter 7: Israel’s Forgotten First Kingdom (
884–842
BCE
)

Chapter 8: In the Shadow of Empire (
842–720
BCE
)

PART THREE

Judah and the Making of Biblical History

Chapter 9: The Transformation of Judah (c.
930–705
BCE
)

Chapter 10: Between War and Survival (
705–639
BCE
)

Chapter 11: A Great Reformation (
639–586
BCE
)

Chapter 12: Exile and Return (
586–
c. 440
BCE
)

Epilogue: The Future of Biblical Israel

Appendix A: Theories of the Historicity of the Patriarchal Age

Appendix B: Searching for Sinai

Appendix C: Alternative Theories of the Israelite Conquest

Appendix D: Why the Traditional Archaeology of the Davidic and Solomonic Period Is Wrong

Appendix E: Identifying the Era of Manasseh in the Archaeological Record

Appendix F: How Vast Was the Kingdom of Josiah?

Appendix G: The Boundaries of the Province of Yehud

Bibliography

Index

Almost eight years ago—during a peaceful summer weekend with our families on the coast of Maine—the idea for this book was born. The debate about the historical reliability of the Bible was again beginning to attract considerable attention outside scholarly circles and we came to the realization that an updated book on this subject for general readers was needed. In it, we would set out what we believed to be the compelling archaeological and historical evidence for a new understanding of the rise of ancient Israel and the emergence of its sacred historical texts.

Over the intervening years, the archaeological battle over the Bible has grown increasingly bitter. It has sunk—in some times and places—to personal attacks and accusations of hidden political motives. Did the Exodus happen? Was there a conquest of Canaan? Did David and Solomon actually rule over a vast empire? Questions like these have attracted the attention of journalists and commentators all over the world. And the public discussion of each of these questions has often gone far beyond the confines of academic archaeology and biblical criticism into the hotly contested realms of theology and religious belief.

Despite the passions aroused by this subject, we believe that a reassessment of finds from earlier excavations and the continuing discoveries by new digs have made it clear that scholars must now approach the problems
of biblical origins and ancient Israelite society from a completely new perspective. In the following chapters, we will present evidence to bolster that contention and to reconstruct a very different history of ancient Israel. Readers must judge for themselves if our reconstruction fits the evidence.

Before beginning, we must note a few items regarding sources and transliterations. Our direct quotations from the biblical text all come from the Revised Standard Version translation of the Hebrew Bible. Although we have followed the RSV in referring to the names of the God of Israel within the quotations, we have used the name YHWH in
our
text to designate the tetragrammaton or explicit name of God. In the RSV it is represented by the word “L
ORD,”
while
Elohim
or
Elohei
is represented by the word “God.”

Regarding biblical chronology, with its many uncertainties and pitfalls, we have decided that a combination of dating systems provides the best match with the emerging archaeological reality: from the beginning of the Israelite monarchy to the time of Ahab, we follow the dates determined in Gershon Galil,
The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah
(Leiden:
1996
). For the dates of the subsequent reigns of Israelite and Judahite kings, we follow Mordecai Cogan’s article on “Chronology” in the
Anchor Bible Dictionary
(New York:
1992
). Of course many uncertainties (relating to the precise dates of the earliest kings, later coregencies, and contradictions within the biblical material) remain, but we feel that in general, this chronological scheme is reliable for the purposes of this general work.

The renewed excavations of Tel Megiddo, undertaken by Tel Aviv University in partnerhip with Pennsylvania State University, have offered a unique opportunity for thinking, reflecting, and discussing with colleagues the material contained in this book. We would like to extend special thanks to the other co-directors of the Megiddo Expedition, Professors David Ussishkin and Baruch Halpern, and to the many staff members and team members of the Megiddo Expedition who have, over the years, played such an important role in the excavations and in the wider scholarly work of biblical archaeology.

The research and initial writing of this book was carried out by Israel Finkelstein during a sabbatical year in Paris and by Neil Asher Silberman in New Haven. Colleague and friend Professor Pierre de Miroschedji helped to make possible a productive and enjoyable time in Paris. During the writing
of this book, the library of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University; of the Institut Catholique, the Centre d’Archéologie Orientale in the Sorbonne, and the Section des Etudes Sémitiques of the Collège de France in Paris; and, at Yale, the Sterling Memorial Library and the library of the Yale Divinity School all provided excellent research facilites.

