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Do not fill this in! === Bronze and Iron Ages === {{Main|History of ancient Israel and Judah}} {{further|Canaan|Israelites|Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Judah}} Early references to "Canaanites" and "Canaan" appear in Near Eastern and Egyptian texts (''c.'' 2000 BCE); these populations were structured as politically independent, territorially based [[city-state]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Canaanites |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0216.xml |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=obo |language=en |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403082451/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0216.xml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Glassman |first=Ronald M. |title=The Political Structure of the Canaanite City-States: Monarchy and Merchant Oligarchy |date=2017 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51695-0_49 |work=The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States |pages=473β477 |editor-last=Glassman |editor-first=Ronald M. |access-date=2023-12-01 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-51695-0_49 |isbn=978-3-319-51695-0}}</ref> During the [[Late Bronze Age]] (1550β1200 BCE), large parts of Canaan formed [[vassal state]]s paying tribute to the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Braunstein |first1=Susan L. |year=2011 |title=The Meaning of Egyptian-Style Objects in the Late Bronze Cemeteries of Tell el-FarΚΏah (South) |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=364 |issue=364 |pages=1β36 |doi=10.5615/bullamerschoorie.364.0001 |jstor=10.5615/bullamerschoorie.364.0001 |s2cid=164054005}}</ref> As a result of the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]], Canaan fell into chaos, and Egyptian control over the region collapsed.<ref>Dever, William G. ''Beyond the Texts'', Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2017, pp. 89β93</ref><ref>S. Richard, "Archaeological sources for the history of Palestine: The Early Bronze Age: The rise and collapse of urbanism", ''The Biblical Archaeologist'' (1987)</ref> A people named Israel appear for the first time in the [[Merneptah Stele]], an [[ancient Egypt]]ian inscription which dates to about 1200 BCE.<ref name="NollMerneptah">K.L. Noll, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hMeRK7B1EsMC&pg=PA139 ''Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: A Textbook on History and Religion,''] A&C Black, 2012, rev.ed. pp. 137ff.</ref><ref name="ThompsonMerneptah">[[Thomas L. Thompson]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=RwrrUuHFb6UC&pg=PA275 ''Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources,''] Brill, 2000 pp. 275β276: 'They are rather a very specific group among the population of Palestine which bears a name that occurs here for the first time that at a much later stage in Palestine's history bears a substantially different signification.'</ref>{{refn|group=fn |The [[Israel (name)|personal name "Israel"]] appears much earlier, in material from [[Ebla]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hasel |first=Michael G. |date=1 January 1994 |title=Israel in the Merneptah Stela |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=296 |issue=296 |pages=45β61 |doi=10.2307/1357179 |jstor=1357179 |s2cid=164052192}}<br/>* {{Cite book |last=Bertman |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1C4NKp4zgIQC&q=ebla%20israel%20ishmael%20abraham&pg=PA317 |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia |date=14 July 2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518364-1}}<br/>* {{cite book |author1=Meindert Dijkstra |title=Between Evidence and Ideology Essays on the History of Ancient Israel read at the Joint Meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study and the Oud Testamentisch Werkgezelschap Lincoln, July 2009 |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-18737-5 |editor1-last=Becking |editor1-first=Bob |editor1-link=Lester L. Grabbe |page=47 |chapter=Origins of Israel between history and ideology |quote=As a West Semitic personal name it existed long before it became a tribal or a geographical name. This is not without significance, though is it rarely mentioned. We learn of a maryanu named ysr"il (*YiΒ‘srβa"ilu) from Ugarit living in the same period, but the name was already used a thousand years before in Ebla. The word Israel originated as a West Semitic personal name. One of the many names that developed into the name of the ancestor of a clan, of a tribe and finally of a people and a nation. |editor2-last=Grabbe |editor2-first=Lester}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lemche |first1=Niels Peter |year=1998 |title=The Israelites in History and Tradition |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |url={{Google books|JIoY7PagAOAC|page=PA35|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |page=35|isbn=978-0-664-22727-2}}</ref> Ancestors of the [[Israelites]] are thought to have included [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples]] native to this area.<ref name="Miller1986">{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=James Maxwell |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill |title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah |last2=Hayes |first2=John Haralson |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-664-21262-9}}</ref>{{rp|78β79}} Modern archaeological accounts suggest that the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples through the development of a distinct [[Monolatry|monolatristic]]βand later [[Monotheism|monotheistic]]βreligion centered on [[Yahweh]].<ref>Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200β1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 6β7). Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's)</ref><ref>Rendsberg, Gary (2008). "Israel without the Bible". In Frederick E. Greenspahn. The Hebrew Bible: New Insights and Scholarship. NYU Press, pp. 3β5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gnuse |first1=Robert Karl |title=No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel |date=1997 |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press Ltd |isbn=978-1-85075-657-6 |pages=28, 31}}</ref> They spoke an archaic form of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], known as [[Biblical Hebrew]].<ref>Steiner, Richard C. (1997), "Ancient Hebrew", in Hetzron, Robert (ed.), ''The Semitic Languages'', Routledge, pp. 145β173, {{ISBN|978-0-415-05767-7}}</ref> Around the same time, the [[Philistines]] settled on the southern [[Israeli coastal plain|coastal plain]].{{sfn|Killebrew|2005|p=230}}{{sfn|Shahin|2005|p=6}} Modern [[archaeology]] has largely discarded [[Historicity of the Bible|the historicity]] of the narrative in the [[Torah]] concerning the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|patriarchs]], [[The Exodus]] and the tales of conquest in the [[Book of Joshua]], and instead views the narrative as the Israelites' [[national myth]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Dever |first=William |title=What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It? |year=2001 |publisher=Eerdmans |isbn=978-3-927120-37-2 |url={{Google books|6-VxwC5rQtwC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |pages=98β99 |quote=After a century of exhaustive investigation, all respectable archaeologists have given up hope of recovering any context that would make Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob credible "historical figures" [...] archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus has similarly been discarded as a fruitless pursuit.}}</ref> However, some elements of these traditions do appear to have historical roots.<ref>{{harvnb|Faust|2015|p=476}}: "While there is a consensus among scholars that the Exodus did not take place in the manner described in the Bible, surprisingly most scholars agree that the narrative has a historical core, and that some of the highland settlers came, one way or another, from Egypt.."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Redmount|2001|p=61}}: "A few authorities have concluded that the core events of the Exodus saga are entirely literary fabrications. But most biblical scholars still subscribe to some variation of the Documentary Hypothesis, and support the basic historicity of the biblical narrative."</ref><ref name=":03">{{cite book |last=Dever |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-VxwC5rQtwC |title=What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It? |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2001 |isbn=978-3-927120-37-2 |pages=98β99 |quote=After a century of exhaustive investigation, all respectable archaeologists have given up hope of recovering any context that would make Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob credible "historical figures" [...] archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus has similarly been discarded as a fruitless pursuit.}}</ref> [[File:Kingdoms of Israel and Judah map 830.svg|thumb|Map of [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]] and [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] in the 9th century BCE]] There is debate about the earliest existence of the [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Kingdoms of Israel and Judah]] and their extent and power. While it is unclear if there was ever a [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|United Kingdom of Israel]],<ref name="lipschits">{{cite book |last1=Lipschits |first1=Oded |title=The Jewish Study Bible |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-997846-5 |editor1-last=Berlin |editor1-first=Adele |edition=2nd |language=en |chapter=The History of Israel in the Biblical Period |editor2-last=Brettler |editor2-first=Marc Zvi |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yErYBAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 December 2018 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409160917/https://books.google.com/books?id=yErYBAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kuhrtp438">{{cite book |last=Kuhrt |first=Amiele |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientneareastc00akuh/page/438 |title=The Ancient Near East |publisher=Routledge |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-16762-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientneareastc00akuh/page/438 438]}}</ref> historians and archaeologists agree that the northern [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]] existed by {{Abbr|ca.|circa}} 900 BCE<ref name="Finkelstein">{{cite book |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |title=The Bible unearthed: archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its stories |last2=Silberman |first2=Neil Asher |date=2001 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-86912-4 |edition=1st Touchstone }}</ref>{{rp|169β195}}<ref name="Wright">{{cite web|last1=Wright|first1=Jacob L.|date=July 2014|title=David, King of Judah (Not Israel)|url=http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/07/wri388001.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301164250/http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/07/wri388001.shtml|archive-date=1 March 2021|access-date=15 May 2021|website=The Bible and Interpretation}}</ref> and the [[Kingdom of Judah]] by {{Abbr|ca.|circa}} 850 BCE.<ref name="Finkelstein, Israel, (2020)">Finkelstein, Israel, (2020). [https://books.google.com/books?id=wH3-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 "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..."