Joseph Blenkinsopp

An Assessment of the Alleged Pre-Exilic Date of the Priestly Material in the Pentateuch

Yehezkel Kaufmanns attempt to establish a pre-exilic date for the composition of the P source was motivated by his rejection of nineteenth century evolutionary views of Israelite religion and Wellhausens understanding of early judaism in particular. The same motivation is at work in those Israeli and American scholars who have followed his lead by either updating his arguments or elaborating new ones in support of the same conclusion. Some seek to align P with Early Biblical Hebrew and others the lexicographical arguments of Hurvitz in favor of the chronological priority of P to Ezekiel

The Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis Revisited and the Origins of Judah

The Kenite, or Midianite-Kenite, hypothesis about the origins of the cult of Yahweh first came into prominence in the late nineteenth century. It rests on four bases: an interpretation of the biblical texts dealing with the Midianite connections of Moses, allusions in ancient poetic compositions to the original residence of Yahweh, Egyptian topographical texts from the fourteenth to the twelfth century, and Cain as the eponymous ancestor of the Kenites. This article discusses the implications of the hypothesis for the ethnic origins of Judah.

The Bible, Archaeology and Politics; or The Empty Land Revisited

Since its inception with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, archaeology in the Middle East has always been involved in politics. Nowhere in the region is this more in evidence than in Palestine/Israel, beginning with the preliminary stage of mapping the land and renaming settlements and physical features taken over from the resident Arabs. A major expression of the political ideology underlying this activity has come to be known as ‘the myth of the empty land’. During the Hellenistic period, when interest in ethnic origins was running high, it provided justification for the initial Israelite occupation of and exclusive claim on the land. In this form, the myth appears to be a retrojection of the land claims of the dominant Judaeo-Babylonian elite during the early Persian period reflected in certain biblical texts. An examination of some recent writing on the archaeology of the region during the Neo-Babylonian period suggests that the myth still exerts its influence.

Memory, Tradition, and the Construction of the Past in Ancient Israel:

The article discusses the role of social memory over against historiography in the formation of historical tradition in ancient Israel with special reference to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE and its aftermath. The collective memory of the past cannot be adequately accounted for by oral tradition detached from rituals of re-enactment, commemorative ceremonies, bodily gestures, and the like, for which the Passover ceremony provides the best example. Survival of the disaster of 586 was possible only by remembering in this way.

Life expectancy in ancient Palestine

Abstract The first part of the paper surveys the terminology used to indicate life stages in Israel and the Near East, ages attributed to different individuals and categories, occupational age limits, and ideas about maximum life expectancy. Such data can be accepted with confidence only when supported by results obtained by physical anthropology, unfortunately underdeveloped for that time and place. The second part of the paper provides a summary of the methods followed, the problems affecting this kind of work, including opposition based on religious premisses, and the rather disappointing results obtained to date.

Yahweh and Other Deities Conflict and Accommodation in the Religion of Israel

The positive attitude toward outsiders which emerged from Israels experience of suffering and deprivation, and of which the attitude to proselytism is symptomatic, was always balanced by the need to resist assimilation.

Old Testament Theology and the Jewish-Christian Connection

It has become customary to trace the origins of biblical theology as a distinct activity to the inaugural lecture of Johann Philipp Gabler delivered at the University of Altdorf on March 30, 1787.1 Presented under the succinct title De iusto discrimine theologiae biblicae et dogmaticae regundisque recte utriusque finibus, it argued the necessity of distinguishing between religion and theology or, in the lecturer’s

Reconciliation in the Middle East: A Biblical Perspective

This essay aims to make a preliminary exploration of what is involved in identifying resources in the canonical texts shared by Jews and Christians for healing and reconciliation in the apparently interminable conflict in Palestine/Israel. Consideration of forgiveness and reconciliation between individuals provides some insight into the implications of reconciliation at the social level. In classical and biblical antiquity, categories of honor and shame tend to exclude considerations of forgiveness as a virtuous act, and the biblical record is replete with holy wars, territorial struggles, and violence visited by the strong on the weak. The book of Isaiah both documents this situation and provides visions of its future reversal in the messianic poems (chaps. 9 and 11), the abolition of war (2:1–4), and an astonishing reinterpretation of the Abrahamic promise (19:24–25).

JUDAH'S COVENANT WITH DEATH (ISAIAH XXVIII 14-22)

The prophetic diatribe in Isa. xxviii 7-22 is directed against the Judean political and religious leadership anxiously seeking an alliance with Egypt of the twenty-fifth (Nubian) dynasty shortly before the Assyrian punitive campaign of 701 B.C. The opponents are accused of entering into a covenant with Death and Sheol. It is suggested that the covenant is represented as made with the Canaanite deity Mot (mŌtu), rather than with Molech, in the expectation that Mot would take up their cause against his adversary Hadad, personification of the sot sotep of xxviii 15, 18, thus enabling them to survive the anticipated Assyrian attack. Isa. xxviii 7-8 suggests the possibility that the ceremony by which the pact was sealed, reminiscent of the Ugaritic texts KTU I.114, is represented as a parody of the tradition about covenant making at Sinai represented by Exod, xxiv 9-11.

A CASE OF BENIGN IMPERIAL NEGLECT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Edomites were already well established in the Judean Negev before the Babylonian conquest, and archaeological evidence suggests that they profited by the disturbances of those years (597-582 bce) to infiltrate much of the province south of Jerusalem. After the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian empire, the interest of the Persians in the region was restricted to protecting the trade routes along the Mediterranean coast and the Transjordanian plateau and the approaches to Egypt. They also had no interest in sponsoring the return of deported Judaeans to the region. Once it became clear that there would be no intervention from distant Susa, the pace of Edomite colonisation quickened, a semi-deserted Jerusalem was occupied, and a sanctuary to the supreme Edomite deity Qos (Qaus) arose on the site of the destroyed Yahweh temple. This ruled out the possibility of repatriation, and Judaism developed as a scattering of ritually segregated enclaves in different countries in line with other religions in late antiquity.