THE OLD TESTAMENT

IN ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY

 THE OLD TESTAMENT
IN ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY

Jennie Ebeling, J. Edward Wright, Mark Elliott,

and Paul V. M. Flesher
Editors

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS

© 2017 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of
Baylor University Press.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.

Cover design: Daniel Benneworth-Gray

Cover image: In this relief from the Assyrian King Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh,
Lachish’s soldiers defend against an approaching battering ram by throwing torches
from a tower. In the lower right, civilians attempt to leave the besieged city via the
gate. Photo from Todd Bolen/bibleplaces.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ebeling, Jennie R., editor. | Wright, J. Edward, editor. | Elliott, Mark Adam,
1956– editor. | Flesher, Paul Virgil McCracken, editor.
Title: The Old Testament in archaeology and history / Jennie Ebeling, J. Edward
Wright, Mark Elliott, and Paul V.M. Flesher, editors.
Description: Waco, Texas : Baylor University Press, [2017] | “A century ago it was true
that if you wanted to understand the ancient Israelites you had to read the Bible,
the Old Testament. Today, if you want to understand the Old Testament, you need
to study the history and archaeology of the ancient people of Israel”—Preface. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017003708 (print) | LCCN 2017027764 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781481307413 (ePub) | ISBN 9781481307420 (ebook-Mobi/Kindle) |
ISBN 9781481307437 (web PDF) | ISBN 9781481307390 (hardback: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781481307406 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible—Antiquities. | Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Classification: LCC BS621 (ebook) | LCC BS62.O43 2017 (print) | DDC 221.9—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003708

Printed in the United States of America on acid-­free paper with a minimum of

30 percent recycled content.
 To our students,
past, present, and future
 CONTENTS

Preface xi
Archaeological Ages xv
Historical Timeline xvii
Ancient Jerusalem xxi
List of Maps xxiii
List of Figures xxv
List of Abbreviations xxxiii

Introduction 1

I
Archaeology, the Bible, and Epigraphy
Discovery, Techniques, and Development
1 Introduction to the Geography and Archaeology
of the Ancient Near East 15
Gary P. Arbino
2 Introduction to the Old Testament and Its Character
as Historical Evidence 45
Mark Elliott, with Paul V. M. Flesher
3 The West’s Rediscovery of the Holy Land 83
Victor H. Matthews
4 “Bible Lands Archaeology” and “Biblical Archaeology”
in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 111
Rachel Hallote
5 A Critique of Biblical Archaeology
History and Interpretation 141
William G. Dever

vii
viii Contents

II
Israel before Settling in the Land
6 In the Beginning, Archaeologically Speaking
Archaeology to the Bronze Ages in Canaan 161
K. L. Noll
7 Archaeology and the Canaanites 185
Jill Baker
8 The Book of Genesis and Israel’s Ancestral Traditions 213
Mark Elliott and J. Edward Wright
9 Israel in and out of Egypt 241
J. Edward Wright, Mark Elliott, and Paul V. M. Flesher
III
Israel Settles in the Land of Canaan
10 Looking for the Israelites 275
The Archaeology of Iron Age I
J. P. Dessel
11 Looking for the Israelites 299
The Evidence of the Biblical Text
Paul V. M. Flesher
12 The Philistines during the Period of the Judges 317
Ann E. Killebrew
IV
The Kingdoms of the People Israel
13 The United Monarchy 337
David between Saul and Solomon
Baruch Halpern
14 Israel 363
The Prosperous Northern Kingdom
Randall W. Younker
15 The Southern Kingdom of Judah 391
Surrounded by Enemies
Aren M. Maeir
16 Daily Life in Iron Age Israel and Judah 413
Jennie Ebeling
 Contents ix

17 Israel and Judah under Assyria’s Thumb 433

J. Edward Wright and Mark Elliott
18 The Religions of the People Israel and Their Neighbors 477
Richard S. Hess
V
Judah as a Province
From the Babylonians to the Persians
19 Destruction and Exile 505
Israel and the Babylonian Empire
Bob Becking
20 Persia and Yehud 529
Charles David Isbell

Glossary 557
Bibliography 567
Gazetteer 607
Index of Biblical and Ancient References 613
General Index 624
Contributors 649
 PREFACE

Several years ago the editors began discussing how beginning students in col-
lege Bible courses and a public interested in biblical studies and the ancient
Israelites actually studied the Bible. In particular, we wondered, how much
did new archaeological discoveries and historical research impact their under-
standing of ancient Israel and its history? Were such students dependent on
biblical scholarship that strictly privileged the biblical narrative? Did the pub-
lic only encounter apologetic testimonies supported and presented by church
and synagogue?
What we found was disappointing. Introductory textbooks, even at the
college level, focus mostly on the biblical books and refer to archaeological
knowledge only in passing—­usually when there is a good picture. Old Testa-
ment textbooks depend on the biblical narrative rather than on archaeology
for their organization. The situation for the general public is worse. From “bib-
lical mysteries” TV programs more interested in viewership than accuracy to
books propounding a variety of theologies and tendentious interpretations,
we could not see how an interested and intelligent reader would get a solid
understanding of the contributions made by the fields of archaeology, bibli-
cal studies, and ancient history to the understanding of ancient Israel. Finally,
where serious works are available, they were not written to be accessible to
beginning students.
A century ago it was true that if you wanted to understand the ancient
Israelites, you had to read the Bible, the Old Testament. Today, if you want to
understand the Old Testament, you need to study the history and archaeology
of the ancient people of Israel.
The editors decided it was necessary to present ancient Israel’s origins and
history in a such way that students could understand the Israelites from all of
the evidence, not just from a single collection of ancient writings. The study of
ancient Israel should be multifaceted and not simply a study of the Bible. This
book aims to address the needs of students and the public at large by showing
how archaeological finds, including ancient texts and inscriptions from other

xi
xii Preface

countries and empires, help modern readers comprehend the political, social,
and sometimes military dynamics that shaped the ancient Israelites and led
their scribes to write the books now in the Bible.
The present book brings together biblical experts and active archaeolo-
gists to contribute their understanding of the present state of research and put
together a picture of the origins and history of the people Israel, within the
history of the ancient Near East. Despite the in-­depth expertise of our authors,
all of them composed their chapters for an audience without a deep knowledge
of ancient Israel—­for people seeking a better understanding rather than those
who were already knowledgeable. Fourteen experts in different periods of
ancient Israel’s history contributed chapters, as did the editors. This achieve-
ment is a result of teamwork, for despite the seemingly natural conjunction
of the Bible and the archaeology of ancient Israel, the two fields do not have a
history of working together. True, archaeologists working in Israel were once
accused of digging with a trowel in one hand and a Bible in the other. But few
archaeologists were trained as biblical scholars. As William Dever identifies
the distinction in chapter 5, the combination inherent in “biblical archaeol-
ogy” before the 1970s was between archaeology and theology, not archaeology
and biblical studies. Indeed, as Mark Elliott shows in chapter 2, biblical archae-
ologists like William F. Albright saw themselves as opponents of “higher
criticism” and its related research into the biblical text. From the opposite per-
spective, few biblical scholars had the training and background to understand
the details of archaeological investigation and were able to incorporate it into
their research at the primary level. Textual scholars of course made use of the
inscriptions archaeologists unearthed, but the excavations that discovered
them? Not so much.
In this light, the teamwork and cooperation that this textbook represents
was hard won. The editors thank the authors for working with us to help
achieve the vision that guided this book. They put up with many editorial
“suggestions” and requests for revision in particular areas. We appreciate the
patience and diligence that all showed to us.
Baylor University Press and its director, Carey Newman, have shown a
great deal of support and patience for this project. The BUP production team
has shepherded this work through the publication project to its completion.
The editors are pleased and thankful for the care and creativity that this book
has received from BUP. Another institution deserving our thanks for its sup-
port of this work is BiblePlaces.com and especially Todd Bolen. BiblePlaces.
com supplied most of the photographs in this book gratis. Thanks also go out
to Norma Franklin, Jim West, and Pat Landy, who read drafts of many chap-
ters and provided useful comments, and to Conor McCracken-Flesher, for
doing the index.
 Preface xiii

