The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Isreal and the Origin of Sacred Texts (26 page)

The once-great Canaanite cities of Rehov, Beth-shean, Taanach, and Megiddo are listed as targets of the Egyptian forces, and indeed a fragment of a victory stele bearing the name of Shishak was found at Megiddo—unfortunately in the dump of previous excavations, so its precise archaeological connection was unclear. Thick layers of conflagration and collapse uncovered in these and other major sites in the north provide dramatic evidence for the sudden and total demise of this late Canaanite system in the late tenth century
BCE
. And Shishak, who campaigned in the region in
926
BCE
, is the likeliest candidate to have caused this wave of destruction.
1
The Karnak list and the results of recent excavations seem to indicate that
Shishak struck at the developing network of early Israelite villages in the highlands as well.

But Shishak’s campaign did not result in lasting Egyptian control of Canaan. When the dust settled, it was clear that the strike in the highlands was only glancing (with the only apparent effects being the abandonment of some villages north of Jerusalem). Yet the blow struck at the revived Canaanite cities in the Jezreel valley was terminal. This had enormous implications, since the destruction of the last vestiges of the Canaanite city-state system opened a window of opportunity for the people of the northern highlands, who were already experiencing a period of intense economic and demographic growth. It opened the way for the rise of a full-fledged kingdom to expand from the northern hill country to the adjoining lowlands in the very late tenth century, or more probably in the beginning of the ninth century
BCE
.

Far to the south, the southern highlands—the few villages around Jerusalem—continued the old regime of dispersed villages and pastoralism. Despite the later biblical narratives of the great empire of David and Solomon that would conquer and administer the country from northernmost Dan to southernmost Beersheba, true statehood would not arrive there for another two hundred years.

Why does the Bible tell a story of schism and secession of Israel from Judah that is at such great odds with the historical evidence? If the age-old rhythms of life in the highlands of Canaan dictated two distinct regional cultures—and if the states of Israel and Judah were so different in their nature from the very beginning—why were they so systematically and convincingly portrayed in the Bible as twin states?

The answer is hinted at in four divinely inspired predictions of the future that are skillfully woven into the narrative of the breakdown of the united monarchy and the establishment of the independent kingdom of Israel. These oracles—written in the form of direct communication between God and a number of prophets—represent the efforts of a later generation of Judahite interpreters to explain the unexpected twists and turns of history.

The people of Judah believed that God had promised David that his dynasty
would be secure forever, based in Jerusalem. Yet for centuries Judah found itself in the shadow of Israel, whose kings paid little heed to Jerusalem. How could this have happened? The biblical narrative puts the blame squarely on the religious infidelity of a
Judahite
king. And it promises that the division of Israel into two rival kingdoms will be only a temporary punishment for the sins of a senior member of the divinely blessed Davidic dynasty.

The first prophecy flatly blamed the personal transgressions of David’s son Solomon for the breakup of Israel’s unity. Though Solomon was portrayed as one of the greatest kings of all times, wise and wealthy, ruling from the Euphrates to the borders of Egypt, he was also a sinner, taking foreign women as wives in his royal harem, precisely the kind of liaisons that YHWH strictly prohibited for the Israelites, lest the marriages with idolatrous women turn their heart to the worship of other gods. And that is precisely what the Bible reports:

For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the L
ORD
his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the L
ORD
, and did not wholly follow the L
ORD
, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. (
1
K
INGS
11
:
4
–
8
)

Punishment was thus inevitable for a Davidic heir who “did not wholly follow the
L
ord, as David his father had done.” Therefore YHWH said to Solomon:

“Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.” (
1
K
INGS
11
:
11
–
13
)

Thus the original promise to David was compromised—though not entirely suspended—by Solomon’s sin.

The second prophecy dealt with the “servant of Solomon” who would rule in place of David. He was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite, who served in the Solomonic administration as officer in charge of recruiting forced labor among the tribes of the north. One day on his way out of Jerusalem he was confronted by the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh, who ripped up the garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces, handing Jeroboam ten of the shreds. Ahijah’s prophecy was dramatic and fateful:

“Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the L
ORD
, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), because he has forsaken me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes; but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will hearken to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not for ever.’ ” (
1
K
INGS
11
:
31
–
39
)

Unlike the promise to David, God’s promise to Jeroboam was conditional: YHWH would secure his state only as long as he did what was right in the eyes of God. But he did not:

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and dwelt there; and he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
“Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David; if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan. (
1
K
INGS
12
:
25
–
30
)

The newly installed King Jeroboam soon received a shocking vision of doom. In the midst of officiating at the golden calf shrine of Bethel, at an autumn festival probably meant to divert pilgrims from the celebrations at Jerusalem, Jeroboam was confronted at the altar by a prophet-like figure who is identified in the biblical text only as “a man of God.”

And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the L
ORD
to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the L
ORD
, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the L
ORD
: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and men’s bones shall be burned upon you.’ ” (
1
K
INGS
13
:
1
–
2
)

This is an unparalleled prophecy, because the “man of God” revealed the name of a specific king of Judah who would, three centuries later, order the destruction of that very shrine, killing its priests and defiling its altar with their remains. It is something like reading a history of slavery written in seventeenth century colonial America in which there is a passage predicting the birth of Martin Luther King. And that is not all: Jeroboam was deeply shaken by the prophecy, and soon afterward his son Abijah fell ill. Jeroboam’s wife proceeded immediately to the old cult center at Shiloh to confer with the prophet Ahijah—the very prophet who had predicted that Jeroboam would soon reign as king of the northern tribes. Ahijah had no words of reassurance for the worried mother. Instead he issued the fourth prophecy, one of the most chilling the Bible contains:

“Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the L
ORD
, the God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader over my people Israel, and
tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you; and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, but you have done evil above all that were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and molten images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. Any one belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat; for the L
ORD
has spoken it.’ ” Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the L
ORD
, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the L
ORD
will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam today. And henceforth the L
ORD
will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the L
ORD
to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin.” (
1
K
INGS
14
:
7
–
16
)

The precision of the earlier prophecy of the “man of God” gives away the era when it was written. The Davidic king Josiah, who conquered and destroyed the altar at Bethel, lived at the end of the seventh century
BCE
. Why does a story that takes place in the late tenth century
BCE
need to bring in a figure from such a distant future? What is the reason for describing what a righteous king named Josiah will do? The answer is much the same as we suggested in explaining why the stories of the patriarchs, the Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan are overflowing with seventh century allusions. The inescapable fact is that the books of Kings are as much a passionate religious argument—written in the seventh century
BCE—
as they are works of history.

By that time the kingdom of Israel was already a fading memory, with its cities destroyed and large numbers of its inhabitants deported to far corners of the Assyrian empire. But Judah was, in the meantime, prospering
and developing territorial ambitions, claiming to be the only legitimate heir to the extensive territories of Israel. The ideology and theology of the late monarchic historian was based on several pillars, one of the most important of which was the idea that the Israelite cult must be totally centralized in the Temple in Jerusalem. The rival northern cult center at Bethel, not so far from Jerusalem, must have been seen as a threat even before the destruction of the northern kingdom. And worse, it was still active in the early seventh century, probably attracting people living in the territories of the ex–northern kingdom, most of them Israelites who did not go into exile. It posed a dangerous competition to the political, territorial, and theological ambitions of Judah in the days of King Josiah. And the inevitability of Israel’s fall—and Josiah’s triumph—became a central theme in the biblical account.