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Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)

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"United Monarchy" redirects here. For the union of monarchies under a single sovereign, see Personal union.
Not to be confused with Kingdom of Israel (Samaria).

According to the Deuteronomistic history in the Hebrew Bible, a United Monarchy or United Kingdom of Israel[7] existed under the reigns of Saul, Ish-bosheth, David, and Solomon, encompassing the territories of both the later kingdoms of Judah and Israel.[8][9][10]

Kingdom of Israel
𐤉𐤔𐤓𐤀𐤋[1]
c. 1047 BCE–930 BCE
Land of Israel Shewing the Purveyorships in the Reign of Solomon, published by James Wyld in 1819 based on the Books of Kings
Land of Israel Shewing the Purveyorships in the Reign of Solomon, published by James Wyld in 1819 based on the Books of Kings
Common languagesHebrew, Aramaic
Religion
Demonym(s)Israelite
GovernmentHereditary theocratic absolute monarchy
Kings 
• 1047–1010 BCE
Saul
• 1010–1008
Ish-bosheth
• 1008–970
David
• 970–931
Solomon
• 931–930
Rehoboam
Historical eraIron Age
c. 1047 BCE
930 BCE
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Twelve Tribes of Israel
Kingdom of Israel
Kingdom of Judah
Today part of

Whether the United Monarchy existed—and, if so, to what extent—is a matter of ongoing academic debate.[11][12][13] During the 1980s, some biblical scholars began to argue that the archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before the late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed.[14][15] Scholars remain divided among those who support the historicity of the biblical narrative, those who doubt or dismiss it, and those who support the kingdom's theoretical existence while maintaining that the biblical narrative is exaggerated.[16] Proponents of the kingdom's existence traditionally date it to between c. 1047 BCE and c. 930 BCE.

In the 1990s, Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein contended that existing archaeological evidence for the United Monarchy in the 10th century BCE should be dated to the 9th century BCE.[17][18]: 59–61  This model placed the biblical kingdom in Iron Age I, suggesting that it was not functioning as a country under centralized governance but rather as tribal chiefdom over a small polity in Judah, disconnected from the north's Israelite tribes.[19][6][20][21] The rival chronology of Israeli archaeologist Amihai Mazar places the relevant period beginning in the early 10th century BCE and ending in the mid-9th century BCE, addressing the problems of the traditional chronology while still aligning pertinent findings with the time of Saul, David, and Solomon. Mazar's chronology and the traditional one have been fairly widely accepted,[22] though there is no current consensus on the topic.[23] Recent archaeological discoveries by Israeli archaeologists Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel in Jerusalem and Khirbet Qeiyafa, respectively, seem to support the existence of the United Monarchy, but the dating and identifications are not universally accepted.[18][24] The historicity of Solomon and his rule is also hotly debated. While the current consensus allows for a historical Solomon, it regards his reign as king over the United Monarchy in the tenth century BCE as uncertain and the biblical description of his apparent empire's lavishness as most probably a massive anachronistic exaggeration.[25][26][27]

According to the biblical account, on the succession of Solomon's son Rehoboam, the United Monarchy split into two separate kingdoms: the Kingdom of Israel in the north, containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria; and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, containing Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.

Archaeological record

Further information: History of the ancient Levant

In the 1980s, a few biblical scholars began to assert that the archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before the late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed.[14][15] In 1995 and 1996, Israel Finkelstein published two papers where he proposed a Low Chronology for the stratigraphy of Iron Age Israel. Finkelstein's model would push stratigraphic dates assigned by the conventional chronology by up to a century later, so Finkelstein concluded that much of the monumental architecture characterizing Israel in the 10th century BCE that biblical United Monarchy has been traditionally associated with instead belongs to the 9th century. Finkelstein wrote that "Accepting the Low Chronology means stripping the United Monarchy of monumental buildings, including ashlar masonry and proto-Ionic capitals"[28][29] According to Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, the authors of The Bible Unearthed, ideas of a united monarchy is not accurate history but "creative expressions of a powerful religious reform movement" that are possibly "based on certain historical kernels."[6][19] Finkelstein and Silberman accept that David and Solomon were real kings of Judah around the 10th century BCE, but they cite the fact that the earliest independent reference to the Kingdom of Israel dates to about 890 BCE and that to the Kingdom of Judah dates to about 750 BCE.[30] Some see the united monarchy as fabricated during the Babylonian Exile transforming David and Solomon from local folk heroes into rulers of international status.[31] Finkelstein has posited a potential United Monarchy under Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE, whereas the former one was potentially invented during the reign of Josiah to justify his territorial expansion.[32]