Both Jennie Ebeling and Paul Flesher would like to thank the W.  F.
Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem for support pro-
vided during the final year of work on this project. The Albright appointed
Jennie as the prestigious Annual Professor for 2015–­2016, and it made Paul
the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor during spring 2016. The libraries
of the École Biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and the Israel
Antiquities Authority in the Rockefeller Museum were also extremely helpful.
Paul would also like to thank Dean Paula Lutz and the University of Wyoming
for awarding him sabbatical leave for 2015–­2016 (during which he worked to
bring this project to conclusion) as well as the staff of the Interlibrary Loan
Department of the University of Wyoming’s Coe Library for their work in
obtaining volumes not available on campus. Jennie would like to thank the
Department of Archaeology and Art History at the University of Evansville as
well as Alexandra Cutler.
Mark Elliott wants to thank all the other editors—­Jennie Ebeling, Paul
Flesher, and Ed Wright—­for their valuable assistance in creating and devel-
oping the website Bible and Interpretation (www.bibleinterp.com). Ed Wright
thanks the faculty, staff, students, and supporters of The Arizona Center for
Judaic Studies for their interest in and support of this project over many years.
Finally, the editors would like to thank their spouses and children for their
support and love during the long process of putting this book together. This
volume is dedicated to our students—­past, present, and future. Every day the
students in our classes reveal their fascination for the ancient world as they
seek insight into the choices people made when confronted with momentous
(and not so momentous) events. Our past students inspired us to create this
volume, and we hope it will guide the learning of our future students.
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AGES

Paleolithic Era 1,500,000–­22,000 BP

Lower 1,500,000–­250,000
Middle 250,000–­50,000
Upper 50,000–­12,000
Epipaleolithic Period 12,000 BP–­8500 BCE
Neolithic Period 8500–­4500 BCE
Pre-­Pottery Neolithic 8500–­5500
Pottery Neolithic 5500–­4500
Chalcolithic Period 4500–­3600 BCE
Early Bronze Age 3600–­2 400 BCE
EB I 3600–­3000
EB II 3000–­2750
EB III 2750–­2 400
Intermediate Bronze Age 2400–­2000 BCE
Middle Bronze Age 2000–­1550 BCE
MB I 2000–­1900
MB II 1900–­1650
MB III 1650–­1550
Late Bronze Age 1550–­1200 BCE
LB I 1550–­1400
LB II 1400–­1200
Iron Age 1200–­586 BCE
Iron I 1200–­1000
Iron II 1000–­586
Iron IIA 1000–­928
Iron IIB 928–­722
Iron IIC 722–­586
Neo-­Babylonian Period 586–­539 BCE
Persian Period 539–­332 BCE
Hellenistic Period 332–­63 BCE

xv
xvi Archaeological Ages

Roman Period 63 BCE–­330 CE

Byzantine Period 330– ­630 CE
Islamic Period 630–­1918 CE
Early Arab Period 630–­1099
Crusader Period 1099–­1250
Mamluk Period 1250–­1517
Ottoman Period 1517–­1918
Modern Period 1918–­present
 HISTORICAL TIMELINE

Focus is primarily on kings and political figures, as well as key events, with
some mention of extrabiblical finds. All dates are BCE.

ca. 9400 Jericho inhabited

ca. 7000 Megiddo inhabited
ca. 4000 Beer Sheva inhabited
ca. 3500 Hazor inhabited (upper city)
1353–­1336 Pharaoh Akhenaten
Builds capital at Amarna
Receives the Amarna letters
1292–­1290 Pharaoh Ramesses I
1290–­1279 Pharaoh Seti I
1279–­1213 Pharaoh Ramesses II
ca. 1250 Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt
1213–­1203 Pharaoh Merneptah
Commemorates his invasion of Canaan in the
Merneptah Stele. Claims to have defeated Ashkelon,
Gezer, and Yanoam and a people known as Israel.
ca. 1250–­1050 Major increase in small settlements in Canaan’s Central
Hill Country
ca. 1200–­1000 Period of Israelite tribes and the Judges
Judges: Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson
1186–­1155 Ramesses III
Sea Peoples (including Philistines) attempt to invade
Egypt. Ramesses drives them off and settles them on the
Levant coast.
1185–­1175 Sea Peoples (including Philistines) begin settling in cities
along the Canaanite coast
1030–­1010 Saul, king of Israel
1010–­970 David, king of Israel
Founds a united kingdom of Israel, bringing together all
twelve/thirteen tribes
xvii
xviii Historical Timeline

Captures Jerusalem and makes it the capital

Conquers Ammon, Edom, Aram, and Moab
970–­931 Solomon, king of Israel
Builds palace, fortifications, Millo (stepped-­stone
structure), and temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem
Builds fortifications at Gezer, Hazor, Megiddo, and
possibly other sites
Solomon establishes a shipping trade out of Eilat into
the Red Sea
931 Division of kingdom into Northern Kingdom of Israel and
Southern Kingdom of Judah
931–­911 Jeroboam I, king of Israel (Northern Kingdom)
Creates independent Kingdom of Israel from ten tribes
Establishes capital at Shechem
Builds major shrines at Dan and Bethel
931–­915 Rehoboam, king of Judah (Southern Kingdom)
926 Pharaoh Sheshonq I (Shishak) invades Israel and Judah
915–­912 Abijah/Abijam, king of Judah
912–­871 Asa, king of Judah
911–­910 Nadab, king of Israel
910–­887 Baasha, king of Israel
Moves capital to Tirzah
887–­886 Elah, king of Israel
886 Zimri, king of Israel
886–­875 Omri, king of Israel
Moves capital to Samaria
Conquers Moab
875–­852 Ahab, king of Israel
Fortifies Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor
Builds second palace at Jezreel
871–­849 Jehoshaphat, king of Judah
853 Ahab fights Shalmaneser III, King of Assyria, to a draw at
Qarqar, as part of a coalition of eleven countries (Kurkh
Monolith)
852–­851 Ahaziah, king of Israel
851–­842 Joram/Jehoram, king of Israel
Defeated by Aram and loses northeastern lands
House of David Stele at Tel Dan
842 King Mesha of Moab throws Israel’s control off Moab
(Mesha Stele)
849–­84 Joram/Jehoram, king of Judah
 Historical Timeline xix

842–­814 Jehu, king of Israel

Overthrows Joram (last of Omride Dynasty) and slays
all relatives
Jehu submits to Assyrian king Shalmaneser III as a
vassal (Black Obelisk)
842–­841 Ahaziah, king of Judah
841–­835 Athaliah, queen of Judah
835–­796 Joash/Jehoash, king of Judah
814–­806 Joahaz, king of Israel
806–­791 Joash/Jehoash, king of Israel
796–­766 Amaziah, king of Judah
791–­750 Jeroboam II, king of Israel
776–­736 Uzziah/Azariah, king of Judah (became a leper in 750)
750–­735 Jotham, king of Judah
750 Zechariah, king of Israel
749 Shallum, king of Israel
749–­739 Menahem, king of Israel
745–­727 Tiglath-­Pileser III, king of Assyria
742 Menahem pays tribute to Tiglath-­Pileser as a vassal
739–­737 Pekahiah, king of Israel
737–­732 Pekah, king of Israel
735–­715 Ahaz/Jehoahaz I, king of Judah
Assyrian vassal
735–­733 Syro-­Ephramite War
732 Tiglath-­Pileser invades Galilee, Gilead, and the northern
part of Israel; takes many Israelites captive; and resettles
them in Assyria
732–­722 Hoshea, king of Israel
727–­722 Shalmanezer V, king of Assyria
722–­705 Sargon II, king of Assyria
722 Fall of Samaria to Assyrians
Vast numbers of Israelite citizens taken into exile by
Assyrians; population reduced significantly
Samaria, Aram, and Phoenicia absorbed into
Assyrian Empire
Judah, Philistia, Ammon, Moab, and Edom become
vassal states
715–­687 Hezekiah, king of Judah
Expands and improved the fortifications of Jerusalem;
has the Siloam tunnel excavated (Siloam Inscription)
Tries to centralize worship at the Jerusalem temple and
eliminate other worship sites
xx Historical Timeline

