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This volume is part of the Changing Perspectives sub-series, which is constituted by anthologies of articles by world-renowned biblical scholars and historians that have made an impact on the field and changed its course during the last decades. This volume offers a collection of seminal essays by Keith Whitelam on the early history of ancient Palestine and the origins and emergence of Israel. Collected together in one volume for the first time, and featuring one unpublished article, this volume will be of interest to biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars interested in the politics of historical representation but also on critical ways of constructing the history of ancient Palestine.
List of contents
Abbreviations; Credit List; Introduction, by Emanuel Pfoh; 1. Recreating the History of Israel; 2. The Emergence of Israel: Social Transformation and State Formation following the Decline in Late Bronze Age Trade (with R.B. Coote); 3. Israel’s Traditions of Origin: Reclaiming the Land; 4. Between History and Literature: The Social Production of Israel’s Traditions of Origin; 5. The Identity of Early Israel: The Realignment and Transformation of Late Bronze-Iron Age Palestine; 6. Sociology or History: Towards a (Human) History of Ancient Palestine?; 7. The Search for Early Israel: Historical Perspective; 8. ‘Israel Is Laid Waste; His Seed Is No More’: What If Merneptah’s Scribes Were Telling the Truth?; 9. Palestine during the Iron Age; 10. The Poetics of the History of Israel: Shaping Palestinian History; 11. Representing Minimalism: The Rhetoric and Reality of Revisionism; 12. Transcending the Boundaries: Expanding the Limits; 13. Imagining Jerusalem; 14. Interested Parties: History and Ideology at the End of the Century; 15. Resisting the Past: Ancient Israel in Western Memory; 16. The Death of Biblical History; 17. Architectures of Enmity; Index
About the author
Keith W. Whitelam was previously Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Stirling, UK, and later Professor and Head of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is also the founder and director for Sheffield Phoenix Press, specialising in the publication of research in biblical studies. His previous books include The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History (Routledge 1996), and The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective (with Robert B. Coote, 2010).
Emanuel Pfoh is a Researcher at the National Research Council (CONICET) and teaches in the Department of History of the National University of La Plata, Argentina. His previous books include The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine (Routledge 2016) and Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze Age (Routledge 2016), both of which are part of the Copenhagen International Seminar series.
Summary
This volume offers a collection of seminal essays by Keith Whitelam on the early history of ancient Palestine and the origins and emergence of Israel.
Additional text
"As an authoritative survey of trends in scholarship over recent decades, this volume should appeal to those seeking a critical and objective approach to modern engagement with ancient texts. Whitelam’s work offers a refreshing counterbalance to pervasive maximalist views on the origin, reception, and ongoing social function of biblical text. The insightful essays contained in this volume represent a perspective on the past built on sound evidence and methodological rigour."
- Robert Homsher, Harvard University, USA