Finkelstein's views have been strongly criticized by Amihai Mazar; in response, Mazar proposed the Modified Conventional Chronology, which places the beginning of the Iron IIA period in the early 10th century and its end in the mid-9th century, solving the problems of the High Chronology while still dating the archeological discoveries to the 10th century BCE. Finkelstein's Low Chronology and views about the monarchy have received strong criticism from other scholars, including Amnon Ben-Tor, William G. Dever, Kenneth Kitchen, Doron Ben-Ami, Raz Kletter and Lawrence Stager.[33]

Though Amélie Kuhrt acknowledges that "there are no royal inscriptions from the time of the united monarchy (indeed very little written material altogether) and not a single contemporary reference to either David or Solomon," she concludes, "Against this must be set the evidence for substantial development and growth at several sites, which is plausibly related to the tenth century."[20] Kenneth Kitchen (University of Liverpool) reaches a similar conclusion, arguing that "the physical archaeology of tenth-century Canaan is consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its terrain."[34]

On August 4, 2005, archaeologist Eilat Mazar announced that she had discovered in Jerusalem what may have been the palace of King David.[35] Now referred to as the Large Stone structure, Mazar's discovery consists of a public building she dated from the 10th century BCE, a copper scroll, pottery from the same period, and a clay bulla, or inscribed seal, of Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, son of Shevi, an official mentioned at least twice in the Book of Jeremiah. In July 2008, she also found a second bulla, belonging to Gedaliah ben Pashhur, who is mentioned together with Jehucal in Jeremiah 38:1.[36] Amihai Mazar called the find "something of a miracle." He has said that he believes the building may be the Fortress of Zion that David is said to have captured. Other scholars are skeptical that the foundation walls are from David's palace.[35] Garfinkel also claimed to have discovered David's palace in 2013, 25 kilometres away, at Khirbet Qeiyafa.[37][38]

 
Aerial view of Khirbet Qeiyafa, an archaeological site in modern-day Israel (2008)

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, an Iron Age site in Judah, found an urbanized settlement radiocarbon dated well before scholars such as Finkelstein suggest that urbanization had begun in Judah, which supports the existence of an urbanized kingdom in the 10th century BCE. The Israel Antiquities Authority stated, "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date."[39] The techniques and interpretations to reach some conclusions related to Khirbet Qeiyafa have been criticized by some scholars, such as Finkelstein and Alexander Fantalkin.[40]

In 2010, archaeologist Eilat Mazar announced the discovery of part of the ancient city walls around the City of David, which she believes dates to the tenth century BCE. According to Mazar, "It's the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel," and "It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem, there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction." The 10th century is the period the Bible describes as the reign of King Solomon. Not all archaeologists agree with Mazar, and archaeologist Aren Maeir is dubious about such claims and Mazar's dating.[41]

In the Jewish Study Bible (2014), Oded Lipschits states the concept of United Monarchy should be abandoned,[19] while Aren Maeir believes there is insufficient evidence in support of the United Monarchy.[42] In August 2015, Israeli archaeologists discovered massive fortifications in the ruins of the ancient city of Gath, supposed birthplace of Goliath. The size of the fortifications shows that Gath was a large city in the 10th century BCE, perhaps the largest in Canaan at the time. The professor leading the dig, Aren Maeir, estimated that Gath was as much as four times the size of contemporary Jerusalem, which cast doubt that David's kingdom could have been as powerful as described in the Bible.[43]