705–­681 Sennacherib, king of Assyria

701 Sennacherib invades Judah, conquers Lachish, and besieges
but does not conquer Jerusalem.
687–­6 42 Manasseh, king of Judah
Assyrian vassal
642–­6 40 Amon, king of Judah
640–­609 Josiah, king of Judah
Centralizes worship in Jerusalem by destroying all hill
shrines, temples, and other worship sites in Judah and
southern Israel
Killed when attacking Pharaoh Necho II and his army
622 Josiah remodels Jerusalem temple
609 Jehoahaz II/Shallum, king of Judah
608–­598 Jehoiakim, king of Judah
605 Babylonian Empire conquers Assyrian Empire at
Carchemish
598–­597 Jehoiachin/Jeconiah, king of Judah
597 Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar sack Jerusalem
Judah’s royalty and most members of its nobility and
middle and upper classes taken into exile and settled
near Babylon.
597–­586 Zedekiah, king of Judah
586 Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar
destroy Jerusalem
Take more Judahites into exile
Ezekiel active in Babylonia
Jeremiah active in Judah and Egypt
586–­538 The Babylonian Exile
576–­530 Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II), king of Persia
539 Persian Empire conquers Babylonian Empire
538 First Israelite return from Babylon to Jerusalem under
Sheshbazzar
520 Second Israelite return to Jerusalem under governor
Zerubbabel and priest Joshua/Jeshua
515 Jerusalem temple rebuilt
458 Third return to Jerusalem under Ezra
445 Fourth return to Jerusalem under Nehemiah
Jerusalem walls rebuilt
333 King Alexander the Great of Macedon begins to conquer
the Persian Empire, including Syria, Israel, and Egypt
 ANCIENT JERUSALEM

When one reads the Bible’s descriptions of Jerusalem during David and Sol-
omon’s time—­the tenth century BCE—­it is easy to imagine a large city. But
Jerusalem in their time was actually quite small, just a sliver of a city along the
ridge of a hill that had its highest point in the north and then dropped down
toward the valley in the south. Jerusalem did not add substantially to its walls
until several centuries later (see chapters 13, 15, and 17).
It was King Hezekiah who expanded and fortified Jerusalem after the fall
of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to accommodate the many refugees who
fled south into Judah. This apparently happened as he readied for the Assyr-
ian Empire’s invasion, which finally took place in 701 BCE. Jerusalem then
retained this form until its destruction by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE
(chapter 17).
When the exiled refugees and/or their descendants returned to Jerusalem
in 539 BCE and later, there were only enough people to repopulate the city of
David and Solomon (chapters 19–­20).
Today, the cities of David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and the returning exiles
are buried under more than two millennia of continuous human habita-
tion. Archaeologists have unearthed some remains, including the occasional
stretch of city wall. Jerusalem’s “Old City” of today is not old at all but was
built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century, between
1535 and 1542 CE. It is just over one-­third of a square mile in size. The ancient
cities during the First Temple Period were significantly smaller. Furthermore,
Suleiman built his Jerusalem with most of it outside the ancient boundaries of
Jerusalem, at least those prior to the end of the Persian Pleriod.
Below you will find three outline maps of Jerusalem. Map 1 features the
walls of Suleiman’s Jerusalem that appear today. Map 2 places the City of
David and Solomon’s expansions within the background of today’s Old City.
Map 3 shows Hezekiah’s expanded Jerusalem in the same format. While Map
3 shows Jerusalem as it was from about 701 to 586 BCE, Map 2 shows it at two
times: 940(?) to 701 BC, and after 539 BCE.

xxi
xxii Ancient Jerusalem

JERUSALEM MAP 1

JERUSALEM MAP 2

JERUSALEM MAP 3
 LIST OF MAPS

All maps of territory were designed by Paul V. M. Flesher using ArcGIS
software by Esri (Esri.com). They were constructed on a base map showing
modern topographical imagery supplied by Esri and used with permission.
All maps copyright © (2017) Esri. All map designs, except 7-­1, 7-­2 , and 7-­3:
© Paul V. M. Flesher.

Jerusalem maps xxii

Map 1-­1 Egypt 18
Map 1-­2 The Fertile Crescent 20
Map 1-­3 Mesopotamia 21
Map 1-­4 The Levant 23
Map 1-­5 The southern Levant 24
Map 3-­1 The lands surrounding the eastern Mediterranean Sea 84
Map 3-­2 Italy and Greece 87
Map 7-­1 Early Bronze Age sites in Canaan 191
(After Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-­Yonah, The Macmillan
Bible Atlas, rev. ed., 1980.)
Map 7-­2 Middle Bronze Age sites in Canaan 192
(After Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-­Yonah, The Macmillan
Bible Atlas, rev. ed., 1980.)
Map 7-­3 Late Bronze Age sites in Canaan 193
(After Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-­Yonah, The Macmillan
Bible Atlas, rev. ed., 1980.)
Map 8-­1 The territory through which Abram supposedly
journeyed from Ur to Canaan 214
Map 8-­2 Canaan during the time of Abraham 216
Map 9-­1 The exodus: possible routes 260
Map 9-­2 The exodus: from Kadesh-­barnea to the Plains of Moab 268

xxiii
xxiv List of Maps

Map 10-­1 The Central Hill Country at the end of the Late Bronze
Age and the early part of the Iron Age I. This map echoes
Stager 2001 (p. 95) and is based on the research
in Finkelstein and Naaman 1994 and Mittmann 1970. 284
Map 11-­1 Israelite shrines and the towns and tribes associated
with individual judges 307
Map 12-­1 Ancient Philistia and Israel (After Stager 2001) 317
Map 13-­1 Southern Israel under David and Solomon 339
Map 13-­2 Northern Israel under David and Solomon 351
Map 14-­1 Northern Kingdom of Israel in the centuries
after it separated from Judah to the south 364
Map 14-­2 The approximate boundaries of Israel, Judah,
and the countries around them 381
Map 15-­1 Southern Kingdom of Judah after separating from Israel
in the north 396
Map 17-­1 The westernmost limits of the Assyrian Empire
after 722 BCE 445
Map 17-­2 The boundaries of the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE 447
Map 18-­1 Sites important in the discussion of ancient
Israelite religion 482
Map 19-­1 The Babylonian Empire in 580 BCE 516
Map 20-­1 The boundaries of the Persian Empire in 530 BCE 531
Map 20-­2 The boundaries and towns of Yehud (Judea) at the end
of the sixth century BCE 537
 LIST OF FIGURES

The following list indicates credits and permissions. Unless noted

otherwise, all photos (and Figure 9-­1) © Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com.
Tables (excluding Figure 14-­2) are creations of respective chapter authors.

Figure 1-­1 The Shephelah 17

Figure 1-­2 Sea of Galilee 25
Figure 1-­3 Agricultural terraces 27
Figure 1-­4 St. Etienne’s cave 31
Figure 1-­5 Student volunteers excavating at Jezreel 32
Photo: Courtesy of the Jezreel Expedition
Figure 1-­6 Tell Dothan 33
Figure 1-­7 A bowl from the Middle Bronze Period in situ
at Tel Megiddo 36
Figure 1-­8 Teaching pottery identification and sorting at the Jezreel
excavations 39
Photo: Courtesy of the Jezreel Expedition
Figure 2-­1 The Isaiah Scroll 47
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_
Isaiah_Scroll_MS_A_%281QIsa%29_-_Google_Art_
Project-x4-y0.jpg
Figure 2-­2 Table: Books of the Tanakh 51
Figure 2-­3 Partial page from the Codex Leningradensis 53
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:LeningradCodex_text.jpg
Figure 2-­4 St. Catherine’s Monastery 56
Figure 2-­5 The Qumran settlement 58
Figure 2-­6 Julius Wellhausen 66
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJulius_
Wellhausen_-_Studien_zur_semitischen_Philologie%2C_1914.jpg
Figure 2-­7 William G. Dever 77
Photo: Courtesy of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research

