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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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UMD HIST 282 - Introduction to Biblical Israel

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