In his book, The Forgotten Kingdom (2016), Israel Finkelstein considered that Saul, originally from the Benjamin territory, had gained power in his natal Gibeon region around the 10th century BCE and that he conquered Jerusalem in the south and Shechem to the north, creating a polity dangerous to Egypt's geopolitical intentions. So, Shoshenq I, from Egypt, invaded the territory and destroyed this new polity, and installed David of Bethlehem in Jerusalem (Judah) and Jeroboam I in Shechem (Israel) as small local rulers who were vassals of Egypt. Finkelstein concludes that the memory of a united monarchy was inspired by Saul's conquered territory serving first the ideal of a great united monarchy ruled by a northern king in the times of Jeroboam II and next to the idea of a united monarchy ruled from Jerusalem.[44]

In an article on the Biblical Archaeology Review, William G. Dever strongly criticized Finkelstein's theory, calling it full of "numerous errors, misrepresentations, over-simplifications and contradictions." Dever noted that Finkelstein proposes that Saul ruled a polity extending as far north as Jezreel and as far south as Hebron and reaching a border with Gath, with a capital located in Gibeon rather than Jerusalem. According to Dever, such a polity is a united monarchy in its own right, ironically confirming the biblical tradition. In addition, he rejected the notion that Gibeon was the capital of such polity since there is "no clear archaeological evidence of occupation in the tenth century, much less monumental architecture." Dever went as far as to dismiss Finkelstein's theory as "a product of his fantasy, stemmed by his obsession to prove that Saul, David and Solomon were not real kings and that the United Monarchy is an invention of a Judahite-biased biblical writer." Dever concluded by stating that "Finkelstein has not discovered a forgotten kingdom. He had invented it. The careful reader will nevertheless gain some insights into Israel—Israel Finkelstein, that is."[45][33]

Another more moderate review was written in the same magazine by Aaron Burke: Burke described Finkelstein's book as "ambitious" and praised its literary style but did not accept his conclusions: according to Burke, Finkelstein's thesis is mainly based on his proposed Low Chronology, ignoring the criticism that it has received from scholars like Amihai Mazar, Christopher Bronk Ramsey and others, and engages in several speculations that archeology, biblical and extrabiblical sources cannot prove. He also criticized him for persistently trying to downgrade the role of David in the development of ancient Israel.[33]

In his books, Beyond the Texts (2018) and Has Archeology Buried the Bible? (2020), William G. Dever has defended the historicity of the United Monarchy, maintaining that the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon are "reasonably well attested."[46] Similar arguments were advanced by Amihai Mazar in two essays written in 2010 and 2013, which point toward archaeological evidence emerged from excavation sites in Jerusalem by Eilat Mazar and in Khirbet Qeiyafa by Yosef Garfinkel.[47][48]

In 2018, archaeologist Avraham Faust announced that his excavations at Tel 'Eton (believed to be the biblical Eglon) had uncovered an elite house (which he referred to as "the governor's residency"), whose foundations were dated by carbon-14 analysis in the late 11th–10th century BCE, the time usually ascribed to Saul, David and Solomon. Such dating would strengthen the thesis that a centralized state existed at the time of David.[49][50]

Historical sources

Main articles: Books of Samuel and History of ancient Israel and Judah
Further information: Historicity of the Bible

According to mainstream source criticism, several contrasting source texts were spliced together to produce the current Books of Samuel.[21] The most prominent sections in the early parts of the first book come from a pro-monarchical source and from an anti-monarchical source. By identifying both sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed.

The anti-monarchical source describes Samuel, having thoroughly routed the Philistines, as begrudgingly accepting the people's demand for a ruler and appointing Saul by cleromancy.[citation needed]

The pro-monarchical source describes the divinely-appointed birth of Saul (a single word being changed by a later editor so that it referred to Samuel) and his leading of an army to victory over the Ammonites, which resulted in the people clamouring for him to lead them against the Philistines when he is appointed king.[51]

Many scholars believe that the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account. For example, the text mentions later armour (1 Samuel 17:4–7, 38–39; 25:13), the use of camels (1 Samuel 30:17), cavalry (as distinct from chariotry) (1 Samuel 13:5, 2 Samuel 1:6), and iron picks and axes (as if they were prevalent) (2 Samuel 12:31).[52][53][54]