xxv
xxvi List of Figures

Figure 3-­1 Pantheon in Rome 86

Painting by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1734. Photo: https://commons
.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pantheon-panini.jpg
Figure 3-­2 Herculaneum 88
Figure 3-­3 Ruins of Pompeii 91
Figure 3-­4 The Rosetta Stone 93
Figure 3-­5 Petra 103
Figure 3-­6 The Western Wall of Herod’s Temple Mount and
Robinson’s arch 106
Figure 3-­7 Early twentieth-­century photo of Jerusalem
from Mt. Scopus 109
Figure 4-­1 Austen Henry Layard 118
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:AustenHenryLayard.jpg
Figure 4-­2 Frontispiece from Layard’s 1849 book on his excavations 118
Photo: https://books.google.com/books/about/Nineveh_and_
Its_Remains.html?id=OhMGAAAAQAAJ
Figure 4-­3 Detail of the wall engravings from Sennacherib’s Nineveh
Palace depicting his siege of Lachish 120
Figure 4-­4 The frontispiece of Charles Wilson’s survey of Jerusalem 125
Photo: New York Public Library, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
items/510d47d9-6429-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Figure 4-­5 The Siloam Inscription 131
Figure 4-­6 The tenth-­century Gezer Calendar 135
Figure 5-­1 The “Albright” 142
Photo: Courtesy of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Figure 5-­2 Late Bronze gates at Shechem 145
Figure 5-­3 Tell Hazor 145
Figure 5-­4 The Solomonic gates (Iron II) at Gezer 148
Figure 5-­5 Female terra-­cotta figurines 154
Figure 6-­1 Table: Archaeological periods 163
See also the table of “Archaeological Ages” at this book’s beginning
(pp. xv–xvi)
Figure 6-­2 Neolithic plastered skull from Jericho 166
Figure 6-­3 Copper scepters from the Nahal Mishmar Cave 168
Figure 6-­4 Cuneiform tablet 170
Figure 6-­5 The city of Megiddo 173
Figure 6-­6 An ancient bronze statue of El 181
Figure 7-­1 Tell Lachish 194
 List of Figures xxvii

Figure 7-­2 Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age gates 195
(Adapted from Tell el-­Far‘ah [North], De Miroschedji 1993,
vol. 2, 437; Tel Yavneh-­Yam, Kempinski 1992, 136 [from ZDPV 91
(1975): 10, no. 13]; Tel Dan, Kempinski 1992, 136 [from IEJ 34
(1984): 12–­13]; Tel Balata [Shechem], Kempinski 1992, 136
[from Shechem, fig. 9]; Megiddo, Kempinski 1992, 136 [Megiddo Str.
VIIB, from Megiddo II, fig. 383]; and Hazor, Kempinski 1992, 136
[Area K, from Hazor, fig. 14]. Not to scale.)
Figure 7-­3 Rampart and glacis 196
Photo: Jill L. Baker
Figure 7-­4 Upper: Middle Bronze Age gate at Ashkelon (2006)
Lower: Late Bronze Age gate at Megiddo (2006) 197
Photo: Jill L. Baker
Figure 7-­5 Middle and Late Bronze Age palace architecture 198
(Adapted from Megiddo Str. XII, Oren 1992, 107 [from Megiddo II,
1948, fig. 415]; Aphek, A. Mazar 1992a, 210; Megiddo, Str. IX,
Oren 1992, 107 [from Megiddo II, 1948, fig. 381]; Megiddo, Str. VIII
Area DD, Oren 1992, 108 [from Megiddo II, 1948, fig. 411]; Megiddo,
Str. VIIB, Oren 1992, 108 [from Megiddo II, 1948, fig. 382]; Tell
el-­Farah [South], Oren 1992, 119 [from Beth Pelet I–­I I, 1932, plates
51–­54. Not to scale.)
Figure 7-­6 Bronze Age temple architecture 200
(Adapted from: En-­Gedi, Barag 1992, vol. 2, 405 [cf. IEJ 22 (1972):
11, fig. I:A]; Ai, Kempinski 1992, 55 [from ‘Ay, 1949, plate XCII];
Hazor, Area H, Str. 3, A. Mazar 1992a, 163 [from Hazor, fig. 18];
Hazor Area H, Str. 1B A. Mazar 1992a, 163 [from Hazor, fig. 20]; Tel
Balata [Shechem], A. Mazar 1992a, 163 [from Shechem, 1965, fig. 41];
Lachish, A. Mazar 1992a, 176 [from Qadmoniot 10, no. 40 (1978):
108]; Lachish Fosse Temple III, A. Mazar 1992b, 255. Not to scale.]
Figure 7-­7 Bronze Age domestic architecture 202
(Adapted from: Arad, Ben-­Tor 1992a, 65 [from Arad, 1978, plate 183,
no. 2318a]; Meser, Ben-­Tor 1992a, 65 [from IEJ 9 (1959): 16, fig. 3];
Tell Beit Mirsim, Ben-­Dov 1992, 102 [from Tell Beit Mirsim II, 1938,
plate 56:G]; Megiddo, Str. XII, Ben-­Dov 1992, 101 [from Megiddo II,
1948, fig. 397, 398]; Tel Batash, Patrician House, A. Mazar 1990, 247;
Ashdod, Area B, Patrician House, Oren 1992, 117. Not to scale.)
Figure 8-­1 Shechem with standing stone in the tower temple 214
Figure 8-­2 The Gezer standing stones 217
Figure 8-­3 Temple of Nannar the Mesopotamian moon god at Ur 222
Figure 8-­4 Camels 226
Figure 8-­5 Ostracon from Khirbet Qeiyafa 238
xxviii List of Figures

Figure 9-­1 Table: Outline of the exodus story, from Exodus to

Deuteronomy 243
Figure 9-­2 Bronze calf from Samaria hill country 245
Figure 9-­3 Tomb painting at Beni Hassan 250
Figure 9-­4 Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their children 251
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akhenaten,_
Nefertiti_and_their_children.jpg
Figure 9-­5 Seti Stele from Beth Shean 253
Figure 9-­6 The Merneptah Stele 256
Figure 9-­7 Sinai Desert 260
Figure 9-­8 Table: Documentary sources for the crossing of the sea
in Exodus 261
Figure 9-­9 St. Catherine’s Monastery 265
Figure 9-­10 Kadesh-­barnea 269
Figure 10-­1 Detail from scene of Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah
attacking Ashkelon 278
Figure 10-­2 View of Tel Megiddo, looking south 280
Figure 10-­3 A collar-rim storage jar (CRSJ) from Shiloh 285
Figure 10-­4 The altar at Mount Ebal 287
Figure 10-­5 Tall al-­Umayri 289
Figure 10-­6 The large “Building A” at Tell Ein Zippori 290
Photo: J. P. Dessel
Figure 10-­7 Fourteenth-­century Amarna letter 295
Figure 11-­1 Table: Organization of the book of Judges 304
Figure 11-­2 Table: Organization of 1 Samuel 1–­15 305
Figure 11-­3 Table: The Judges 306
Figure 12-­1 Detail of Ramesses III’s naval battle against
the coalition of Sea Peoples 321
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medinet
_Habu_Ramses_III._Tempel_Nordostwand_44.jpg
Figure 12-­2 Detail of captive Philistine chief 322
Photo: Courtesy of Ann E. Killebrew
Figure 12-­3 Detail of Ramesses III from the Papyrus Harris 323
Photo: Image ID EA9999,43. Copyright of the Trustees
of the British Museum. Used with permission.
Figure 12-­4 Aerial view of Tell es-­Safi/Gath 325
Figure 12-­5 Philistine monochrome pottery 326
Photo: Gabi Laron, Tel Miqne-­Ekron Publications Project.
Courtesy of Seymour Gitin.
 List of Figures xxix