</ref><ref name="Pitcher">[https://books.google.com/books?id=tu02muKUVJ0C&pg=PA229 The Pitcher Is Broken: Memorial Essays for Gosta W. Ahlstrom, Steven W. Holloway, Lowell K. Handy, Continuum, 1 May 1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409160404/https://books.google.com/books?id=tu02muKUVJ0C&pg=PA229 |date=9 April 2023 }} 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 734β733, are the earliest published to date."</ref> The Kingdom of Israel was the more prosperous of the two and soon developed into a regional power;<ref>{{harvnb|Finkelstein|Silberman|2002|pp=146β7}}: Put simply, while Judah was still economically marginal and backward, Israel was booming. ... In the next chapter we will see how the northern kingdom suddenly appeared on the ancient Near Eastern stage as a major regional power.</ref> during the [[Omride Dynasty|Omride dynasty]], it controlled [[Samaria]], [[Galilee]], the upper [[Jordan Valley]], the [[Sharon plain|Sharon]] and large parts of the [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Israel.|first=Finkelstein|title=The forgotten kingdom: the archaeology and history of Northern Israel|isbn=978-1-58983-910-6|page=74|oclc=949151323}}</ref> [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]], the capital, was home to one of the largest Iron Age structures in the Levant.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Finkelstein |first=Israel |title=The Forgotten Kingdom: the archaeology and history of Northern Israel |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-58983-911-3 |pages=65β66; 73; 78; 87β94 |oclc=880456140}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Finkelstein |first=Israel |date=1 November 2011 |title=Observations on the Layout of Iron Age Samaria |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=194β207 |doi=10.1179/033443511x13099584885303 |issn=0334-4355 |s2cid=128814117}}</ref> The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]].<ref name="Broshi 2001 174">{{cite book |last=Broshi |first=Maguen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etTUEorS1zMC&pg=PAPA174 |title=Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-84127-201-6 |page=174 |access-date=1 December 2018 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210203455/https://books.google.com/books?id=etTUEorS1zMC&pg=PAPA174 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Kingdom of Judah, with its capital in [[Jerusalem]], later became a [[client state]] of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]]. It is estimated that [[Demographic history of Palestine (region)|the region's population]] was around 400,000 in the [[Iron Age II]].<ref name=":42">Broshi, M., & Finkelstein, I. (1992). [https://www.academia.edu/40790691/M_Broshi_and_I_Finkelstein_The_Population_of_Palestine_in_Iron_Age_II_BASOR_287_1992_pp_47_60 "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305224039/https://www.academia.edu/40790691/M_Broshi_and_I_Finkelstein_The_Population_of_Palestine_in_Iron_Age_II_BASOR_287_1992_pp_47_60 |date=5 March 2023 }}. ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', ''287''(1), 47β60.</ref> In 587/6 BCE, following a [[Judah's revolts against Babylon|revolt in Judah]], King [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|besieged and destroyed Jerusalem]] and Solomon's Temple,<ref>{{harvnb|Finkelstein|Silberman|2002|p=307}}: "Intensive excavations throughout Jerusalem have shown that the city was indeed systematically destroyed by the Babylonians. The conflagration seems to have been general. When activity on the ridge of the City of David resumed in the Persian period, the-new suburbs on the western hill that had flourished since at least the time of Hezekiah were not reoccupied."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lipschits |first=Oded |date=1999 |title=The History of the Benjamin Region under Babylonian Rule |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=155β190 |doi=10.1179/tav.1999.1999.2.155 |issn=0334-4355}}</ref> dissolved the kingdom and exiled much of the Judean elite to [[Babylon]], beginning the [[Babylonian captivity]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wheeler |first=P. |date=2017 |title=Review of the book Song of Exile: The Enduring Mystery of Psalm 137, by David W. Stowe |journal=The Catholic Biblical Quarterly |volume=79 |issue=4 |pages=696β697 |doi=10.1353/cbq.2017.0092 |s2cid=171830838}}</ref> The defeat was recorded in the [[Babylonian Chronicles]].<ref name="BabylonianChronicles">{{cite web |title=British Museum β Cuneiform tablet with part of the Babylonian Chronicle (605β594 BCE) |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/c/cuneiform_nebuchadnezzar_ii.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030154541/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/c/cuneiform_nebuchadnezzar_ii.aspx |archive-date=30 October 2014 |access-date=30 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ABC 5 (Jerusalem Chronicle) β Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc5/jerusalem.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505195611/https://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc5/jerusalem.html |archive-date=5 May 2019 |access-date=26 March 2020 |website=livius.org}}</ref> After [[Fall of Babylon|capturing Babylon]] in 539 BCE, [[Cyrus the Great]], founder of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], issued a [[Edict of Cyrus|proclamation]] allowing the exiled Judean population to return to Judah.<ref name="rennert">{{cite web |title=Second Temple Period (538 BCE to 70 CE) Persian Rule |url=http://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_4.html |access-date=15 March 2014 |publisher=Biu.ac.il |archive-date=16 January 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990116222939/http://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_4.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>''Harper's Bible Dictionary'', ed. by Achtemeier, etc., Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985, p. 103</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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