Ancient Israel: A New History of Israel

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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When this provocative text was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history and its religion. Lemche argues first that Israel was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. This implies that Israelite religion was originally Canaanite and that what we think of as typically Jewish religion did not arise until c. 500 BCE. Lemches radical reassessment of Israelite history is based on the conviction that the Old Testament contains hardly any historical sources older than the seventh century BCE. The early history of Israel must therefore be reconstructed from archaeological results and non-biblical evidence, not from the Old Testament. In this new edition Lemche provides an extensive new introduction and bibliography, considering how the field has developed since the work first appeared.

Reviews

Grabbe is to be congratulated for his modesty in presenting this material as prolegomena rather than as A, let alone The, History of Israel, thereby making a valu-able point about the nature of such an exercise. And he is to be thanked for bringing together a wealth of important material for others wishing to understand more about ancient Israels historical context. * Journal of Semitic Studies *
[A]n indispensable tool for anyone teaching and learning biblical history provides a great starting point to navigate through the way the field has evolved In all, Grabbe provides exactly what he promised to offer and does so better than anyone before him. Ancient Israel shall remain and continue to serve as an essential resource for students, teachers, and researchers of biblical history and archaeology. * Biblische Notizen *
Should serve as a great example of scholarly discussion, a stimulus to further methodological reflection, and a model to follow in clarity of expression. * Revue Biblique *
When it first appeared, Lemches Ancient Israel was the first of a new generation of Iron age histories, with its insistence on a sociological rather than theological approach, its rejection of the rationalistic biblical paraphrases, (as Lemche felicitously termed what had gone before). If some features of this new approach were already being anticipated, Lemche provided the first synthesis, laying the foundation for the current agenda. In this new edition, some of his own modifications and developments of that agenda are also reviewed. It remains an excellent foundation for historical research into the Hebrew Bible. * Philip Davies, University of Sheffield, UK *
When it was first published, this best-selling introductory textbook on the history of ancient Israel stood at the cusp of the departure from a history based on a rational paraphrase of the Bible and the construction of the critical, archaeologically based history of Palestine which is dominant today. Rooted in a social science-based perspective of Palestine's ancient past, Lemche based himself in the rapidly changing perspectives of Israel and Judah's histories of the decade preceding his textbook and set a firm foundation for the critical histories of the present. * Thomas L. Thompson, Professor emeritus, University of Copenhagen, Denmark *

Author Bio

Niels Peter Lemche is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biblical Exegesis at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.