The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective

by Robert B. Coote, Keith W. Whitelam

This highly original study takes a panoramic view of history in order to set the emergence of Israel in the broadest possible perspective. It begins with a study of the nature of historywriting and the increasing problems involved in utilizing the biblical text for historical reconstruction. The authors suggest an alternative approach which assigns priority to interpreting archaeological data within a broad interdisciplinary framework. The book provides a broad overview of settlement patterns and social relations throughout Palestinian history from the middle of the third millennium BCE to the present day in order to illustrate how the emergence of Israel in the early Iron Age fits into the march of time. Archaeological evidence for the appearance of dispersed settlements in the highlands and steppes of Palestine at the beginning of the early Iron Age followed by the rapid centralization of this area suggests that Israel emerged within Palestine in response to the decline in east Mediterranean trade at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The development of an Israelite monarchy is seen as being inextricably linked to the factors involved in Israel's emergence-as distinct from much previous research which has presented the monarchy as alien to the origins of Israel. This volume is a reprint of the 1987 edition with a new preface by Robert B. Coote and Keith W. Whitelam setting the work in the context of recent debates on the history of ancient Israel.

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[S]

Fantastic Braudelian history of ancient Palestine and the emergence of Israel within this context

[Jeremiah W.]

Emphasizes economy and the ebb and flow of international trade as a driving force behind political centralization--a point offered in contrast to prevailing tendencies to view Israel as a unified ideology driving the development of a political nation. That latter belief on the part of scholars has been a product of later Jewish and Christian sensitivies read back into the biblical text. In terms of style, its writing was clunky and at times a chore to get through.