Most scholars believe that the text of the Books of Samuel was compiled in the 8th century BCE - rather than in the 10th century when most of the events described took place - based on historical and legendary sources. The narrative served primarily to fill the gap in Israelite history after the events described in Deuteronomy.[55][56]

Biblical narrative

Further information: Historicity of the Bible

Origin

According to the biblical account, the united monarchy was formed when the elders of Israel expressed the desire for a king.[57] God and Samuel seem to have a distaste for the monarchy, with God telling Samuel that "[Israel has] rejected me, that I should not be king over them."[58] However, Samuel still proceeds with the establishment of a monarchy by anointing Saul.[59]

In the Second Book of Samuel, Saul's disobedience prompts Yahweh to curtail his reign and to hand his kingdom over to another dynasty, leading to Saul's death in battle against the Philistines.[60][61] His heir Ish-bosheth rules for only two years before being assassinated. Though David was only the King of Judah, he ends the conspiracy and is appointed King of Israel in Ish-bosheth's place. Some textual critics and biblical scholars suggest that David was responsible for the assassination and that his innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions.[62]

Israel rebels against David and crowns David's son Absalom. David is forced into exile east of the Jordan River[63] but eventually launches a successful counterattack, which results in the death of Absalom. Having retaken Judah and asserted control over Israel, David returns west of the Jordan.[64]

Golden age

Throughout the monarchy of Saul, the capital is in Gibeah. After Saul's death, Ish-bosheth rules over the Kingdom of Israel from Mahanaim, and David establishes the capital of the Kingdom of Judah in Hebron.[65]

After the civil war with Saul, David forges a powerful and unified Israelite monarchy and rules from c. 1000 to 961 BCE.[66] Some modern archaeologists, however, believe that the two distinct cultures and geographic entities of Judah and Israel continued uninterrupted, and if a political union between them existed, it might have had no practical effect on their relationship.[6]

In the biblical account, David embarks on successful military campaigns against the enemies of Judah and Israel and defeats such regional entities as the Philistines to secure his borders. Israel grows from kingdom to empire, its military and political sphere of influence expanding to control the weaker client states of Philistia, Moab, Edom and Ammon, with Aramaean city-states Aram-Zobah and Aram-Damascus becoming vassal states.[67]

David is succeeded by his son Solomon, who obtains the throne in a somewhat-disreputable manner from the rival claimant Adonijah, his elder brother.[68] Like David's Palace, Solomon's temple is designed and built with the assistance of Tyrian architects, skilled labourers, money, jewels, cedar and other goods obtained in exchange for land ceded to Tyre.[69]

Solomon goes on to rebuild numerous significant cities, including Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer. Some scholars have attributed aspects of archaeological remains excavated from these sites, including six-chambered gates and ashlar palaces, to the building programme. However, Israel Finkelstein's Low Chronology would propose to date them to the 9th century BCE. Yigael Yadin later concluded that the stables that had been believed to have served Solomon's vast collection of horses were built by King Ahab in the 9th century BCE.[70]

Collapse and split

Main articles: Jeroboam's Revolt, Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), and Kingdom of Judah
 
Map of Israel and Judah after the collapse of the United Monarchy, showing the Northern Kingdom in blue and the Southern Kingdom in gold (9th century BCE)

Following Solomon's death in c. 926 BCE, tensions between the northern part of Israel, containing the ten northern tribes, and the southern section, dominated by Jerusalem and the southern tribes, reached a boiling point. When Solomon's son and successor Rehoboam dealt tactlessly with economic complaints of the northern tribes, in about 930 BCE (there are differences of opinion as to the actual year), the Kingdom of Israel and Judah splits into two kingdoms: the northern Kingdom of Israel, which included the cities of Shechem and Samaria, and the southern Kingdom of Judah, which contained Jerusalem.[71]

The Kingdom of Israel (or the Northern Kingdom or Samaria) existed as an independent state until 722 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Kingdom of Judah (or the Southern Kingdom) existed as an independent state until 586 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire.[72]

