Anson F. Rainey

The Military Personnel of Ugarit

THE rich treasure of weapons being recovered from the mound of Ras Shamra serves to underline the importance of Ugarits military establishment in antiquity.2 Although it was not one of the imperial giants in the Late Bronze Age, Ugarits location and political position made it imperative that its forces be kept strong and ready.3 Such was the case with every city-state in Syria and Palestine that wished to survive in that difficult time. Ugarits importance as a mercantile center from which caravans and ships went out to all points of the ancient world also dictated the maintenance of troops for the protection of these commercial interests.4

Two Cuneiform Fragments from Tel Aphek

During the third season of excavations at Aphek-Antipatris (summer 1974), two cuneiform fragments were found in the destruction debris of a Late Bronze Age building of substantial proportions. The structure, which was only partially uncovered, was exposed in Area X, beneath the courtyard of the Turkish Fort, near the mosque described in the preliminary report of the first two seasons (Kochavi 1975a). Although only a portion of the entryway to the building was unearthed during the third season, its nature as a public building was made clear by such details as: thick stone walls of standard width (1.4 m.); flagstone pavements; a stairway made of well cut monoliths. Debris from the upper storey covered the lower floor to a depth of ca. 1.5 m. This consisted of burnt bricks and charred wooden beams. The homogeneous finds from the debris date the conflagration to the end of the 13th century B.C.E. The cuneiform fragments were found in Locus 1137 near the stairs in the entryway by Mrs. Linda KeIrn of the expedition staff. The present writer is grateful to Dr. M. Kochavi for intrusting him with the responsibility for their publication (for additional details about the 1974 season at Aphek-Antipatris, see Kochavi 1974; 1975b). In this preliminary study no new numbers have been assigned to the texts other than their registration numbers from the daily journal. Naturally, it is hoped that further excavations will bring to light more texts, at which time a logical, perhaps topical, system of enumeration can be devised.

Remarks on Donald Redford's "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times"@@@Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times

The recent work by Redford (1992) on the relations between Egypt, Canaan, and Israel has been reviewed by K. A. Kitchen (1993). Since Kitchen did not deal with a number of crucial issues in the book, it may be helpful to comment on them from the standpoint of the historical geography of ancient Canaan/Israel. There is no doubt that Redfords book will be consulted by many teachers of bible, biblical history, and ancient Near Eastern history. Most of those teachers will probably not be professionally trained to pass critical judgment on Redfords interpretations; and since his is virtually the only such monograph in English on the market, it will doubtless be taken as the most up-to-date

Toward a Precise Date for the Samaria Ostraca

A new proposal is made to assign the dated ostraca to the regnal years of Jehoash (year 15) and his coregent, Jeroboam II (years 9 and 10). The texts could all be dated to the span of years between 784 and 783 B. C., following Thieles chronology. The implications of this new proposal for understanding the texts are explored. Further defense of their significance as records of shipments to officials from their respective land holdings includes a remarkable parallel from the reign of Herod the Great.

A Hebrew "Receipt" from Arad

the Samaria Ostraca, identified with the Manassite clan name Asriel.30 Furthermore, Benjaminite clan names were commonly used and probably appear in such forms as Ehud ben Gera, Shimi ben Gera, Sheba ben Bichri, and as proposed here, Abner ben Ner, Sauls kinsman. I conclude that during the First Commonwealth, administrative documents, such as the Samaria Ostraca and the Gibeon handles, not only employed ancient clan names but also recorded contemporary colloquial pronunciation.

