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The Oxford History Of the Holy Land
‘Three great world faiths have invested so many hopes and passions in
one relatively small part of the eastern Mediterranean seaboard and its
hinterland, that there are risks even in calling it by a single name. This
collective study of the “God-trodden land” is a richly informative, reliable,
and sane guide to its troubled history: one valuable contribution to
crafting it a more peaceful present and future.’
Diarmaid MacCulloch, University of Oxford
‘This book is a feast for lovers of the Holy Land. Serious and scholarly
with substantial bibliography’
Bible Lands, Winter 2019
‘The Oxford History of the Holy Land fills a valuable place on the shelf of
anyone interested in a more general overview of the significance of the
Holy Land.…The authors do an admirable job of giving a modern
academic historical overview that reconciles modern historical
perspectives with traditional views informed by different religious faiths.'
Neil Xavier O'Donoghue, Irish Theological Quarterly
‘One-stop shopping for tourists, graduate students, and Sunday school
teachers seeking reliable historical information.'
Kirkus Reviews
‘This is a remarkably elegant book, with its physical elegance matched by
a corresponding elegance of content provided by noted and highly
respected contemporary scholars in the archaeology and history of the
biblical period of the Holy Land.'
Dale E. Luffman, Association of Mormon Letters
Contents
List of Maps
Introduction
1. The Birth of Israel
Avraham Faust
2. Iron Age: Tribes to Monarchy
Lester L. Grabbe
3. Israel and Judah, c.931–587 bce
André Lemaire
4. Babylonian Exile and Restoration, 587–325 bce
H. G. M. Williamson
5. The Hellenistic and Roman Era
John J. Collins
6. A Christian Holy Land, 284–638 ce
Konstantin Klein
7. The Coming of Islam
Milka Levy-Rubin
8. The Holy Land in the Crusader and Ayyubid Periods, 1099–1250
Carole Hillenbrand
9. The Holy Land from the Mamluk Sultanate to the Ottoman
Empire, 1260–1799
Nimrod Luz
10. From Napoleon to Allenby: The Holy Land and the Wider Middle
East
Robert Fisk
11. Pilgrimage
Peter Walker with Robert G. Hoyland
12. Sacred Spaces and Holy Places
Richard S. Hess and Denys Pringle
13. Scripture and the Holy Land
Adam Silverstein
Further Reading
Index
List of Maps
Chronological Framework
Archaeological Background
While the Israelite identity of the settlers was not questioned until
recently, there was a major debate on the process through which the
settlements came to be. Albrecht Alt, a German biblical scholar,
noted as long ago as 1925 that there is a discrepancy between the
description of a military conquest of the entire country, as depicted
in the main narratives in the book of Joshua, and the situation on
the ground following the conquest as described in the narratives in
the books of Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and the descriptions of the
remaining land in Joshua 13:1–7, Judges 1:27–35, in which the
Israelites settled only parts of the country, mainly in the highlands.
Moreover, from the Egyptian sources that relate to Late Bronze Age
Canaan prior to the appearance of the Israelites, it appears that the
Canaanite centres of settlement were concentrated in the valleys,
the Shephelah (the low-lying region between the Judean hill country
and the coastal plain), and the coast, whereas the highlands were
only sparsely settled prior to the Israelite settlement. Comparing the
Late Bronze Age Canaanite settlement distribution with that of the
later Israelite settlement made it clear, argued Alt, that the Israelites
settled in less hospitable regions that were largely devoid of
Canaanite settlement anyway. This picture, of settlement in sparsely
populated and inhospitable regions, does not correspond with a
military conquest in which the conquerors annihilate the entire
country and can settle wherever they choose, but rather with a more
peaceful, and mostly non-confrontational process in which the
Israelites occupied the sparsely settled regions of the country simply
because they were not populated and so were available for
settlement. Alt, therefore, concluded that the Israelite settlement
was a long, gradual, and mainly peaceful process, in which pastoral
groups crossed the Jordan in search of pastoral lands, and gradually
settled in the relatively empty parts of the country.
While the process was mainly peaceful, it was accompanied by
occasional confrontations and wars. Towards the end of the Iron
Age, when Israel’s national history was composed in Jerusalem (by
the so-called Deuteronomistic school, that was probably active from
the seventh century bce onward), the various traditions that
commemorated the warring episodes (some historical, some clearly
more mythical in origin) were combined into the monumental history
of Israel. This period of Israel’s history was situated between the
Exodus and the period of the Judges, and attributed to a local hero
of the tribe of Ephraim: Joshua. According to Alt, therefore, the
conquest that is described in the book of Joshua never actually
happened. Due to the way it reconstructs the settlement process,
this school of thought is often called the peaceful infiltration school
(or theory).