Biblical chronology

Further information: Kings of Israel and Judah

Many alternative chronologies have been suggested, and there is no ultimate consensus between the different factions and scholarly disciplines concerned with the period as to when it is depicted as having begun or when it ended.[73][74][75]

Most biblical scholars follow either of the older chronologies established by American archaeologists William F. Albright and Edwin R. Thiele or the newer one by Israeli historian Gershon Galil. Thiele's chronology generally corresponds with Galil's chronology below, with a difference of one year at most.[76]

Monarch Albright–Thiele dates Galil dates Hebrew dates[77] Notes
House of Saul
Saul (שָׁאוּל‎; Šāʾūl) c. 1021–1000 BCE c. 1030–1010 BCE c. 3064/3094–3104 Committed suicide during the battle
Ish-bosheth (אֶשְׁבַּעַל‎; ʾEšbaʿal) c. 1000 BCE c. 1010–1008 BCE c. 3104-3106 Son of Saul and Ahinoam; assassinated
House of David
David (דָּוִד‎; Dāvīd) c. 1000–962 BCE c. 1008–970 BCE c. 3106/3112–3145 Son-in-law of Saul and brother-in-law of Ish-bosheth
Solomon (שְׁלֹמֹה‎; Šəlōmō) c. 962–922 BCE c. 970–931 BCE c. 3145–3185 Son of David and Bathsheba
Rehoboam (רְחַבְעָם‎; Rəḥavʿām) c. 922–921 BCE c. 931–930 BCE c. 3185 Son of Solomon and Naamah

