1Introduction to Biblical Israel Course housekeeping matters What is Biblical Israel? History and “Prehistory”September 6, 2006Housekeeping Sections HIST282H/JWST234H: will meet in 0142Holzapfel Mr. Phelan will make up the work in theTuesday sections next week. Quizzes begin Next Week Electronic Reserves: a quick how-toguideSearching the catalog2Select document for downloadPassword: hist282lapWhat is Biblical Israel? Some terminology Geography Bible and historiansSome terminology BCE/BC-CE/AD Before C hrist-Anno Domini (Year of the Lord) Before Common Era-Common Era Jews, Judaism vs. Israel For the purposes of this course:Israel-Biblical Period, Jews-later Reasons to be discussed later Bible A collection o f books spanning several centuries Literature o f Israel, sacred to Jews3Geography Canaan/Israel Mesopotamia “The Fertile Crescent”Canaan/IsraelMesopotamia & “ T he Fertile Crescent”4Bible and historians For traditional Jews, Christians: Bible isauthoritative h istory For historians bible is a historical artifact Contains historical (historicizing) myth To be evaluated against other artifacts and data Two brief examples Merneptah stele Israelite Entry into CanaanMerneptah stele First reference to Israeloutside the Bible (1207BCE) “Israel is vanquished andhis seed is naught” In this case anotherdocument “confirms” theBible, while giving a lessplausible scenario thanthe BibleIsraelite Entry into Canaan Most scholars agree that by ca 1200 BCEthere was an “Israel” in Canaan (MerneptahStele). Where did they come from? Bible gives one (or more) accounts Archaeology undermines some specificdetails (e.g. walls of Jericho), whilesuggesting s ome plausible m odels forexplaining the Israelite presence More on this next time in lecture and intwo weeks in section5History and “Prehistory” For our purposes: History begins with 1200 BCE,when there is a population called “I srael” The story of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob),the descent into Egypt, and the exodus are part ofthe prehistory Prehistory (especially exodus) essential aspect ofbiblical and later Jewish self-identity (“I am the Lordyour God who took you out of the land of Egypt”;“You shall love the resident alien, for you wereresident aliens in Egypt”) We begin our narrative next time w ith the emergenceof an Israelite polity in
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