William F. Albright, sometimes regarded as the doyen of biblical
archaeology in its golden age between the two World Wars, strongly
opposed this view. He claimed that the story in Joshua is historical,
at least in its general outlines, and that the Israelite tribes did
conquer Canaan by force. Albright introduced archaeology into the
debate, and argued that archaeological inquiry can prove the
historicity of the conquest. He suggested that scholars should
excavate Canaanite cities (mainly those mentioned in the conquest
narratives), and should the Late Bronze Age occupation be
devastated towards the end of this period, it would suggest that the
conquest traditions are historical. Albright went on to excavate the
mound of Tell Beit Mirsim in the southeastern (inner) Shephelah, and
was involved in additional projects, where evidence for violent
destruction of the Canaanite cities of the Late Bronze Age was
indeed unearthed. In light of its acceptance of the historicity of the
main narratives in the book of Joshua, this school came to be known
as the unified conquest school (or theory).
The debate between these two schools continued throughout
most of the twentieth century, more and more scholars joining in,
with figures like the German biblical scholar Martin Noth and the
Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni taking the leading role in the
peaceful infiltration school, and the American biblical scholar and
archaeologist George E. Wright, the American biblical scholar John
Bright, and the Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin taking the leading
role in the unified conquest school. Members of the latter school
stressed the sites in which the Canaanite cities were devastated and
destroyed around the end of the Late Bronze Age (e.g. Tell Beit
Mirsim, Hazor, Lachish, Bethel, and many others), while their
opponents emphasized the sites which did not even exist at the time
(e.g. Arad, ‘Ai, Jericho), and the large gap between the destruction
of some of the sites that were destroyed—about a century separates
the destruction of Hazor and Lachish—which does not allow these
destructions to be attributed to a single campaign.
Notably, while these two schools were the dominant ones during
most of the twentieth century, additional theories developed over
the years. In the 1960s, and mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, a new
approach was developed (mainly by George Mendenhall and Norman
Gottwald), which viewed the settlers as being mainly of Canaanite
descent, and as local peasants who rebelled against their overlords,
and fled to the highlands, where they met a small group of people
who did come from Egypt, and together they formed ‘liberated
Israel’. Although this view—called the peasants’ revolt or social
revolution—was not directly supported by many scholars, it greatly
influenced research and, indirectly at least, altered the academic
discourse.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s an even newer approach was
developed (separately, and with some differences) by the Israeli
scholars Israel Finkelstein and Shlomo Bunimovitz, who noted that
when viewed in the long term the settlement process of Iron Age I
was only part of a larger cyclic process of settlement and
abandonment in the highlands. This approach, which resulted from
the systematic study of the discoveries made in the many
archaeological surveys conducted in the highlands, noted that during
the Early Bronze Age (third millennium bce) the highlands were
densely settled, but that settlement declined drastically in the
Intermediate Bronze Age (late third millennium). Large-scale
settlement was resumed in the early second millennium (Middle
Bronze Age), but the new settlement phase persisted for only a
relatively short period of time, and during the Late Bronze Age, as
we have seen, settlement in the highlands was again very sparse.
Then, in Iron Age I, large-scale settlement in the highlands was
resumed. Identifying this pattern, it was argued, put the settlement
wave of Iron Age I in general, and Israel’s emergence in particular,
within a broader perspective, so that it should not be viewed as a
unique event, but rather as part of the cyclic process of settlement
and abandonment in the highlands. Moreover, Finkelstein argued
that settlement abandonment and decline (as between the Middle
Bronze and the Late Bronze Ages) does not mean that the
inhabitants died or left the region, but rather that they abandoned
their settled way of life, and became semi-nomads within the very
same region. Movement along the settlement–nomadic spectrum is a
well-known phenomenon in the Middle East. Nomadism occurs when
settlers change their main economic mode, increase their herds,
leave the permanent settlement and come to rely mainly on their
herds for subsistence. When the populations’ livelihood is based on
nomadic pastoralism, argued Finkelstein, they do not leave many
material remains—hence the rarity of finds attributed to this era in
the highlands. Such phenomena are known in the Middle East in
various periods, even for reasons as mundane as overtaxation and
recruitment to the army. The reason the Middle Bronze Age settlers
in the highlands might have reverted to a more nomadic way of life
does not concern us here, but according to the new theory the
population remained as nomads in the highlands during the
following centuries, only to resettle in the late thirteenth and twelfth
centuries bce. Thus, according to this view, the settlers were not
outsiders, but rather local pastoral nomads who settled down after a
few hundred years of a pastoral livelihood that did not leave much
by way of remains in the archaeological record of the highlands. Due
to its reference to long-term processes, and following its explicit
reference to the French Annales School, this approach is sometimes
called the ‘longue durée’ approach, or the ‘cyclic process’.