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^

Citations

  1. ^
    • Rollston, Chris A. (2010). Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age. Society of Biblical Literature. pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-1-58983-107-0.
    • Compston, Herbert F. B. (1919). The Inscription on the Stele of Méšaʿ.
  2. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Ezekiel 8 – New International Version". Bible Gateway.
  3. ^ "1 Kings 11:5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Molech the abomination of the Ammonites". biblehub.com.
  4. ^ "2 Kings 23:13 The King also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites". biblehub.com.
  5. ^ "Jeremiah 11:13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah, and the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem". biblehub.com.
  6. ^ a b c d Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2001). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-86912-4.
  7. ^ Van der Veen, Peter (1989–90). "Early Monarchy in Israel" (PDF). Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum. 2. Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Science: 72–78.
  8. ^ Dever, Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah, SBL Press, 2017, pg. 349
  9. ^ Harvey, Graham (1996). The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, Inc. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-391-04119-6.
  10. ^ de Vaux, O.P., Roland (1997). Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. Translated by McHugh, John. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-4278-7.
  11. ^ Amihai Mazar, "Iron Age Chronology: A Reply to I. Finkelstein" Levant (1997), pp. 157–167
  12. ^ Amihai Mazar, "The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant" in (eds. Lvy & Higman) The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text, and Science (2005), pp. 15–30
  13. ^ Raz Kletter, "Chronology and United Monarchy: A Methodological Review", Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (2004), pp. 13–54
  14. ^ a b Garfinkel, Yossi; Ganor, Sa'ar; Hasel, Michael (19 April 2012). "Journal 124: Khirbat Qeiyafa preliminary report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  15. ^ a b Finkelstein, Israel; Fantalkin, Alexander (May 2012). "Khirbet Qeiyafa: an unsensational archaeological and historical interpretation" (PDF). Tel Aviv. 39: 38–63. doi:10.1179/033443512x13226621280507. S2CID 161627736. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  16. ^ Mazar, Amihai (2010). "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy". Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives: 29. For conservative approaches defining the United Monarchy as a state 'from Dan to Beer Sheba' including 'conquered kingdoms' (Ammon, Moab, Edom) and "spheres of influence" in Geshur and Hamath cf. e.g. Ahlström (1993), 455–542; Meyers (1998); Lemaire (1999); Masters (2001); Stager (2003); Rainey (2006), 159–168; Kitchen (1997); Millard (1997; 2008). For a total denial of the historicity of the United Monarchy cf., e.g. Davies (1992), 67–68; others suggested a 'chiefdom' comprising a small region around Jerusalem, cf. Knauf (1997), 81–85; Niemann (1997), 252–299 and Finkelstein (1999). For a 'middle of the road' approach, [proposing] a United Monarchy of [greater] territorial scope though smaller than the biblical description cf., e.g., Miller (1997); Halpern (2001), 229–262; Liverani (2005), 92–101. The latter recently suggested a state comprising the territories of Judah and Ephraim during the time of David, which was subsequently enlarged to include areas of northern Samaria and influence areas in Galilee and Transjordan. Na'aman (1992; 1996) once accepted the [fundamental] biography of David as authentic and later rejected the United Monarchy as a state, cf. id. (2007), 401–402.
  17. ^ Andrew Tobolowsky, "Israelite and Judahite History in Contemporary Theoretical Approaches," Currents in Biblical Research (2018), pg. 40
  18. ^ a b Thomas, Zachary (22 April 2016). "Debating the United Monarchy: Let's See How Far We've Come". Biblical Theology Bulletin. 46 (2): 59–69. doi:10.1177/0146107916639208. ISSN 0146-1079. S2CID 147053561.
  19. ^ a b c Lipschits, Oded (2014). "The history of Israel in the biblical period". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 2107–2119. ISBN 978-0-19-997846-5. As this essay will show, however, the pre monarchic period long ago became a literary description of the mythological roots, the early beginnings of the nation and the way to describe the right of Israel on its land. Though the archeological evidence also does not support the existence of a united monarchy under David and Solomon as described in the Bible, meaning the rubric of "united monarchy" is best abandoned, it remains useful for discussing how the Bible views the Israelite past. [...] Although the kingdom of Judah is mentioned in some ancient inscriptions, they never suggest that it was part of a unit comprised of Israel and Judah. There are no extrabiblical indications of a united monarchy called "Israel."
  20. ^ a b Kuhrt, Amélie (1995). The Ancient Near East, c. 3000–330 BC, Band 1. New York: Routledge. p. 438. ISBN 978-0-41516-762-8.
  21. ^ a b Wright, Jacob L. (July 2014). "David, King of Judah (not Israel)". The Bible and Interpretation.
  22. ^ Faust, Avraham; Garfinkel, Yosef; Mumcuoglu, Madeleine (2021). «The Study of the 10th Century BCE in the Early 21st Century CE: An Overview». Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 1: 1-14. "The sophisticated methods of data collection and analysis that resulted from the debate significantly narrowed the chronological gap between the schools, leading most scholars to follow various versions of the traditional, or modified, chronology (e.g., Stager 2003; Mazar 2011; Katz and Faust 2014; Garfinkel et al. 2015; 2019; Dever 2017; Faust and Sapir 2018; Ortiz 2018; Master 2019)"