Figure 12-­6 Philistine bichrome pottery 326

Photo: Gabi Laron, Tel Miqne-­Ekron Publications Project.
Courtesy of Seymour Gitin.
Figure 12-­7 Aerial view of Tel Miqne-­Ekron 327
Photo: Ilan Sztulman, Tel Miqne-­Ekron Publications Project.
Courtesy of Seymour Gitin.
Figure 12-­8 Philistine temple at Tel Qasile 330
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tel_
Qasile_040113_02.jpg
Figure 12-­9 Potter’s kiln at Tel Miqne 331
Photo: Ilan Sztulman, Tel Miqne-­Ekron Publications Project.
Courtesy of Seymour Gitin.
Figure 12-­10 Iron Age I ostracon from Ashkelon 333
Photo: Zev Radovan. Courtesy of the Leon Levy Expedition to
Ashkelon. Line drawing courtesy of Ann E. Killebrew.
Figure 13-­1 The tenth-­century(?) BCE Stepped Stone Structure 345
Figure 13-­2 A wall of the public building that Eilat Mazar has identified
as a “palace” from the eleventh and tenth centuries BCE 346
Figure 13-­3 Khirbet Qeiyafa 347
Figure 13-­4 The remains of a tower from the Middle Bronze II Period
found in the City of David 348
Figure 13-­5 The ostracon from Khirbet Qeiyafa with an abecedary
inscribed on it 348
Figure 13-­6 An aerial view of the six-­chambered gate at Gezer 350
Figure 13-­7 An Iron Age workshop at the copper mines of Khirbet
en-­Nahas 359
Figure 14-­1 The wall of the Bubastite Portal at the Karnak Temple 366
Figure 14-­2 Table: The stages of the Iron Age 366
(as per A. Mazar 2005, 24)
Figure 14-­3 The hill of Samaria where Omri built his capital 374
Figure 14-­4 A sphinx carved in ivory found in the Iron II
Samaria palace 375
Figure 14-­5 The remains of the southeast tower at Tel Jezreel 377
Figure 14-­6 The large podium of the Israelite temple
(“high place”) at Dan 378
Figure 14-­7 The Tel Dan Inscription 382
Figure 14-­8 A scene from the Black Obelisk 383
Figure 14-­9 Samaria ostraca from the time of Jeroboam II 385
Figure 15-­1 The City of David south and downhill from the temple
platform 395
Figure 15-­2 The narrow tunnel dug during King Hezekiah’s reign 400
xxx List of Figures

Figure 15-­3 Relief from the Assyrian king Sennacherib’s palace in

Nineveh 401
Figure 15-­4 Tel Lachish 401
Figure 15-­5 The Judahite fortress at Tel Arad 402
Figure 15-­6 LMLK stamps 408
Figure 16-­1 Judean Pillar Figurines from eighth-­century BCE
Jerusalem 415
Figure 16-­2 Palestinian women and men harvesting olives 421
Photo: “Harvesting olives.” Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division [LC-­DIG-­matpc-­18895]
Figure 16-­3 A statue depicting a servant woman from
Old Kingdom Egypt 424
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient
_egyptian_statuette_of _a_woman_ grinding _ grain_2.jpg
Figure 16-­4 Reconstruction of a vertical warp-­weighted loom with clay
loom weights 426
Figure 16-­5 House F7, a four-­room house at Tell Halif, Israel 428
Illustration is reproduced with permission from James Walker Hardin,
Lahav II: Households and the Use of Domestic Space at Iron I Tell
Halif (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2010), fig. 5.3.
Figure 17-­1 Tel Megiddo 440
Figure 17-­2 Samaria ostraca 442
Figure 17-­3 A lamassu (winged bull with a human head) from the
Khorsabad palace of Sargon II 444
Figure 17-­4 The “broad wall” built during the reign of King Hezekiah 449
Figure 17-­5 Aerial view of Tel Lachish 452
Figure 17-­6 Kuntillet Ajrud 466
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuntillet_Ajrud#/media/
File:Ajrud.jpg
Figure 18-­1 Baal 478
Figure 18-­2 Temple at Tel Tayinat 478
Photo: Stephen Batiuk. Courtesy of Tayinat Archaeological Project.
Figure 18-­3 Bronze calf and shrine from Ashkelon 479
Figure 18-­4 The Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) 481
Figure 18-­5 Taanach cult stand depicting Asherah 488
Figure 18-­6 Sanctuary at Arad patterned after the tripartite
(three-­room) temple in Jerusalem 489
Figure 18-­7 Amulet from Ketef Hinnom 491
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birkat_
kohanim_22.jpg
 List of Figures xxxi

Figure 19-­1 The restored Adad Gate at Nineveh 507

Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh#/media/File:
Nineveh_Adad_ gate_exterior_entrance_ far2.jpg
Figure 19-­2 Babylon in 1932 507
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon#/media/
File:Babylon,_1932.jpg
Figure 19-­3 The Lachish Letters 511
Figure 19-­4 The modern reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate 515
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate#/media/
File:Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg
Figure 19-­5 Cyrus Cylinder 525
Figure 20-­1 Mausoleum of Cyrus 534
Figure 20-­2 The palace complex at Persepolis 545
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis#/media/
File:Parseh.jpg
Figure 20-­3 The Yehud coin 549
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehud_Medinata#/media/
File:YHD_coins.jpg
Figure 20-­4 Elephantine Island 553
Illustration: Courtesy of Stephen G. Rosenberg
 ABBREVIATIONS

ABD David Noel Freedman, ed. Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols.

New York: Doubleday, 1992.
AD Anno Domini, “Year of the Lord”
Amos Amos
ANET James B. Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts. 3rd ed.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.
AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies
BA Biblical Archaeologist (forerunner of NEA)
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BC Before Christ
BCE Before the Common Era
BibRev Bible Review
BN Biblische Notizen
BP Before Present
14
C Carbon-­14
CAP A. E. Cowley, ed. Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1923.
CAT Manfried Dietrich, Oswald Loretz, and Joaquín Sanmartín,
eds. The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn
Hani and Other Places. 3rd enlarged ed. KTU3. AOAT
360/1. Münster: Ugarit Verlag, 2013.
CE Common Era
CH Chronicler’s History
1 & 2 Chr 1 & 2 Chronicles
COS William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger. Context of
Scripture. 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Dan Daniel
Deut Deuteronomy
DH Deuteronomistic History

xxxiii
xxxiv Abbreviations

EB Early Bronze Age

Eccl Ecclesiastes
Esth Esther
Ex, Exod Exodus
Ezek Ezekiel
Gen Genesis
Hag Haggai
Harper Atlas James B. Pritchard, ed. 1987. Harper Atlas of the Bible. New
York: Harper & Row.
Hos Hosea
Isa Isaiah
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
Jer Jeremiah
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
Jon Jonah
Josh Joshua
JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Judg Judges
Lam Lamentations
LB Late Bronze Age
Lev Leviticus
1 & 2 Macc 1 & 2 Maccabees
Mal Malachi
MB Middle Bronze Age
MCC Modified Conventional Chronology
Mic Micah
Nah Nahum
NEA Near Eastern Archaeology (successor to BA)
NEAEHL Ephraim Stern, ed. New Encyclopedia of Archaeological
Excavations in the Holy Land. 4 vols. New York: Simon &
Schuster; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Carta,
1993. Vol. 5, 2008.
Neh Nehemiah
Num Numbers
Obad Obadiah
PEF Palestine Exploration Fund
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly
Prov Proverbs
Ps, Pss Psalms
 Abbreviations xxxv

1 & 2 Sam
1 & 2 Samuel
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
Song Song of Songs
SS Supplement Series
TDOT G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds.
Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. 15 vols. Grand
Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1974–­2006.
UF Ugarit-­Forschungen
Zech Zechariah
Zeph Zephaniah
 INTRODUCTION

The people known as Israel stand at the center of the Hebrew Bible—­a col-
lection of books Christians call the Old Testament.* The Bible describes their
origins—­how God rescued them from Egypt and made an “everlasting” cove-
nant with them. It then relates their interactions with God over the following
centuries. This set of stories, laws, and other writings became the foundation
for three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
For many centuries, the only information about Israel came from the
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, a
new source of information about ancient Israel became available: archaeol-
ogy. The remains of ancient Israel and its neighbors could be dug up from the
ground at sites in the Holy Land, the Middle East, and the eastern Mediterra-
nean. These discoveries provided knowledge that could be used to supplement
and inform the study of the Bible. From its origins, archaeology in the Holy
Land was subordinated to the Bible and became an important weapon in the
fight of faith. In the aftermath of the Enlightenment, the Bible and its reliabil-
ity had come under attack. To counter this, Protestant Christians used the new
“science” of archaeology to provide support for the Bible’s historical accuracy.
This approach came to be known as biblical archaeology, and its fundamen-
tal goal was to use archaeological excavations and their finds to demonstrate
the correctness of biblical accounts—­that is, to prove that the Bible is histori-
cally accurate.
Today the idea of subordinating archaeology to biblical studies seems
entirely wrongheaded, even backward, but it describes the conception and
motivation of biblical archaeology up to the latter half of the twentieth century.
As many biblical scholars have noted (see chapter 2), even the great archaeol-
ogist W. F. Albright—­who is credited with founding the American branch of
archaeological research in the Holy Land and did much to set such research on
a sound footing—­saw archaeology as demonstrating the accuracy of the Bible.
As late as the 1960s, Albright held that archaeology confirmed Scripture.

*
The first appearance of a glossary entry is indicated in bold type.

1
2 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

As J. Edward Wright (2002, 63) has observed, when Albright moved from
excavation to explanation,
Albright’s reconstruction of biblical history and religion followed the exist-
ing biblical narratives almost literally. He noted that archaeological evi-
dence confirmed repeatedly the basic reliability of biblical history.

Albright epitomized the practices and theological interpretations of biblical

archaeology that had developed in the twentieth century. As chapters 3 and 4
lay out, archaeological finds were interpreted and presented as upholding bibli-
cal accuracy whenever possible. But despite Albright’s accomplishments—­and
in part because of them—­biblical archaeology’s heyday was coming to an end.
The 1970s saw important changes in both the archaeology of ancient
Israel and in the discipline of archaeology as practiced in Western univer-
sities. The decade’s beginning saw two of biblical archaeology’s foremost
practitioners—­G. Ernest Wright (1971) and Roland de Vaux (1970)—­arguing
that archaeology and theology needed to be practiced separately, each accord-
ing to the independent standards of its own discipline. Only when results were
complete within each field, they argued, could archaeology be used to address
questions posed by theology (see chapter 5). In other words, the theological
component inherent in biblical archaeology needed to be separated from the
archaeological one, giving archaeological research into the Middle East’s past
independent standing.
At the same time, archaeology as a field began a transformation inspired
by “New Archaeology”—­now referred to as processual archaeology. These
changes emphasized archaeology as a branch of anthropology and a part of
that discipline’s investigation of human culture. Archaeology’s purpose was
to study past human cultures through the remains they left behind. In this
transformation, archaeology self-­consciously reformulated itself along scien-
tific lines. Rather than “just digging,” it required explicit research questions
with planned excavation projects to answer them. It worked to interpret arti-
facts as evidence of past societies and it studied them in comparison to similar
human cultures, both past and present. Archaeology furthermore allied itself
with other scientific disciplines—­creating new specialties such as archaeozo-
ology and paleoethnobotany.
New Archaeology quickly impacted archaeological practices in the land
of Israel, as chapter 5 describes, where its new character led it to take on the
name “Syro-­Palestinian archaeology.” By 1985, archaeological research into
Israel’s past and that of other peoples in the southern Levant had ceased to be
a stepchild of biblical studies and operated as an independent field, pursuing
its own research agendas guided by anthropological and scientific principles.
Today, the archaeology of ancient Israel fits into the discipline of anthropology
 Introduction 3

alongside the archaeology of other ancient cultures. Its professorial practi-

tioners usually consider themselves anthropologists and publish in that dis-
cipline’s journals, as well as in more specialized ones, where the analysis and
debate over the archaeology of ancient Israel take place among, and according
to the same standards as, the archaeology of other past societies and cultures
around the world.
And that is where this textbook comes in. Despite its acceptance in archae-
ological circles, Syro-­Palestinian archaeology has been slow to make inroads
into biblical studies and its text-­based approach to studying ancient Israel.
Tens of thousands of students in universities and colleges across North Amer-
ica take courses on the Old Testament or ancient Israel—­usually in religious
studies or theology departments. But the results, discoveries, and insights of
Syro-­Palestinian archaeology have made surprisingly little impact on these
courses’ textbooks. Typical Old Testament introductory texts emphasize the
biblical books and their analysis. In a few places, archaeological materials are
brought in, but they remain subordinated to textual explication and rarely
shape the pedagogy of even a single chapter. And although a few textbooks of
other kinds explore archaeology alongside the Bible, too often they still seek to
use archaeology to support Scripture’s reliability.
In this light, the present textbook focuses on the history of ancient Israel.
While the Old Testament immortalized the Israelites through its stories, laws,
psalms, and prophecies, the people Israel were much more than the limited
picture presented in those pages. They were more than the priests and proph-
ets, the kings and judges who led Israel. Even though these leaders usually take
center stage in the biblical books, we must recognize that they were the “1 per-
cent.” The rest of the Israelites were more like Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz—­land
holders, farmers, and day laborers in the agricultural economy. Archaeological
excavations have the ability to reveal all levels of Israelite society: from the
farming villages of the hill country to the cities of the Jezreel Valley—­from
the wine vats, olive presses, and pottery workshops to the palaces of Samaria.
It can inform us about people’s diet, their standard of health, their houses, and
their level of wealth. It can uncover the society’s economic structure and trade
relations as well as their use of metal and technological sophistication. The
biblical texts may provide hints on some of these matters, but it is the archaeo-
logical record that can provide solid evidence for them and for topics Scripture
does not even suggest we broach.
Not even the language of the Hebrew Bible is complete. Although the
average American adult has an active vocabulary of twenty thousand to thirty-­
five thousand words, the Hebrew Bible contains about only eight thousand
different words. It is clear that much is missing. The Bible talks about combing
one’s hair but does not use the word for “comb.” It speaks of knives and forks
4 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

but never mentions spoons. It speaks of sewing but never of needles (Ullendorf
1971, 251–­52). All these items, by the way, appear in the archaeological record.
It was thought for many centuries that to understand the ancient Israel-
ites, you had to understand the Bible. It is now clear that to understand the
Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, you must understand ancient Israel, and the
only way to do that is to use all aspects of archaeological and textual data to
reconstruct Israel’s history.
That is what this book aims to accomplish. Its goal is to develop for its
introductory readers a historical understanding of the ancient Israelites as
they were, in all their achievements and failures. It will describe what events
happened to the Israelites and what they were like—­back then. The book is
not interested in how the biblical material has been interpreted and reimag-
ined by later Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the centuries since it was
composed. Thus, the integration in this book comes not between archaeology
and theology—­as it had in biblical archaeology—­but between archaeological
analysis of data from the ground and literary analysis of the Old Testament /
Hebrew Bible. These provide the evidence for the history of ancient Israel.
The book’s opening chapters lay out these two key categories. Chapter
1 explains how archaeology works, from planning and carrying out an exca-
vation to the types of analyses archaeologists perform on their finds. It also
looks at the geography of the ancient Middle East, the location where these
archaeological excavations take place. Chapter 2 looks at the Old Testament /
Hebrew Bible, describing its books, how we know what its text says, and how
modern scholarship studies its literary and historical character. The next three
chapters explore the development of archaeology in the Holy Land and the
Middle East over the last two centuries, how it has changed in recent decades,
as well as its future. In chapter 6, the book settles into its main task of laying
out the history of ancient Israel, and the following chapters pursue that goal in
a chronological fashion—­more about those chapters in a moment. But first we
must unpack what we mean by the two terms we have used in these opening
pages: Old Testament and Hebrew Bible.

What Do We Call It?

The collection of books Christians call the Old Testament comprises a sacred,
foundational document for two religions, Judaism and Christianity. But
despite this commonality, each religion understands the collection differently
and sees it as leading to the formation of their own religion, their own commu-
nity of believers, and their own theology and practices. For the benefit of their
community, both religions emphasize how the contents are relevant today, not
just in hoary antiquity.
 Introduction 5

In Christianity, the name “Old Testament” indicates that, along with a

second collection called the “New Testament,” it is part of a larger sacred work
Christians call the “Bible.” This combination implies that the former can be
understood only in conjunction with the latter. In Judaism, by contrast, this
work is called the “TaNaK” (usually transcribed as “Tanakh”), which is a
Hebrew acronym indicating the three collections of books out of which it was
formed. “T” stands for the books of the Torah. “N” stands for the books of the
Neviim (the “Prophets”), and “K” stands for Ketuvim (the “Writings”). When
Jews use the word “Bible,” they mean the Tanakh. Both Old Testament and
Tanakh are sectarian titles and both usually imply an interpretation that con-
forms the relevant religion. By contrast, this book focuses on history, seeking
the meaning of the books at the time they were composed.
Recognizing this problem, biblical scholars coined the designation
“Hebrew Bible.” They aimed to create a neutral term for the Tanakh/Old Tes-
tament, and the term became widely adopted for that purpose in the academic
world. This identification has its own problems, not the least of which is the
fact that the Hebrew Bible uses Aramaic as well as Hebrew. However, since
this book’s chapters are written by authors of differing religious, academic,
and national backgrounds, the editors decided to allow each author to use the
term(s) they preferred. We should also note that this book’s title uses “Old Tes-
tament” because it is the most widely used designation in English.

