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 Li(59 Oudtestamentische Studiën, Old Testament Studies)

The historiography of Ancient Israel is much debated. The various approaches are never void of ideology and some reckon more with the available evidence than others. This volume consists of a set of case-studies that reveal the difficulties that arise when trying to write a history as honestly as possible. This implies that both the archaeology of Ancient Palestine - the finds and their interrogation - as well as the Philosophy of History - their models and their implications - are discussed. The outcome is a variety of approaches that inform the reader of current views on the history of Ancient Israel.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Lester L. Grabbe David between Ideology and Evidence Bob Becking Mercator in theWilderness: Numbers 33 John R. Bartlett Origins of Israel between History and Ideology Meindert Dijkstra The Case of the Corrupting Consensus Lester L. Grabbe Three Hasidisms and their Militant Ideologies: 1 and 2 Maccabees, Psalms 144 and 149 Harm van Grol The Old Testament as a Diachronic Corpus Marinus Koster Pharaoh Shishak’s Invasion of Palestine and the Exodus from Egypt Andrew D.H. Mayes The Greek Esthers and the Search for History: Some Preliminary Observations Jill Middlemass Does Archaeology Really Deserve the Status of a ‘High Court’ in Biblical Historical Research? Nadav Na"aman History and Prophecy in the Book of Judges Klaas Spronk Resisting the Past: Ancient Israel inWestern Memory KeithW.Whitelam Figures and Maps Index of Authors Index of Textual References

About the Author :
Bob Becking, PhD. (1985) in Theology, Utrecht University, is Senior Research Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht for Bible, Religion and Identity. He published extensively on historical matters and was co-editor of the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Brill 1995).

Lester L. Grabbe, PhD (1975) in Religion, Claremont Graduate University, DD (1993), University of Hull, is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull. He has published extensively on the history of Second Temple Judaism and the history of ancient Israel. Founder of the European Seminar in Historical Methodology and editor of the monograph series of the same name.