The last two schools of thought (the ‘social revolution’ and the
‘longue durée’ perspectives) viewed the settlers, or most of them at
least, as ‘local’ people (whether semi-nomads or settled population)
who lived in the region for many generations, and who for various
reasons settled down in the highlands (or moved there from the
lowlands, but not from outside Cisjordan). This new trend towards
viewing the settlers as ‘locals’, and not as a new population coming
from the outside, eventually led to the development of a new school
(‘approach’ would probably be a more accurate term), which viewed
the highland settlers as Canaanites, who for some reason simply
moved into the highlands and established new villages there.
According to this latter view the settlers were not revolting peasants
or settling nomads, but rather agriculturalists from the lowlands.
This last approach is best described as evolutionary.
As for the best name to call the settlers, views differed greatly.
Many called them Israelites, as the Merneptah stela clearly indicates
that Israel was in existence at the time. Others challenged the
‘Israeliteness’ of the settlers, suggesting that we cannot distinguish
Israelites from other groups that according to the Bible settled in the
highlands, viewing the settlers simply as Canaanites. Alternatively, a
large number of scholars followed the lead of the American scholar
William G. Dever in calling the settlers Proto-Israelites,
acknowledging that their later descendants were indeed Israelites,
but leaving the settlers’ identity in Iron Age I, and that of the Israel
that was mentioned in the Egyptian inscription, as an open question.
Israel’s Emergence
As noted above, the evidence seems to suggest that the first group
of settlers was indeed an outsider group—probably of Shasu, as we
shall see later in this section, coming from somewhere in the east or
south. This group most likely crossed the Jordan peacefully, over a
period of time, while interacting with the local sedentary Canaanite
population, exchanging their herd product surpluses with grains
produced by the sedentary population, and supplementing their own
seasonal agriculture. This involved limited hostility, but only rarely
full-scale clashes. After some time, however, the pastoral groups
faced a very strong opposition from the Egyptian-Canaanite city-
state system in the region. The Egyptian Empire strengthened its
hold over the region at this time, and consequently prevented these
pastoral groups from interacting with the city-states of the lowlands.
The pastoralist Shasu, therefore, had to settle down in the relatively
vacant areas of the highlands, and to grow their own grains, since
they could not exchange it anymore with the settled population of
the lowlands. The Shasu, however, were not alone. Additional groups
of outcasts and displaced Canaanites were also shunned, and most
likely joined them in the process. Identities are always created in
contrast to other identities, and the highland settlers formed their
identity vis-à-vis the Egyptian-Canaanite system of the lowlands.
They took customs that they already practised, and which sharply
contrasted with the practices of the lowlanders, and made them into
symbols or ‘flags’ around which they could gather and strengthen
their difference from their ‘enemies’ or their ‘other’. Thus, while the
Late Bronze Age Canaanite societies made extensive use of
decoration on pottery and of imported ceramics for delivering
messages related to status and identity, it was no great
inconvenience for the pastoral population, who as far as we know
did not use decorated and imported pottery anyway (or, at least,
used it only sparsely) to make this avoidance into a binding type of
behaviour that could be used to mark the contrast between
themselves and the population of Egyptian-ruled Canaan. The very
traits chosen by the highlanders to mark their boundaries with the
lowlanders are in line with them being Shasu, and they clearly reflect
non-Canaanite habits (Canaanite groups did not completely avoid
decoration, but used differentiated styles of decoration to mark
themselves as different from other groups). A similar phenomenon
can be seen in the poor ceramic assemblage used by the settlers. It
is likely that the pastoral population used a very limited repertoire
prior to their settlement, and it is likely that this habit was now used
to demarcate the differences between the settlers in the highlands
and the Canaanite population. Similarly, various lines of evidence
(including what was apparently a Shasu cemetery that was
unearthed in Transjordan) suggest that the semi-nomadic Shasu
buried their dead in simple inhumations in the ground. This contrasts
with the elaborated and varied burials of Late Bronze Age Canaan,
and this difference was no doubt also used to demarcate the
boundaries between the groups.
