EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future
Dr. Jacob L. Wright, Emory University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E History of the Central Highland States Notes taken on August 7, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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history central highland states
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Biblical story
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Book of Samuel
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authority shifting along a succession of judges
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people of Israel assemble and petition the prophet Samuel to find a king
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so Isreal could be like other nations
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Samuel says this is not what God wants, our king is alone Yahweh
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but then under the direction of Yahweh himself, Samuel gives in and anoints Saul
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kings
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1. Saul
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Israel's first king
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moderately successful
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2. David
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much more effective as a military ruler
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expands the borders of the kingdom
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also brings internal conflict
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rips the kingdom of Judah away from Israel
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becomes first king of Judah
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then is anointed king over all of Israel
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faces civil wars
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Judah and Israel often separating from each other
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establishes stable dynasty
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3. Solomon
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powerful ruler
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brings great wealth to the united kingdom
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4. Rehoboam
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causes kingdom to split into two
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the Davidic dynasty manages to maintain control of Jerusalem and Judah
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Israel
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the large and more powerful kingdom Israel has an every changing succession of short-lived dynasties
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becomes powerful military player
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ruled by mighty kings
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Judah
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exists under Israel's shadow
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722 BC frees itself when Assyrians conquer Israel
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but this was the view from the Bible written by authors writing for their own times
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intended for Judahite readers, not for Israelite readers, living after the fall of Israel in 722 BCE and after the fall of Judah in 586 BCE
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archeological view
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1. Israel Finkelstein
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emphasizes long-term history
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Marcel Bloch
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Lucien Febvre
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Fernand Braudel
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pointed to the cycles of settlement in the Southern Levant over many thousands of years
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an important corrective to how many scholars use the Bible to reconstruct Israel's history
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the origins of Israel must be seen in the cycles of the nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary demographic changes
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individual historical events are less critical
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2. Avraham Faust
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until the Iron Age
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the highlands on the fringe
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core settlement lowlands
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after Iron Age began
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highlands were not so empty anymore
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Jerusalem's importance
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has little to do with it's geographical position
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same for West Bank and central hill country
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they are in the news today, not because they are more valuable places but because historical events happened here
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formed population formed powerful states that conquered lowland territories
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conquered by imperial armies
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in response to defeat, they produced the Bible and new communal identities
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the Amarna letters
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building on historian Albrecht Alt, 1925
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two types of city-states in the Amarna letters
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those in high lands
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those in low lands
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smaller territories in the south
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highlands are poorer
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highlands south of the Jezreel Valley
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Israel
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Judah
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dominated by Shechem and Jerusalem
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division between these two powers correspond closely to Israel and Judah
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this throws doubts on the united kingdom of Israel that later split into two
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the authors of the Bible went to great lengths to affirm that the populations of Israel and Judah had common ancestors and common early histories
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and the two kingdoms began as one
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before the original sin severed them into two
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but the Amarna letters reveal a division and political tension between Shechem and Jerusalem
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Shechem: Labayu was the leader
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14th-century BCE ruler or warlord in the central hill country of southern Canaan
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lived contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten
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mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters