One God — One Cult — One Nation: Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives

485 Pages·2010·24.95 MB·English

by  Reinhard G. Kratz

One God - One Cult -
One Nation
Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives
Edited by
Reinhard G. Kratz
and Hermann Spickermann
One God — One Cult — One Nation
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Herausgegeben von
John Barton · Reinhard G. Kratz
Choon-Leong Seow · Markus Witte
Band 405
De Gruyter
One God — One Cult — One Nation
Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives
Edited by
Reinhard G. Kratz and Hermann Spieckermann
In cooperation with
Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger
De Gruyter
ISBN 978-3-11-022357-6
e-ISBN 978-3-11-022358-3
ISSN 0934-2575
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kratz, Reinhard Gregor, 1957-
One God, one cult, one nation : archaeological and biblical perspec­
tives / Reinhard G. Kratz, Hermann Spieckermann.
p. cm. — (Beihefte zur zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche wissen­
schaft)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-11-022357-6 (hardcover 23 x 15,5: alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T. — Antiquities. 2. Bible. O.T. — Criticism, interpretation,
etc. 3. Excavations (Archaeology) — Israel. 4. Israel — Antiquities.
I. Spieckermann, Hermann. II. Title.
BS1196.5.K73 2010
221.9'3 —dc22
2010021655
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet
at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ro Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
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Preface
The present volume contains the updated versions of lectures delivered
during two events of the Göttingen research training group
(Graduiertenkolleg) "Götterbilder - Gottesbilder - Weltbilder: Polythe­
ismus und Monotheismus in der Welt der Antike". One of the events
was an international and interdisciplinary symposium in Jerusalem
during September 2008. This symposium was organized by the re­
search training group in co-operation with the Centrum Orbis Orientalis
(CORO) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The topic of the
meeting also provided the title for the present volume: "One God, One
Nation, One Cult". Under this heading we tried to bring Biblical Stud­
ies into conversation with Archaeology. The second meeting originated
in a field trip that was originally part of the 2008 meeting. Here we
visited - amongst other sites - Beth Shean/Nysa-Scythopolis. As a re­
suit we continued the interdisciplinary conversation now at a meeting
in Göttingen in July 2009 and focussed on a specific case-study. In addi­
tion to the essays published here several important papers were deliv­
ered and discussed at the two meetings by both, invited participants
(e.g. Prof. Gunnar Lehmann, Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba) and
doctoral students of the research training group. For various reasons
we were unable to publish theses papers in the present volume but
some of the insights from them were incorporated in the various essays
presented here.
The idea, planning and execution of the two meetings go back to
the initiative of two doctoral students and members of the research
training group: Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger. Before joining the
doctoral programme in Hebrew Bible at Göttingen both spent part of
their undergraduate education in Jerusalem - Björn Corzilius studied at
the Dormition-Abbey and Tanja Pilger at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Tanja Pilger completed her doctoral thesis on the Elihu
speeches in the Book of Job during the Wintersemester 2009/10 and Björn
Corzilius will submit his thesis on the composition of the Book of Mi-
cah during the Wintersemester 2010/11. When the two students ap­
proached us floating the idea of holding one of our symposia in Jerusa­
lem we were immediately taken by that idea but quite frankly did not
see how to put it into reality. It is due to the tireless commitment of the
two doctoral students that we were able to realize the plan. Both were
vi Reinhard G. Kratz and Hermann Spieckermann
not only responsible for the organisation of the meetings and their
smooth execution but also in charge of the scholarly programme. Here
they proposed and invited the speakers and ensured that the present
volume was copy-edited and made ready for publication. Thus it was
only natural that Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger should write the in­
traduction to the volume. All in all it was a great achievement and we
are very grateful for two unforgettable highlights of academic work
and personal exchange as part of our research training group.
Furthermore we would like to thank the participants of the two
conferences as well as the contributors to the present volume for their
encouraging participation in every sense. We thank the Hebrew Uni­
versity for their splendid hospitality as well as for its trust and interest
in the work of our research training group. The continued exchange
with colleagues from Israel is very important to us - professionally and
personally. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) not only funds
our research training group but also contributed significantly towards
the costs of the symposium in Jerusalem - we are very grateful for the
support! Next to Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger several people were
involved in the production of the camera-ready copy of the present
volume: we thank Gerd Krumbiegel for his assistance in proof-reading
and for the compilation of the indexes; Franziska Ede and PD Dr.
Anselm C. Hagedorn helped to produce English versions of contribu­
tions originally written in German. Finally we record our thanks to the
publisher de Gruyter and especially to Sabina Dabrowski for the usual
excellent support.
Göttingen, June 2010
Reinhard G. Kratz and Hermann Spieckermann
Table of Contents
Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger
Introduction ............................................................................................. ix
I. The Great Monarchy:
Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives on David and Solomon
Israel Finkelstein
A Great United Monarchy? Archaeological and Historical
Perspectives ............................................................................................. 3
Amihai Mazar
Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the
United Monarchy ................................................................................... 29
Erhard Blum
Solomon and the United Monarchy: Some Textual
Evidence .................................................................................................... 59
Alexander Rofé
Elders or Youngsters? Critical Remarks on 1 Kings 12 ............. 79
Markus Witte
'What Share Do We Have in David ...?'- Ben Sira's
Perspectives on 1 Kings 12 .................................................................. 91
II. The Cult Centralization in Its Near Eastern Context:
Perspectives on Hezekiah and Josiah
Reinhard G. Kratz
The Idea of Cultic Centralization and Its Supposed Ancient
Near Eastern Analogies ....................................................................... 121
Hanspeter Schaudig
Cult Centralization in the Ancient Near East? Conceptions of
the Ideal Capital in the Ancient Near East ................................... 145
viii Table of Contents
Ze'ev Herzog
Perspectives on Southern Israel's Cult Centralization:
Arad and Beer-scheba ........................................................................... 169
JUHA PAKKALA
Why the Cult Reforms in Judah Probably Did not Happen ..... 201
III. The Ancient City:
Perspectives on the Political and Cultural Interrelations at Beth Shean
Amihai Mazar
Tel Beth-Shean: History and Archaeology ..................................... 239
Gabriel Mazor
Nysa-Scythopolis: Ethnicity and Religion ..................................... 273
Katharina Heyden
Beth Shean/Scythopolis in Late Antiquity: Cult and Culture,
Continuity and Change ........................................................................ 301
IV. The One and The Only:
Perspectives on the Development of a Divine Concept
Hermann Spieckermann
God and His People: The Concept of Kingship and Cult in the
Ancient Near East .................................................................................. 341
Matthias Köckert
YHWH in the Northern and Southern Kingdom ......................... 357
Ephraim Stern
From Many Gods to the One God: The Archaeological
Evidence .................................................................................................... 395
Michael Segal
Monotheism and Angelology in Daniel ......................................... 405
Christoph Auffarth
Justice, the King and the Gods: Polytheism and Emerging
Monotheism in theAncient World ................................................... 421
Index of Subjects ............................................................................................ 455
List of Contributors ....................................................................................... 461
Introduction
Björn Corzilius and Tanja Pilger
Gustaf Dalman (1854-1941), the first director of the German Protestant
Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem (1902-1917), was a notable pio­
neer in research of Ancient Israelite history.1 In order to shed light upon
the social, cultural and religious reality of Ancient Israel he intensely
observed and portrayed the social life, the religious practice and the
geographical and climatic living conditions in then contemporary Pal­
estine. The main fruits of his passionate observation and meticulous
description are Palästinischer Diwan (1901) and Jerusalem und sein Gelän­
de (1930), but first of all his monumental life's work Arbeit und Sitte in
Palästina (1928-1942).2
״Nicht nur die Bibel selbst, sondern ganz besonders auch das nachbiblische jü­
dische Schrifttum, das er [sc. Gustaf Dalman] so gründlich kannte, wies ihn
durch eine Fülle verstreuter Angaben auf diese Dinge hin und reizte den ihm
The authors would like to thank to PD Dr. Anselm C. Hagedorn for his help with the
English of the Introduction.
1 Our commemoration of Gustaf Dalman and his lifework exclusively aims at honor­
ing him for his meaningful contribution to the exploration of Ancient Israelite histo­
ry on the basis of his remarkable knowledge of the biblical and rabbinic sources as
well as his sensitive observations during years of research. Admittedly, at that time
German research on contemporary Jewish life and Israelite history has been inter­
woven with the disastrous rise of Anti-Semitism. Although Dalman fought against
anti-Semitic tendencies, in his personal piety he was deeply convinced by a Christian
superiority, which caused a missionary interest. The general topic of the problematic
interrelation between German research and emerging Anti-Semitism has been de­
picted by CHRISTIAN WIESE, Wissenschaft des Judentums und protestantische Theo­
logie im wilhelminischen Deutschland, SchrLBI 61, Tübingen 1999, esp. 88-99; on
Dalman in particular see the critical acclaim of JULIA MÄNNCHEN, Gustaf Dalman als
Palästinawissenschaftler in Jerusalem und Greifswald 1902-1941, ADPV 9/II, Wies­
baden 1993,259-272.
2 GUSTAF Dalman, Palästinischer Diwan. Als Beitrag zur Volkskunde Palästinas ge­
sammelt und mit Übersetzung und Melodien herausgegeben, Leipzig 1901; id., Jeru­
salem und sein Gelände, Gütersloh 1930; id., Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina, vol. I-VII,
Gütersloh 1928-1942. Since completing his Arbeit und Sitte was not granted to him in
lifetime, Dalman's fragments on domestic life, birth, marriage and death have been
published by JULIA MÄNNCHEN (ed.), Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina: Das häusliche
Leben, Geburt, Heirat, Tod, vol. VIII, Berlin/New York 2001.