Our deep appreciation goes to Judith Dekel of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University who prepared the maps, diagrams, and drawings that appear in this book.

Professors Baruch Halpern, Nadav Naaman, Jack Sasson, and David Ussishkin have been generous with their advice and knowledge. We have been greatly helped by questions posed (and answered) in many late-night phone calls to Nadav Naaman and Baruch Halpern, who helped us to sort out the complex problems of biblical redactions and biblical history. Baruch also read and discussed with us early drafts of many of the chapters. We are grateful to these and all other friends and colleagues with whom we have consulted, even as we acknowledge that the responsibility for the final result is entirely ours.

In New York, our literary agent Carol Mann skillfully guided the project from initial idea to publication. At the Free Press, we want to thank assistant editor Daniel Freedberg for his efficiency and continuing help at every stage of the work. Senior editor Bruce Nichols has been an enthusiastic and tireless supporter of this book from the very beginning. Thanks to his perceptive insights and editorial skill, our evolving manuscript has been immeasurably improved.

Lastly, our families—Joëlle, Adar, and Sarai Finkelstein and Ellen and Maya Silberman—deserve a great share of the credit for their love, patience, and willingness to forgo many weekend outings and family events while this book took shape. We can only hope that the result of our efforts justifies their confidence in us—and in our idea of a book about archaeology and the Bible that first took shape in their presence just a few years ago.

I.F.

N.A.S.

The world in which the Bible was created was not a mythic realm of great cities and saintly heroes, but a tiny, down-to-earth kingdom where people struggled for their future against the all-too-human fears of war, poverty, injustice, disease, famine, and drought. The historical saga contained in the Bible—from Abraham’s encounter with God and his journey to Canaan, to Moses’ deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, to the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah—was not a miraculous revelation, but a brilliant product of the human imagination. It was first conceived—as recent archaeological findings suggest—during the span of two or three generations, about twenty-six hundred years ago. Its birthplace was the kingdom of Judah, a sparsely settled region of shepherds and farmers, ruled from an out-of-the-way royal city precariously perched in the heart of the hill country on a narrow ridge between steep, rocky ravines.

During a few extraordinary decades of spiritual ferment and political agitation toward the end of the seventh century
BCE
, an unlikely coalition of Judahite court officials, scribes, priests, peasants, and prophets came together to create a new movement. At its core was a sacred scripture of unparalleled literary and spiritual genius. It was an epic saga woven together from an astonishingly rich collection of historical writings, memories, legends,
folk tales, anecdotes, royal propaganda, prophecy, and ancient poetry. Partly an original composition, partly adapted from earlier versions and sources, that literary masterpiece would undergo further editing and elaboration to become a spiritual anchor not only for the descendants of the people of Judah but for communities all over the world.

The historical core of the Bible was born in the bustle of the crowded streets of Jerusalem, in the courts of the royal palace of the Davidic dynasty, and in the Temple of the God of Israel. In stark contrast to the countless other sanctuaries of the ancient Near East, with their ecumenical readiness to conduct international relations through the honoring of allies’ deities and religious symbols, Jerusalem’s Temple stood insistently alone. In reaction to the pace and scope of the changes brought to Judah from the outside, the seventh-century leaders in Jerusalem, headed by King Josiah—a sixteenth-generation descendant of King David—declared all traces of foreign worship to be anathema, and indeed the cause of Judah’s current misfortunes. They embarked on a vigorous campaign of religious purification in the countryside, ordering the destruction of rural shrines, declaring them to be sources of evil. Henceforth, Jerusalem’s Temple, with its inner sanctuary, altar, and surrounding courtyards at the summit of the city would be recognized as the
only
legitimate place of worship for the people of Israel. In that innovation, modern monotheism
1
was born. At the same time, Judah’s leaders’ political ambitions soared. They aimed to make the Jerusalem Temple and royal palace the center of a vast Pan-Israelite kingdom, a realization of the legendary united Israel of David and Solomon.