The Academic Study of History

In and of itself, the past is unknown. We are not born knowing what happened
before our birth, nor do we know about events at which we were not present—­to
state the obvious. We learn about past events from what people tell us, either
orally or in writing, and from objects (to use a general, all-­inclusive term) that
were created in the past and still exist in our time. The academic study of his-
tory takes all the evidence that can be found and draws upon it to compose a
reconstruction of the past, whether of past events or of the character and cir-
cumstances of past societies.
The academic discipline of history differs significantly from notions of his-
tory found in popular culture. It aims to reconstruct the past as accurately as
possible and as neutrally as possible, based on evidence. Historians may not
always achieve this aim, but that is the standard. Historical research uses all
available evidence; it does not cherry-­pick. It does not ignore inconvenient
data. Historical research aims for a neutral and unbiased use of that evidence;
it does not purposely slant its conclusions to suit a modern agenda. It seeks
honest results and transparent explication of the research.
The practice of academic history takes place in three steps. The first step in
the study of a past event or culture is to find as much information as possible.
6 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

To function at its best, the academic study of history draws upon evidence,
lots of evidence. The more sources of data about the past event or society being
studied, the more reliable its conclusions can be. The fewer sources of informa-
tion we have, the more uncertain the reconstruction of the past. When dealing
with the ancient world, unfortunately, there is often too little evidence. Many
events are known from a single source—­the exact opposite of what is needed
for a successful and reliable historical reconstruction.
In the study of ancient Israel, as this book’s title suggests, historical
research can draw upon the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and archaeological
finds. Depending on what is being studied, both the Hebrew Bible and archae-
ology may reveal multiple sources of data. If the research question focuses on
the laws of ancient Israel, for example, the Ten Commandments, the Covenant
Code, the Priestly Code, and the Deuteronomic Code could be sources, as well
as stories about the practice of laws, as seen in the books of Ruth and Kings.
The law codes of many ancient societies have been discovered by archaeolo-
gists, such as the Code of Hammurabi, and they contain laws parallel to those
found in Scripture. If the research topic concerns Philistine society, the exca-
vations at Philistine sites would constitute evidence, along with the Egyptian
records about contact with them as well as the biblical stories in the books
of Judges, Samuel, and Kings about Israelite interaction with them. Investiga-
tions into diet draw from descriptions of food in the Old Testament and from
the excavated remains of bones, grains, and cooking implements.
Once all the data have been gathered, the second step takes place. Here, a
historian must examine and test each piece of evidence for reliability, evaluate
its relevance, and assess its content. Written evidence, whether drawn from
a biblical book or found in an archaeological excavation, is always composed
from the author’s perspective, knowledge, and ability. The historian must
appraise those, examine the character of each source, gauge the accuracy and
amount of its information, and then use and trust the piece of evidence accord-
ingly. If the subject is a conflict, for instance, the side a writer favors will affect
the way the writer presents information and draws conclusions. Or perhaps an
author knows about an event only through an earlier source. The author’s work
then cannot be treated as an independent piece of evidence.
Archaeological finds pose a different challenge at this stage; they must be
interpreted by the field’s scientific and disciplinary principles. Indeed, archae-
ology’s strength comes from its ability to discover objects from an ancient
human context and work out their dating, their function, and what they reveal
about the people who created and/or used them. See chapter 1 for further
explanation.
Finally, in the third step of the academic approach to history, a historian
studying an event takes all the sources into account and brings them together
 Introduction 7

in a synthesis. The historian uses the results of the previous two steps and
matches the different pieces of evidence that fit together. When several reliable
items of information point to the same conclusion, that makes the historian’s
job easy. But, frequently, pieces of evidence differ—­sometimes in major ways,
sometimes in minor ways. Then historians must use their judgment, drawing
on their determination of the reliability of each source, to create the most
accurate reconstruction.
These three steps should not be seen as a simple progression that historians
follow through once to arrive at their synthesis or reconstruction. Academic
historians are always asking questions, both of the data and of their conclu-
sions. The questions then inspire them to find answers, sending them back
to step one to search for more evidence to answer them. Indeed, historians
continually seek to understand a past event fully, repeatedly moving back and
forth through the three steps until they are satisfied that all evidence has been
found and plumbed and that the synthesis they created from it is the strongest
and most accurate reconstruction possible.
When their research is complete, academic historians present their recon-
structions to their peers, ultimately in a published form. Each presentation
then undergoes evaluation by their peers, who assess it and respond to it in
ways that can range from a withering critique to an appreciating confirmation
of the overall synthesis. Some scholars may write their own reconstruction of
the past from the same data. The goal is to develop a historical reconstruc-
tion that accounts for all the evidence and that resolves as many questions
being asked by historians as possible. A solid synthesis of this type may guide
understanding and interpretation of the period for decades, but it must also be
remembered that the synthesis and assessment process never ends, since new
data and new interpretations often emerge.
Two further observations are needed at this point. First, historical anal-
ysis does not artificially line up textual data on one side and group archaeo-
logical data on another side and then compare them. Each piece of evidence,
whatever its type, stands independently and must be evaluated on its own
merits. A research question may have dozens of relevant pieces of evidence,
from the Bible and from archaeology. Analysis may find textual and archae-
ological data in favor of one interpretation, while other textual and archaeo-
logical data support another interpretation. The search for history does not
pit text against archaeology but weighs all evidence together according to
their relative merits.
Second, our simplified explanation of this book’s goal should not be under-
stood to imply that neither textual scholars nor archaeologists practice history.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Both address historical questions
regularly, and they often bring in data from the other field to help them out.
8 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

Unfortunately, this sometimes has the effect of subordinating one field to the
other. At the introductory level of this textbook, however, the goal is to bring
all the evidence for ancient Israel together and to treat each source equally,
using them together to create the best reconstruction of ancient people of
Israel, their history and culture, and how they changed through the centuries.

A Guide: What to Expect in This Book

As you might expect from a book featuring the evidence of archaeology and
the Bible, the first two chapters provide an introduction to each type of data.
This is preceded by an overview of the geography of the Middle East and the
place of the land of Israel in it, for this is the location of both kinds of evidence.
Chapters 3 through 5 complete section 1 and trace the recent history of
how the archaeological study of the Middle East and the land of Israel arose in
the past two centuries or so. This leads to the advances in “digging up the past”
that ultimately inspired the formation of what became known as biblical archae-
ology. This field, despite later criticism, made important and lasting contribu-
tions to archaeological practice in the Middle East, even though its theological
presuppositions were later replaced by more theoretically sound foundations.
This new approach to archaeological investigation enables this book’s focus on
history and historical evidence of all kinds, treated equivalently.
Chapter 6 begins the book’s historical study of ancient Israel, drawing
upon archaeological and biblical data. From here, the book is divided into four
further sections. Sections 4 and 5, the book’s second half, have a clear thematic
unity: their chapters feature the People of Israel in the land of Israel, begin-
ning with David’s creation of the Israelite kingdom and continuing to its split
into two smaller countries and then to their destruction and the exile of their
inhabitants, followed by the return of some exiles and their reestablishment of
the Israelite community in the land. Throughout these chapters, the historical
reconstruction draws upon both biblical and archaeological information.
Sections 2 and 3 (chapters 6 through 12) are not so neat. At their start,
neither the people of Israel nor the land of Israel exist. The first two chapters
of this section (chapters 6 and 7) feature the land of Canaan before it became
the land of Israel sometime after 1200 BCE. They begin with the appearance of
human beings in the southern Levant and then quickly move to the two thou-
sand years of Canaanite cities and culture during the Bronze Age—­before
anyone knew anything about the Israelites. These chapters draw solely from
archaeological finds, since the Hebrew Bible contains only a small amount of
material that is relevant to these time periods.
The next two chapters (8 and 9) address the biblical books of the Torah
and feature the Hebrews—­fi rst through Abraham and his extended family
and then a growing group of his descendants. At the beginning, they are not
 Introduction 9

called Israelites or Hebrews but acquire that name in the course of their expe-
riences. During these five books, the Israelites and their ancestors are nearly
always traveling. The tales never describe putting down roots, not even in
Genesis when Abraham and his descendants journey in Canaan or in Exodus,
where, despite generations of forced labor in Egypt, the story is about leaving
and then traveling for forty years. It should not be surprising that most of the
discussion in these two chapters focuses mainly on the biblical tales, with lit-
tle contributed from archaeology—­since people on the move leave few long-­
lasting remains.
Chapters 10 through 12 examine in detail the appearance of the People
of Israel in the land of Canaan, which will become the land of Israel. And
here we have both types of evidence. The biblical books of Joshua and Judges
tell of how the Israelites arrived in Canaan, took possession of it, and lived
there. Archaeologically speaking, this is the Iron Age I, beginning at the end
of the thirteenth century and the early twelfth century. At this time, archae-
ological evidence reveals a period of increasing population in the previously
empty Central Hill Country of Canaan. This is essentially where the biblical
books place the early presence of the Israelites and at roughly the same time.
But because archaeology has discovered no written finds from this time, we
cannot reliably name these settlers. Even though we cannot be sure of the ori-
gins of theses settlers, many scholars believe the proto-­Israelites lived among
them. But another group appears in Canaan at about the same time, one that
settles in the lowlands along the southern coast: the Philistines. And it is the
interaction of the Canaanites with these newcomers—­the Philistines and the
Israelites (as well as the newcomers with each other)—­that sets the stage for
the next segment of Israelite history.
The six chapters of section 4 then look at the rise of the Israelite kingdoms
in the hill country, as they appear in the archaeology and as recorded in the
books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicle, and many of the prophets. This begins in
chapter 13 with David’s establishment of the united monarchy and his son
Solomon’s continuation of it, a period of approximately seventy years. The
kingdom David established split in two after Solomon’s death, and chapters 14
and 15 describe the history of the northern country of Israel and the southern
country of Judah over the next two centuries, respectively. This stable political
period provides an opportunity to shift our attention in chapter 16 from the
elite to the vast majority of working people who supplied the food and labor
for the two countries.
The two and a half centuries beginning with David—­which archaeologists
identify as Early Iron Age II—­were characterized by a lack of foreign domina-
tion in the land of Israel. This situation certainly eased the way for David’s
establishment of his monarchy and for the continuing independence of first
10 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

one and then two countries in the land of Israel. During the earlier Late Bronze
Age, by contrast, Canaan had been under the thumb of Egypt and only gradu-
ally escaped that control in Iron Age I. True, Solomon’s son Rehoboam had to
deal with an invasion by Pharaoh Shishak/Sheshonq as well as with Egyptian
interference in his succession, but this seems to be Egypt’s last incursion into
the southern Levant for several centuries. Israel and Judah continued with-
out threat from external empires until the Mesopotamian empire of Assyria
appeared on the scene in the eighth century. This provides the focus of chapter
17, which looks at the increasing pressure on Israel from the Assyrian Empire
until Israel’s defeat in 720 BCE and then looks at Judah’s response.
Since a major recurring theme of all the biblical books is Israel’s relation-
ship with God, we need to take a look at what we know about Israelite religion
from the sources. This provides the main focus of chapter 18.
Section 5 contains the last two chapters, featuring the end of the histori-
cally oriented material in the Old Testament. Chapter 19 deals with the defeat,
exile, and destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire—­an
event that should have been the end of Israel. But the biblical books of Ezra and
Nehemiah tell of a new start, when the Persian Empire permited the exiles’
descendants to return to the land of Israel and reestablish a community there.
Chapter 20 brings the archaeological discoveries of this period to bear on the
biblical materials.
And this is where the biblical “history” ends, although not the history of
the people Israel. They remained under Persian rule until the coming of Alex-
ander, when the Greek culture and Greek empires replaced that of Persia—­
first under the Egyptian-­ located Ptolemaic Empire and then under the
Syrian-­located Seleucid Empire. Then, beginning in 167 BCE, the Maccabees
threw off Greek overlordship and established the last independent Kingdom of
Israel before the modern era, and perhaps the largest. Even though this contin-
ued into King Herod’s time (d. 4 BCE), this achievement failed to make it into
either the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible or the New Testament.

How to Use This Book

Each chapter has been written by a different author—­some are primarily
experts in the Old Testament literature and others have their expertise in
archaeology—­and represents the author’s expert analysis and judgment about
content and presentation. That means that there will sometimes be interpre-
tive differences between them. At times, different dates will be given for the
same event; these should be seen not as mistakes but as deriving from differ-
ing evaluations of the available evidence. Given the ongoing debates in these
fields, it would be impossible to arrive at and enforce unity; the editors did not
 Introduction 11

even try. These divergencies are actually good, for they show readers that these
are living and active fields and not old, accepted wisdom.
To keep footnotes at a minimum, citations are given by parentheses
within the text by author, date, and page numbers. These works appear in the
bibliography in the back of the book. Each chapter ends with a few suggestions
for further reading, for students who would like to pursue the chapter’s central
topics in greater depth.
From chapter 6 onward, this book is organized in chronological order.
Within each chapter, the order likewise is roughly chronological. For further
chronological information about events, see the “Historical Timeline” in the
front of the book. Since much of the discussion is based on Syro-­Palestinian
archaeology, which determines time by archaeological eras rather than
year-­by-­year progression, a table of the “Archaeological Ages” appears in the
book’s front matter as well.
Most chapters feature a map or two to indicate towns, cities, and other sites
mentioned within. Sites mentioned in chapters without maps usually appear in
other maps. There is a gazetteer in the back that indicates the map on which a
site first appears. Jerusalem maps appear separately at the front. There is also a
glossary, which defines key terms whose first occurrence is highlighted.
Finally, a word about unprovenanced objects—­archaeological excava-
tions constitute careful, controlled, recorded, scientific investigations into the
remains of the past. Any object found in this way is related both spatially and
temporally to a host of other material items—­f rom architectural remains and
pottery to seeds and pollen, to bones, and so on. Archaeologists can then link
the entire complex of items to the peoples who produced them and to the time
when they lived. An object’s context can often reveal more about the object
than the object itself. Unfortunately, nonarchaeologists will sometimes dig
into ancient sites looking for items that can be sold. These looters disturb the
site, destroy items important to archaeology but worthless to them, and strew
around their holes everything from human bones to remains of stone tools
and rotted materials of fabric, wood, and basketry as well as pottery. “Valu-
able” objects taken in this way and stripped of their ancient context often make
their way into Western hands, ending up in collections and even occasionally
museum displays. Indiana Jones is a looter rather than an archaeologist.
Unprovenanced objects constitute a major problem for archaeologists
and historians. Should they be used as evidence about ancient peoples? Much
information about them that could have been gleaned in a controlled archae-
ological excavation is missing. However, if they display writing or a picture of
some sort, they may reveal useful information—­if they can be trusted. Many
unprovenanced objects are modern fakes. Even if they are real, the exact loca-
tion where they were dug up is usually unknown, and sometimes even their
12 The Old Testament in Archaeology and History

country of origin is unidentified. Modern scholarly societies, such as the

American Schools of Oriental Research and the Society for Biblical Litera-
ture, have policies that discourage use of such materials. However, often the
temptation for scholars to use them is too great to overcome, especially if they
contain writing. This is the case with the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are a mix
of provenanced and unprovenanced texts and fragments) and more recently
with the so-­called James Ossuary and the Jehoash Inscription. In the present
work, there are general references to unprovenanced objects (such as seals and
bullae) and occasionally to specific items (such as the tablets from Al-­Yahudu
in Babylonia/Persia and related places discussed in chapters 19 and 20). In
these cases, the authors see their fields as a whole engaging with this material;
to leave it out would be seen as providing an incomplete explanation.