  23. ^ Lester Grabbe, Ancient Israel, 2017, pg. 84
  24. ^ "Crying King David: Are the ruins found in Israel really his palace?". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 July 2021. Not all agree that the ruins found in Khirbet Qeiyafa are of the biblical town Sha'arayim, let alone the palace of ancient Israel's most famous King
  25. ^ Grabbe, Lester. The Dawn of Israel: A History of Canaan in the Second Millennium BCE. 2023. T&T Clark. p. 255-259. “It is essentially a folktale about an Eastern potentate – it is royal legend or Königsnovelle.” “Thus, it looks difficult to discover much in the Solomon story that strikes the critical reader as likely to be historical.” “[T]he temple story has been inflated into a legendary extravaganza.” “[T]he Solomon story is the most problematic of those relating to the early Israelite kings, providing the thickest cloud of obscurity over the history that lies behind it.”
  26. ^ Dever, William G. (2021). "Solomon, Scripture, and Science: The Rise of the Judahite State in the 10th Century BCE". Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology. 1: 102–125. doi:10.52486/01.00001.4. ISSN 2788-8819.
  27. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2006). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Free Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780743243629.
  28. ^ Israel Finkelstein, "The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: an Alternative View," Levant (1996). See pg. 185 for the quote.
  29. ^ Israel Finkelstein, "The Date of the Settlement of the Philistines in Canaan," Tel Aviv (1995), pp. 213–239
  30. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-416-55688-6.
  31. ^ Tubb, Jonathan (2006). Canaanites. London: The British Museum Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7141-2766-8.
  32. ^ David, Ariel (27 March 2019). "Meet the Real King David, the One the Bible Didn't Want You to Know About". Haaretz. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  33. ^ a b c Dever, William G.; Burke, Aaron (2 July 2014). "Divided Kingdom, United Critics". Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  34. ^ Kitchen, K. A. (9 June 2006). On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-0396-2.
  35. ^ a b Steven Erlanger, "King David's Palace Is Found, Archaeologist Says", The New York Times, August 5, 2005.
  36. ^ "Unique biblical discovery at City of David excavation site". Israel Ministry of Foreign affairs. 18 August 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2009. The identifications of the four biblical figures in these two bullae, namely, Jehucal, Shelemiah, Gedaliah, and Pashhur, are affirmed to be strong identifications in Lawrence Mykytiuk, "Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible," Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 40, issue 2 (March/April 2014), p. 47 (persons 31–34) and p. 49, with endnotes on all 50 persons, including persons 31–34, freely available online at http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/50-people-in-the-bible-confirmed-archaeologically/comment-page-1/#comments. Earlier, these four identifications were very reasonable in Lawrence J. Mykytiuk, "Corrections and Updates to 'Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200–539 BCE,'" Maarav 16/1 (2009), pp. 85–100, which is freely available online at https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_research/129/.
  37. ^ Schultz, Colin (22 July 2013). "Archaeologists Just Found the Biblical King David's Palace. Maybe". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  38. ^ Mazar, Eilat (12 May 2017). "Did I Find King David's Palace?". Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved 12 March 2020. My position, to put it mildly, had not received [wide] support from the archaeological community. Indeed, quite the opposite was the case;
  39. ^ Garfinkel, Yossi; Ganor, Sa'ar; Hasel, Michael (19 April 2012). "Journal 124: Khirbat Qeiyafa preliminary report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  40. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Fantalkin, Alexander (May 2012). "Khirbet Qeiyafa: an unsensational archaeological and historical interpretation" (PDF). Tel Aviv. 39: 38–63. doi:10.1179/033443512x13226621280507. S2CID 161627736. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  41. ^ Selig, Abe (23 February 2009). "Jerusalem city wall dates back to King Solomon". Jerusalem Post.
  42. ^ Maeir, Aren M. (2014). "Archeology and the Hebrew Bible". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 2125. ISBN 978-0-19-997846-5. Archeological evidence for the early stages of the monarchy is minimal at best. [...] In any case, the lack of substantive epigraphic materials from this early stage of the Iron Age II (after 1000 BCE) and other extensive archeological evidence indicate that even if an early united monarchy existed, its level of political and bureaucratic complexity was not as developed as the biblical text suggests. The mention of the "House of David" in the Tel Dan inscription dates to the mid/late 9th c. BCE does not prove the existence of an extensive Davidic kingdom in the early 10th c. BCE but does indicate a Judean polity during the 9th c. that even then associated its origin with David. [...] Although there is archeological and historical evidence (from extrabiblical documents) [to support] various events of the monarchical period (especially the later period) recorded in the Bible, there is little [...] evidence corroborating the biblical depiction of early Israelite or Judean history.
  43. ^ Hasson, Nir (4 August 2015). "Philistine city of Gath a lot more powerful than thought, archaeologists suggest". Haaretz. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  44. ^ 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, pp. 43–51.