Bethel: Geschichte, Kult und Theologie

Der arabische Ort Bētī n in den besetzten palastinensischen Gebieten, das fruhere Bethel, hat eine lange Geschichte. Sie wird hier mit Hilfe aller zur Verfugung stehenden archaologischen, ikonographischen und literarischen Quellen rekonstruiert. Dabei erweist sich die kultische Deutung chalkolithischer und bronzezeitlicher Anlagen als nicht haltbar. Fur die Eisenzeit II stehen uns fast nur literarische Quellen zur Verfugung. Im 10. Jh. hat Jerobeam I. Bethel zum Sitz des koniglichen Staatstempels gemacht. Als Kultbilder funktionierten eine Mazzebe und die Stierstatuette, auf die sich die ursprunglich positiv gemeinte Erzahlung vom „Goldenen Kalb“ (Ex 32) bezog. Das Stierbild galt nicht als Tragtier des unsichtbaren Gottes, sondern sollte Jahwe vergegenwartigen, und zwar als den machtvoll helfenden Gott, der Israel einst aus Agypten gefuhrt hatte und von dem man sich auch in Zukunft Hilfe versprach. Im 8. Jh. haben die Assyrer den Tempel geplundert und das Gottesbild verschleppt. Der Kult kam jedoch nicht zum Erliegen. Erst im 7. Jh. machte ihm Josia, der sein Gebiet nach Norden erweitern konnte, im Rahmen von Zentralisierungsmassnahmen ein Ende. Die unter Berufung auf die Ausgrabungen vertretene These, dass Bethel im 6. Jh. als Kultort fungierte und sogar Entstehungsort biblischer Schriften war, halt einer kritischen Prufung nicht stand. Von zentraler Bedeutung war fur den Ort in der Konigszeit die Betheler Theologie. Ihr Profil wird an Atiologie, die in der Bibel als Spolien erhalten sind, sowie an der Frontstellung von Amos und Hosea deutlich. Es handelt sich um eine typische Stadt-Theologie , wie wir sie aus Jerusalem und anderen Stadten des Alten Orients kennen. In Zentrum stand die tempeltheologisch begrundete Vorstellung von einer senkrechten Achse („Himmelsleiter“), die den Ort mit dem Himmel, das irdische mit dem himmlischen Heiligtum verbindet, um Gottes Gegenwart und in ihr begrundet das Heil und Wohl von Stadt und Staat auszusagen. Amos hat im Kontext der Sozialkritik, Hosea in dem der Staatskritik gegen Bethel polemisiert. Mit dem Untergang Bethels wurde die Betheler Theologie obsolet. Der Ort galt nur noch als Hort der Sunde. Die Jahwe-Verehrung uberlebte, indem sie Gott vom Kultbild trennte und nur das Bild fur illegitim erklarte, ein fur die Geschichte des Bilderverbots wichtiger Schritt. Die altehrwurdige positive Bethel-Uberlieferung musste zu einer Jakobuberlieferung transformiert oder auf Jerusalem als Ort der Gegenwart Gottes bezogen werden – ein hermeneutisch interessanter Prozess, der im Alten Testament beginnt und sich in der zwischentestamentarischen, altkirchlichen rabbinischen Literatur fortsetzt.

Down-to-Earth Biblical History@@@What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?

William Dever, the senior American archaeologist working in the Holy Land, has written a significant critique of the current minimalist or deconstructionist trend in Old Testament scholarship. He has cut to the heart of the problem, namely that the practitioners of the minimalist approach do not really deal with the realities of the archaeological or textual evidence. Dever places the minimalist school in the context of post-modernism and delivers a scathing attack on their methods (or lack of them) and their nihilistic attitude to truth, especially their assertion that the entire Hebrew Bible is the product of the Hellenistic age. To counter the inferences of the minimalists Dever adduces a series of archaeological discoveries that can be related directly to various references in the Hebrew Bible. They pertain mainly to realia and other details that would hardly have been known to Hellenistic writers. This review supports Dever in all of his criticisms of the minimalists but takes issue with him in regard to some of the archaeological materials. I do not argue that they are irrelevant to Devers case, but rather that it is possible to interpret some of them in a different manner. The lack of a historical-geographical perspective in Devers work is duly noted.

Mesha's Attempt to Invade Judah (2 Chron 20)

M. Noth agrees that the Chroniclers statement about building projects and military activities probably are derived from a genuine ancient source. The chronological sequence of the Chronicler is of major importance. Noth argued that the geographical details must derive from some local tradition. It is also significant that the Chronicler refers to the joint nautical venture with Ahaziah in the subsequent verses. By placing the attempted Moabite-Ammonite invasion between the death of Ahab and the reign of Ahaziah, the Chronicler enables us to date that campaign to 853/852 BCE. The Deuteronomist skipped over this event as well as many other interesting details of the life of Jehoshaphat. The Israelite motivation was revenge for Meshas revolt and conquest of towns in the Moabite tableland north of the Arnon. Jehoshaphats motivation for joining Israel was to get revenge for the attempted invasion via En-gedi. Keywords: Ahaziah; Chroniclers statement; Jehoshaphat; Mesha

Egyptian Military Inscriptions and Some Historical Implications@@@Aspects of the Military Documents of the Ancient Egyptians

This is the first comprehensive treatment of the composition and historiographic background of ancient Egyptian military inscriptions (c. 155 B.C. to c. 450 B.C.). In his chronological study Anthony Spalinger analyzes numerous texts from a formalistic as well as a literary viewpoint. His discovery-that aspects of ancient Egyptian military writing were regulated by a preexisting framework and set phraseology-will enable historians of ancient Egypt to discriminate between what was hyperbole and what was reality in a given military situation.

Historical Geography: The Link between Historical and Archeological Interpretation

As biblical historians attempt to coordinate archeological and textual evidence with greater precision than ever before, the discipline of historical geography takes on increasing significance.