An interesting common denominator to all the above traits is that
they appear to reflect an ethos, or an ideology, of simplicity or
egalitarianism. Such an ideology sharply contrasted with the ethos of
the Canaanite society of the Late Bronze Age and the hierarchical
Egyptian ruling system, as reflected in both the period’s material
culture as well as the Egyptian sources. This contrast served the
settlers well, as it stressed the differences between themselves and
the Egypto-Canaanite system that pushed them to the highlands.
Under such circumstances, in which the highlands were settled and
isolated from the lowland settlement, the core Shasu group could
easily have adopted some other groups that were similarly shunned
by the lowland system, with all these groups united ‘against’ their
common enemy or ‘other’, the Egypto-Canaanite system of the
lowlands. The Shasu and those who joined them are most likely the
group which Merneptah mentioned in his famous late thirteenth
century stela: Israel.
Over time the group grew in size as a result of both natural
growth and the joining of additional members. Still, although
composed of many sub-groups, with different histories and practices,
until the middle of the twelfth century bce the group as a whole
(Israel) maintained very definite boundaries (as reflected in the
archaeological record and in the distribution of the above-mentioned
traits), in order to assert its unified identity and mark itself off from
the Egypto-Canaanite system that dominated the lowlands. The
Egypto-Canaanite system was, therefore, the anvil on which Israel
crystallized and defined itself, and which helped the various groups
that gradually came to compose Israel to attain their common
identity.
In the late eleventh and early tenth centuries, a new powerful ‘other’
became significant. The Philistines were newcomers from outside the
region, probably from somewhere (perhaps from more than one
place) within the Aegean world or its fringes. The Egyptian sources
mentioned the Philistines’ foreign origins, and the Bible locates their
origins in the Island of Crete (e.g. Amos 9:7, Jer. 47:4). Their foreign
origin is clearly expressed also in their material culture, which
included many foreign traits such as their locally produced Mycenean
IIIC1 pottery (also known as Philistine monochrome) which later
evolved into the bichrome Philistine pottery. In addition, one could
cite the use of hearths in their structures, the use of cooking jugs,
the high proportion of pork in their diet, and the list could go on.
The Philistines settled in the southern coastal plain as early as the
first half of the twelfth century bce, but they were probably confined
to the coastal plain because of their hostile relations with the
Egypto-Canaanite system. Gradually, especially towards the end of
the twelfth and in the eleventh century bce (after Egypt withdrew
from Canaan), they began to expand, and at some point started to
encroach on the highlands. The Philistines were the most powerful
group in Canaan in the eleventh century bce, with large and
elaborate cities—Ashkelon might have covered up to 60 hectares and
Ekron covered around 20 hectares, compared with Canaanite towns
of only a few hectares, and Israelite villages of about 1 hectare or
less. The size of the Philistine centres, and the finds unearthed in
them, reflect a very hierarchical and complex society, with public
buildings and an elaborate material culture. This powerful group’s
encroachment into the highlands resulted in a very asymmetrical
type of interaction between the complex, highly urbanized Philistines
and the simple villagers of the highlands. Under such circumstances,
however, the highlanders de-emphasized the importance of their
local identities, and re-stressed their more inclusive one—that of
‘Israel’—in order to face the common enemy. Thus, the highlanders
used existing features, like their egalitarian ethos, and their use of
simple and undecorated pottery, which were also very suitable for
defining themselves in contra-distinction to the highly hierarchical
Philistines with their decorated pottery, and invested new meaning in
them.
In addition, other traits, which had not hitherto served to mark
identity, were invested with new meanings, which could now serve
to highlight and stress the differences between themselves and the
non-local Philistines. These traits include, for example, the taboo on
pork, and circumcision. Pork was very popular among the Philistines,
probably a habit that they brought with them from outside the
region. One impact of this habit was that other groups, which did
not consume much pork to start with, completely avoided this meat
in order to differentiate themselves from the Philistines (and the
latter, interestingly enough, increased the percentage of pork in their
diet during the twelfth and eleventh centuries bce, probably for the
same reason, i.e. to demarcate boundaries). Pork avoidance was not
a good trait to demarcate Israelites from Canaanites (who also
consumed small quantities of pork), but it was a very good way to
demarcate the Israelites from the Philistines, and pork was therefore
strictly avoided in this context. As for circumcision, the Iron Age I
Philistines were probably uncircumcised (this not only is evidenced
by the biblical testimony but can also be seen in Egyptian sources).
