Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Over a week ago I posted Where did the Bible’s Jews come from? Part 1 — a discussion drawn principally from Thomas L. Thompson’s The Mythic Past: Biblical archaeology and the myth of Israel. That first post covered the evidence that “Jewishness” originated as a religious rather than an ethnic label: the origin myth of … Continue reading “Where did the Bible’s Jews come from? — Part 2”
This post is based primarily on a few pages in The Mythic Past by Thomas L. Thompson. It is slightly supplemented by fewer notes from a different but complementary discussion on the biblical meanings of “the people of God” in The Israelites in History and Tradition by Niels Peter Lemche. (All bold fonts for emphasis … Continue reading “Where did the Bible’s Jews come from? Part 1”
This post outlines the arguments of George Athas on the famous “House of David” lexeme that appears in the published version of his 1999 doctoral dissertation, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation (2003). Athas believes that the critical word often translated as House of David is in fact a geographical place-name … Continue reading “The Tel Dan inscription: the meaning of ביתדוד, “House of David””
I’ve seen many positive responses to The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, but my own feeling after reading the book was disappointment at the lack of archaeological evidence they cited for their main theme: the Great Reformation of … Continue reading “Josiah’s reforms: Where is the archaeological evidence?”