  45. ^ William G Dever, Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah, SBL Press, 2017, pg. 319. Also, see pg. 381, n. 135
  46. ^ Dever, William G. (18 August 2020). Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-5949-5. Finkelstein's low chronology, never followed by [most] mainstream scholars, is a house of cards. Yet it is the only reason for attributing our copious tenth-century-BCE archaeological evidence of a united monarchy to the ninth-century BCE. Finkelstein himself seems to have doubts. Originally, he insisted that no Judean state emerged until the eighth century BCE. Then it was the ninth century BCE. Eventually, he posited a tenth-century BCE 'Saulide polity' with its 'hub' at Gibeon—not Jerusalem, and not Solomon, only his predecessor! But there is absolutely no archaeological evidence for such an imaginary kingdom. Finkelstein's [extreme] scenario is clever but not convincing. It should be ignored. The reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon are reasonably well attested.
  47. ^ Mazar, Amihai (2014). "Archaeology and the Bible: Reflections on Historical Memory in the Deuteronomistic History". Congress Volume Munich 2013: 347–369. doi:10.1163/9789004281226_015. ISBN 978-90-04-28122-6. The continuous debate concerning the evaluation of the United Monarchy as a historical entity cannot be resolved unequivocally by archaeology due to the current disagreements among archaeologists regarding the interpretation of the evidence. In my view, when [accounting for] the combined evidence presented above, [along with] previous papers, we cannot simply deny the existence of such an entity. [Defining and explaining] this state in the tenth century is [up for] debate. In previous papers, I explained David's kingdom as a tribal state that emerged during a political vacuum in most of the southern Levant caused by the great weakness of the earlier Canaanite population and the increase in the Israelite population in the highlands. This background, combined with personal qualities and a small but effective military force, may have enabled David to create a substantial political and military power, [possibly including] large parts of the country.
  48. ^ Mazar, Amihai (2010). "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy". Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives: 29.
  49. ^ Faust, Avraham; Sapir, Yair (2018). "The "Governor's Residency" at Tel 'Eton, The United Monarchy, and the Impact of the Old-House Effect on Large-Scale Archaeological Reconstructions". Radiocarbon. 60 (3): 801–820. Bibcode:2018Radcb..60..801F. doi:10.1017/RDC.2018.10. S2CID 134281901.
  50. ^ Amanda Borschel-Dan. "Proof of King David? Not yet. But riveting site shores up roots of Israelite era". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  51. ^ Jones, Gwilym H. (2001). "1 and 2 Samuel". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. pp. 197–199. ISBN 978-0-19875-500-5.
  52. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Mazar, Amihay; International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. Colloquium (24 October 2007). The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel. Society of Biblical Lit. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-58983-277-0.
  53. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (6 March 2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. Simon and Schuster. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-7432-2338-6.
  54. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (3 April 2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Simon and Schuster. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-7432-4363-6.
  55. ^ Sweeney, Marvin A. (2023). 1 – 2 Samuel. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge University Press. pp. 8–16. ISBN 978-1-108-47261-6.
  56. ^ Cf. Kalimi, Isaac (29 November 2018). Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-1-108-58837-9.
  57. ^ 1 Samuel 8:4 - 1 Samuel 8:5
  58. ^ 1 Samuel 8:7
  59. ^ 1 Samuel 10:1
  60. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: 1 Samuel 31 - English Standard Version". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  61. ^ Lemaire, Andre. "King Saul". My Jewish Learning. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014.
  62. ^ Stanley Jerome Isser (January 2003). The Sword of Goliath: David in Heroic Literature. BRILL. pp. 152–. ISBN 978-90-04-12737-1.
  63. ^ "2 Samuel 15 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  64. ^ "2 Samuel 19 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  65. ^ "2 Samuel 2 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  66. ^ Boling, Robert G., ed. (1975). Judges (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. XXI. ISBN 978-0-300-13945-7.
  67. ^ 2 Sam 8:1–14
  68. ^ "1 Kings 1 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  69. ^ "1 Kings 7 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  70. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Mazar, Amihay (2007). The Quest for the Historical Israel. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-58983-277-0.
  71. ^ "1 Kings 12 NIV - - Bible Gateway".
  72. ^ Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)
  73. ^ Shanks, Hershel (2010). Ancient Israel (3rd ed.). Pearson. ISBN 978-0-205-09643-5.
  74. ^ Friedman, Richard (1987). Who Wrote The Bible. HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-063035-5.
  75. ^ Bloom, Harold (2004). The Book of J. Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-4191-0.
  76. ^ Kenneth Kitchen, How We Know When Solomon Ruled: Israel's Kings, BAR September/October 2001
  77. ^ "Israel's Kings and Prophets". Bible Timeline.

Sources

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