Many of the local groups in Canaan, however, were circumcised, so
this trait, just like pork avoidance, became important only once the
Israelites interacted with the uncircumcised Philistines.
Thus the Philistines became another anvil on which Israelite
identity was forged and renegotiated.
Israel’s Development
While some scholars view the Exodus story as, generally speaking,
reliable historically, and others see it as a late invention with no
historical value whatsoever, most believe that the narrative has a
certain historical core, even if things did not take place in the
manner described in the Bible. According to this view, some of the
highland settlers (probably a small minority) came, one way or the
other, from Egypt. Though the size of this group is debated, most
scholars agree that it was in the range of a few thousands, or even
perhaps only hundreds. Still, despite the limited size of this group, it
appears that during the process of Israel’s ethno-genesis its story
became part of the common history of all the Israelites.
When and how did the Exodus story become a national epic? Was
the Exodus group part of Merneptah’s Israel? Most of those who
accept some historical core for the story of the Exodus from Egypt
date it to the thirteenth century, at the time of Ramesses II, while
others date it to the twelfth century, during the time of Ramesses
III. Clearly, if there was an Exodus in the thirteenth century this
group of people could have been part of Merneptah’s Israel.
However, despite the assumed significance of this group, it is likely
that it was incorporated at a later stage, only after Merneptah’s time,
or at least that it was not identical to Merneptah’s Israel. The way
divine names were used in antiquity was important as a means to
mark identity. Israel uses the theophoric component ‘El’, whereas the
Exodus group, which clearly brought with it some of what became
the history of Israel, was apparently devoted to the God YHWH, who
shows up in the many biblical names which end with -iah or which
begin with Je- or Jo-. Thus, it is likely that Israel preceded the arrival
of the Exodus group, or was at least initially separate from it, and it
is possible that the Exodus group was not Israel’s ‘core’ group, or at
least was only part of it.
The process by which all of Israel came to share this Exodus
history, which was really the history of only some of them, is
illustrated by the American archaeologist, William G. Dever:
Przyjemski luki:
Mutta tuota kesti vain lyhyen ajan. Hän pian taas voitti itsensä, ja
uudestaan pani hän kätensä hänen kädelleen, mutta tällä kertaa
miltei käskevästi.
— Klaara! Klaara!
Ilta oli tyyni, mutta pilvinen eikä yhtään tähteä tuikkinut. Sitä
kirkkaammin säteilivät palatsin valaistut akkunat. Väliin kiiti ankara
tuulenpuuska ilman halki, väliin taas vallitsi täydellinen tyven. Silloin,
äkkiä, aaltoili leveä sävelvirta puiston ja puutarhan läpi.
— Ei, elä tule: Kiitos, ettet tahdo tulla. Aita kernaasti erottakoon
meidät. Mutta elä käännä pois päätäsi, nojaa minua vastaan… kas
noin, rakkaani.
— Rakastatko minua?
— Oi, rakkaani!
Nyt vasta näytti mies, jolle nämä sanat lausuttiin, tointuvan, ja raju
viha valtasi hänet.
— Mene tiehesi!
Elä suutu, minä tein sen vaan peljäten, että karkaisit luotani…
— Te… ruhtinas?
Noin tunti sitten, heti palattuaan hän oli lyhyeen kysynyt: »No,
mitäs kuuluu? kamaripalvelijaltaan Benediktiltä, joka silloin sattui
yksin olemaan herransa luona.
— Wygrycz.
— Milloinka?
— Tänä aamuna.
— Minnekkä?
Hän oli aikonut sanoa: »Niin otan minä asiasta selvän» — mutta
tarkemmin harkittuaan hän havaitsi viisaammaksi olla lausetta
loppuun jatkamatta. Hän odotti. Ruhtinas ei lausunut mitään. Tämä
vaan katseli ulos ikkunasta ja kääntymättä hän teki vielä yhden
kysymyksen:
Kyllä Benedikt oli hänet nähnyt. Kun hän alituisesti tahtoi pitää
pientä taloa silmällä, oli hän eilen illalla heti kymmenen lyötyä tehnyt
kierroksen puutarhan viereisessä puistossa. Silloin hän äkkiä sai
kuulla nyyhkytyksiä. Hän lähestyi varovasti varpaillaan ja huomasi
puurunkojen välissä olennon, joka lepäsi polvillaan aidan vieressä,
käsivarret ja otsa siihen nojaten.