Table Of Content
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HISTORICAL AND BIBLICAL ISRAEL
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Historical and Biblical
Israel
The History, Tradition, and Archives
of Israel and Judah
by
REINHARD G. KRATZ
Translated by
PAUL MICHAEL KURTZ
1
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3
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Acknowledgements
IamgratefultoOxfordUniversityPressandespeciallyTomPerridgefortheir
interest in and publication of this volume, a revised and enlarged English
version of a German book published by Mohr Siebeck, in 2013, entitled
Historisches und biblisches Israel: Drei Überblicke zum Alten Testament.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Paul Michael Kurtz for his
thorough and elegant translation and many suggestions for clarification. In
addition,kindthanksgotoFranziskaEdeandPeterPorzigfortheirassistance
inproofreadingthetranslation,adjustingthebibliographyforanAnglophone
audience (text editions and secondary literature), and revising the footnotes
and appendices accordingly. I also received substantial and challenging feed-
back between the German and English editions from anonymous readers for
thepublisheraswellasfromReedCarlson,whoreviewedtheGermanversion
for a Hebrew Bible seminar at Harvard University. Finally, I would like to
thank St. John’s College, Cambridge, especially my host Nathan McDonald,
forinvitingmeasanOverseasVisitingScholarin2014–15.Theyprovidedme
withanextraordinaryworkingenvironment,bothhospitableandstimulating,
whichenabledmetocompletethisvolume.
January2015 ReinhardG.Kratz
Cambridge
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Contents
Introduction 1
PARTA.THEHISTORYOFISRAELANDJUDAH
I. ThePremises 9
1. BeginningandEnd 9
2. TheSources 11
3. TheSetting 14
4. TheOriginsofIsrael 15
II. TheTwoKingdoms 18
1. TransitiontotheMonarchy 18
2. Saul,David,andSolomon 19
3. TheKingdomofIsrael 21
4. TheKingdomofJudah 27
III. TheTwoProvinces 34
1. Samaria,Judah,andtheDiaspora 34
2. TheHasmoneanKingdom 39
3. TheHerodianKingdom 45
IV. AnOutlineofReligiousHistory 48
1. TheReligionofIsraelandJudah 48
2. TheBiblicalTradition 51
3. TheJewishReligion 54
PARTB. THEBIBLICALTRADITION
I. ThePremises 61
1. ScribalCultureandBiblicalTradition 61
2. ScribesandScribalSchools 62
3. WritingandWritingMedia 64
4. Pre-BiblicalWrittenSources 66
II. TransformationintoBiblicalTradition 75
1. FromWealtoWoe:ThePropheticTradition 76
2. FromPeopleofStatetoPeopleofGod:TheNarrativeTradition 79
3. FromJusticetoLaw:TheLegislativeTradition 84
4. FromDivineKingshiptoKingdomofGod:ThePsalmic
Tradition 87
5. FromSagestoPious:TheSapientialTradition 90
III. TheBooksoftheHebrewBible 93
1. TheLaw(Torah) 95
2. TheProphets(Nevi’im) 99
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viii Contents
3. TheWritings(Ketuvim) 101
4. ApocryphaandPseudepigrapha 102
IV. ASketchofLiteraryHistory 105
1. HistoricalandBiblicalIsrael 106
2. TheEraoftheTwoKingdoms 108
3. TheEndofIsrael 110
4. TheEndofJudah 114
5. TheEraoftheTwoProvinces 117
6. AViewofthePara-BiblicalTradition 121
PARTC. JEWISHARCHIVES
I. TheLocationsofLiterature 133
II. BetweenElephantineandQumran 137
1. Elephantine 137
2. Al-Yahudu 147
3. Qumran 153
4. Gerizim 165
5. Jerusalem 181
6. Alexandria 187
III. IsraelandJudaism 197
1. Non-BiblicalandBiblicalJudaism 197
2. HistoryandTradition 203
Timeline 209
ListofKingsandHighPriests 212
Glossary 215
Bibliography 221
IndexofSources 273
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Introduction
Inthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury,HebrewBiblescholarshipexperi-
encedsubstantialtransformation.ThespectacularunearthingoftheDeadSea
Scrolls (Qumran), the no less important excavations of Mount Gerizim (the
sanctuary of the Samaritans), and the epigraphic finds throughout Syria–
Palestine have all produced a wealth of new material. These discoveries,
alongside a diversity of new methodological approaches for investigating
both literary and religious history, have cast new light upon the Hebrew
Bible and set our conception of ancient Israel and early Judaism in the first
millennium BCE upon a new foundation. Orienting itself toward these shifts,
this book concentrates on three distinct fields of research that have been
particularly impacted by such changes: the history of Israel and Judah, the
formationoftheHebrewBible,andJewisharchives.
Whilethefirsttwofields,i.e.,historyandliterature,belongtothetraditional
curriculum of Hebrew Bible scholarship—despite their different treatment
here in some respects—the third constitutes a field of research intimately
connected with thefirst twobut one that tends to draw attentiononly in the
scope of more specialized inquiries: those places that either yielded Jewish
manuscriptsanddocuments(Elephantine,Al-Yahudu,Qumran)orareasso-
ciatedconspicuouslywiththetraditionoftheHebrewBible(MountGerizim,
Jerusalem,Alexandria).Indeed,historicalreconstructionpresupposesanalysis
ofthebiblicalliteratureandothersourcematerials,yetthethere-presentation
here proceeds in the opposite direction. It follows a factual and overall
chronological order. The first part of the book, on Israelite and Judahite
history,thusdelimitsthehistoricalandreligiouscontextinwhichthebiblical
tradition emerged, while the second concerns the formation and history of
thatverytradition.Asforthethirdandfinalpart,itconsidersthoseplacesin
which non-biblical as well as biblical texts were preserved, copied, edited,
annotated,updated,andtranslated—betheyfirmlyestablished,archaeologic-
allyverified,orliterarilyattested.Atthecenterofthisbookliesafundamental
yet unanswered question: under which historical and sociological conditions
andinwhichmannertheHebrewBiblebecameanauthoritativetradition,that
is,holyscriptureandthecanonofJudaismaswellasChristianity.
