Biblical narratives, archaeology, and historicity : essays in honour of Thomas L. Thompson

This volume collects essays from an international body of leading scholars in Old Testament studies, focused upon the key concepts of the question of historicity of biblical stories, the archaeology of Israel/Palestine during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the nature of biblical narratives and related literature. As a celebration of the extensive body of Thomas L. Thompson’s work, these essays enable a threefold perspective on biblical narratives. Beginning with ‘method’, the contributors discuss archaeology, cultural memory, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge, before moving to ‘history, historiography and archaeology’ and close analysis of the Qumran Writings, Josephus and biblical rewritings. Finally the argument turn to the narratives themselves, exploring topics including the possibility of invented myth, the genre of Judges and the depiction of Moses in the Qu’ran. Presenting an interdisciplinary analysis of the historical issues concerning ancient Israel/Palestine, this volume creates an updated body of reference to fifty years’ worth of scholarship. Cover Frontmatter Titel Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Contributors List of Abbreviations Introduction Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò and Emanuel Pfoh The Publications of Thomas L. Thompson Part 1 Method The City of David as a Palimpsest Margreet L. Steiner Living in the Past? Keeping Up-To-Date in Ancient Near Eastern Studies Raz Kletter What People Want to Believe: Or Fighting against‘Cultural Memory’ Niels Peter Lemche The Need for a Comprehensive Sociology of Knowledge of Biblical and Archaeological Studies of the Southern Levant Emanuel Pfoh Part 2 History, Historiography and Archaeology The Abraham and Esau-Jacob Stories in the Context of the Maccabean Period Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spanò Tell Balata (Shechem): An Archaeological and Historical Reassessment Hamdan Taha and Gerrit van der Kooij ‘Solomon’ (Shalmaneser III) and the Emergence of Judahas an Independent Kingdom Russell Gmirkin On the Pre-Exilic Gap between Israel and Judah Étienne Nodet Perceptions of Israel’s Past in Qumran Writings: Between Myth and Historiography Jesper Høgenhaven Is Josephus’s John the Baptist Passage a Chronologically Dislocated Story of the Death of Hyrcanus II? Gregory L. Doudna Thompson’s Jesus: Staring Down the Wishing Well Jim West The Qur’an as Biblical Rewriting Mogens Müller Part 3 Biblical Narratives The Food of Life and the Food of Death in Texts from the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East Ingrid Hjelm A Gate in Gaza: An Essay on the Reception of Tall Tales Jack M. Sasson Deborah’s Topical Song: Remarks on the Gattung of Judges 5 Bob Becking How Jerusalem’s Temple Was Aligned to Moses’ Tabernacle: About the Historical Power of an Invented Myth Rainer Albertz Can the Book of Nehemiah Be Used as an Historical Source , and If So, of What? Lisbeth S. Fried Chronicles’ Reshaping of Memories of Ancestors Populating Genesis Ehud Ben Zvi The Book of Proverbs and Hesiod’s Works and Days Philippe Wajdenbaum The Villain ‘Samaritan’: The Samiri as the Other Moses in Qur’anic Exegesis Joshua Sabih Index of References Index of Authors