Memories of Ancient Israel

by Davies, Philip R.

• ISBN13: 9780664232887
• ISBN10: 0664232884
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-31
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

Recent years have seen an explosion of writing on the history of Israel, prompted largely by definitive archaeological surveys and attempts to write a genuine archaeological history of ancient Israel and Judah. The scholarly world has also witnessed an intense confrontation between so-called minimalists and maximalists over the correct approach to the historicity of the Bible.Memories of Ancient Israellooks at the issues at stake in biblical history--the ideologies involved, the changing role of archaeology, and the influence of cultural contexts both ancient and modern. Philip Davies suggests a different way of defining the problem of "reliability" and "historicity" by employing the theory of cultural memory. In doing so, he provides a better explanation of how ancient societies constructed their past but also a penetrating insight into the ideological underpinnings of today's scholarly debates.

Table of Contents

Bible, history, and "Biblical history"	p. 1
Bible I : chronology, facts, and causality	p. 21
Bible II : "Israel"	p. 47
Archaeology : use and abuse	p. 58
Epigraphic sources	p. 85
Cultural memory	p. 105
Knowledge, judgment, belief	p. 124
A tale of two histories	p. 145
History, memory, and theology	p. 175
Index of ancient sources	p. 179
Index of names	p. 181
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