The Story of Ancient Israel: The Rise & Fall of Kingdoms
The story of Israel and its scriptures begins with the rise of the United Monarchy around 1000 BCE, when for about 78 years we have the entire country united. Unity doesn't last long; around 922, the country splits into a larger northern portion (Israel or Ephraim) and a smaller southern portion (Judah or Judea). But just as Egypt had been a threat in earlier centuries, these small countries face threats from other Empires in the centuries that follow. First the Neo-Assyrian Empire from northern Iraq destroys Israel in 722 and beseiges southern cities like Lachish (the relief to the right depicting the conquest of Lachish is from the Assyrian King Sennacherib's palace). In 622, the Assyrians pull back to the Tigris-Euphrates river valley to battle the newly emergent Babylonians in southern Iraq, and King Josiah in Jerusalem siezes the opportunity to reunite Israel and Judah. But within 13 years, the young king is killed in battle, and the entire country falls in a much more devastating defeat to the Babylonian Empire in 587 BCE. The Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and its first Temple. Fifty years later, the Persian Empire defeats the Babylonians and allows the Jewish exiles to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple and society, but under their control. They in turn are defeated by the Greek or Hellenistic Empire under Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, and ultimately the Roman Empire would take control of the region in 63 BCE. The Jewish people would not have an autonomous nation again until 1948, apart from a brief window of about 100 years from 164–63 BCE under the Hasmonean dynasty.
Today our focus will be to map these historical events to two layers of the biblical text: to the tales told (the stories in the books) and to the telling of those tales by their original authors. We will see that the stories are often fictions about the past, but are told in service of creating meaning, community and hope in the author's present (= social semiotics). As you finish Knight and Levine's chapter:
Be able to identify on a timeline the ostensible dates of the Exodus and the rise of the United Monarchy, as well as the verifiable dates for the beginning and end of the Northern Kingdom Israel (based in Samaria), the fall of the southern Kingdom Judah (based in Jerusalem) as well as the sequence of empires ruling the region from 722 to the birth of Jesus (see The Meaning of the Bible pp. 8 and 28, and the timeline passed out in class last week).
Be able to discuss the point of view (really, points of view) that is/are present in the biblical text, according to Knight and Levine pp. 25-6.
Assigned Readings
Secondary: Knight & Levine, The Meaning of the Bible chapter 1, pp. 22-41; online class prep
Douglas Knight is the Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Hebrew Bible Emeritus and retired Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderilt University Divinity School in Tenessee.
Amy-Jill Levine is the University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Profesor of New Testament Studies, and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderilt University Divinity School in Tenessee. She is a specialist in the Christian Gospel of Matthew and in feminist studies, and is an Orthodox Jew. She will also be our guide through the parables of Jesus when we turn to the New Testament.
Further Reading
Cline, Eric H. Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Grant, Michael. The History of Ancient Israel. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012. (our library has the original 1984 edition)
Miller, J. Maxwell and John H. Hayes. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 2nd ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006. (our library has the original 1986 edition)
The Bible's Buried Secrets - A great NOVA Science Documentary that traces archaeological discoveries from the Middle East and explores how they both correspond to and diverge from the biblical accounts. Originally aired on 25 March 2015 on PBS. The accompanying web site has an interactive timeline that plots the archaeological evidence corresponding to (and diverging from) the biblical record used in our class slides this week.
1.45.43
The Siege of Lachish - A video tour of the 7th-century BCE alabaster panels from Sennacherib's palace, now displayed in the British Museum. There's no accompanying script, but you can "read the story" of the siege of Lachish from the artwork itself: the rows of archers, the siege engines and ballistics, the capture and impalement of its people, the captives' degrading march back to Nineveh, and their obeisance to Sennacherib. For more on the reliefs, click on the title above.
1.44
Acknowledgements
Image adapted from a sketch of the alabaster relief of the siege of Lachish on the walls of Room XXXVI of Assyrian King Sennacherib's South-West Palace at Nineveh, now housed at the British Museum. Image downloaded from "Lachish: Ancient Jewish City is [sic] Southern Judah," (Bruce K. Satterfield, REL 302 Old Testament), BYU Idaho (n.d.), online, http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/
Rel302/Lachish/Lachish.htm, accessed 8 July 2015.
The story of Israel and its scriptures begins with the rise of the United Monarchy around 1000 BCE, when for about 78 years we have the entire country united. Unity doesn't last long; around 922, the country splits into a larger northern portion (Israel or Ephraim) and a smaller southern portion (Judah or Judea). But just as Egypt had been a threat in earlier centuries, these small countries face threats from other Empires in the centuries that follow. First the Neo-Assyrian Empire from northern Iraq destroys Israel in 722 and beseiges southern cities like Lachish (the relief to the right depicting the conquest of Lachish is from the Assyrian King Sennacherib's palace). In 622, the Assyrians pull back to the Tigris-Euphrates river valley to battle the newly emergent Babylonians in southern Iraq, and King Josiah in Jerusalem siezes the opportunity to reunite Israel and Judah. But within 13 years, the young king is killed in battle, and the entire country falls in a much more devastating defeat to the Babylonian Empire in 587 BCE. The Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and its first Temple. Fifty years later, the Persian Empire defeats the Babylonians and allows the Jewish exiles to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple and society, but under their control. They in turn are defeated by the Greek or Hellenistic Empire under Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, and ultimately the Roman Empire would take control of the region in 63 BCE. The Jewish people would not have an autonomous nation again until 1948, apart from a brief window of about 100 years from 164–63 BCE under the Hasmonean dynasty.
