J.T
09-14-2011, 02:51 AM
The historical saga contained in the bible [including] the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah was not a miraculous revelation but a brilliant product of the human imagination.
...
The Biblical borders of the land of Israel as outlined in the book of Joshua had seemingly assumed a sacred inviolability... the Bible pictures a stormy but basically continuous Israelite occupation of the land of Israel all the way to the Assyrian conquest. But a reexamination of the archeological evidence... points to a period of a few decades [in which a strong Israel existed], between ~835-800 BCE
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient/dp/0684869136) pp. 1, 202
Quoted in The Case Against Israel (http://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Israel-Counterpunch/dp/1904859461/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315986130&sr=1-1)
TCAI continues:
Even then, their boundaries never came close to the 'Greater Israel' of contemporary Jewish fundamentalism. The rest of the time,Judah and Israel [were] very primitive entities, devoid of literate culture or substantial administrative structure, extending to only a small landlocked part of what is now called Palestine. the great structures of the biblical era are, all of them, attributed to Canaanite cultures. Moreover, the inhabitants of the Biblical Israel and Judah seem to have been for most of the time and for the most part practitioners of Canaanite religions and not Judaism or of various syncretic cults. These 'Israelite' were not, that is, 'Jewish'.
Ancient Judah and Israel appear
...
The Biblical borders of the land of Israel as outlined in the book of Joshua had seemingly assumed a sacred inviolability... the Bible pictures a stormy but basically continuous Israelite occupation of the land of Israel all the way to the Assyrian conquest. But a reexamination of the archeological evidence... points to a period of a few decades [in which a strong Israel existed], between ~835-800 BCE
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient/dp/0684869136) pp. 1, 202
Quoted in The Case Against Israel (http://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Israel-Counterpunch/dp/1904859461/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315986130&sr=1-1)
TCAI continues:
Even then, their boundaries never came close to the 'Greater Israel' of contemporary Jewish fundamentalism. The rest of the time,Judah and Israel [were] very primitive entities, devoid of literate culture or substantial administrative structure, extending to only a small landlocked part of what is now called Palestine. the great structures of the biblical era are, all of them, attributed to Canaanite cultures. Moreover, the inhabitants of the Biblical Israel and Judah seem to have been for most of the time and for the most part practitioners of Canaanite religions and not Judaism or of various syncretic cults. These 'Israelite' were not, that is, 'Jewish'.
Ancient Judah and Israel appear