Archaeology illuminates the Bible: A Timeline(Revised 4/7/13)

The Exodus:

c. 1270-1200 BCE

(Late Bronze Age)

“Dr. Sarah Parcak (Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama) employed a combination of satellite-image analysis and surface surveys that allowed her to isolate water sources in the Sinai Desert. Using satellite imaging technology, her work enabled archaeologists to examine a broad spectrum of archaeological sites both on and beneath the surface. The surveys also reveal any remains of buildings or destruction below the present ground level. No water sources large enough to support the vast number of people described in the Biblical epic have come to light anywhere along the route of the Exodus.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 22

“Early in the Biblical account of the wandering in the Sinai, several locations are mentioned. Only Kadesh-Barnea and Ezion-Geber can be identified today. The Israelite encampment was said to be at Kadesh-Barnea for 38 years (Numbers 13, 14 and 20). Today this is the site of Ein el-Qudeirat in the eastern Sinai. Repeated excavations, aerial photographs, and archaeological surveys have shown no sign of habitation in the periods associated with the Biblical Exodus. In fact there is no archaeological evidence of occupation at Kadesh-Barnea before the 10th century BCE. There was not so much as a potsherd from the 13th to 12th centuries BCE, the time set for the Exodus.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 25

“The Biblical journey proceeds across the Negev and places the wanderers in Edom, in southern Transjordan. Until approximately the 7th century BCE this area was desolate, without any tribal identity. Looking back on the Biblical account, there could not have been a king of Edom who denied access to the Israelites (Numbers 20:20-21) as no king, or kingdom, existed. This is a clear case of the scribes who wrote Numbers during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE inserting a scenario of their own time into the Bible story.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 25

“Continuing in the book of Numbers, the journey shifts to Arad in the northern Negev. In 1964 Yohanan Aharoni excavated Tel Arad, approximately 15 miles from Be’er Sheva. He found a small isolated village from the 10th century BCE that had been abandoned for 1,700 years. Therefore, Numbers 21:1, which states that the Israelites laid waste to Arad and destroyed all other cities in the area, could not have happened at the time of the Exodus. There is no archaeological evidence of any Bronze or Early Iron Age cities in the stories of the wandering of the Israelites. The tales of Heshbon, the Moabite campaign, Dibon, and the incursions into Midian all reflect periods of settlement 400 to 500 years after the supposed date of the Exodus. The incident of the five kings and their cities in Numbers is therefore entirely undocumented.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 25

“Ezion-Geber was excavated in 1938-1940. The site revealed Late Iron Age (800-600 BCE) occupational remains, but no Late Bronze artifacts. Despite all attempts to locate the places where the Israelites camped in the Sinai, and the location of Mount Sinai itself, no evidence has been found to match the Biblical account. One must assume that the Exodus and the wandering in the desert included only a few families and the tales that have come down to us have been inflated to fit the needs of an emerging theological ideology and incorporated into the Israelite tradition.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 25-27

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“The destruction carried out by the Amorite Sihon, king of the Amorites in Transjordan, after his conquests in the Negev and campaigns in the wilderness of Zin, continued in Heshbon (Numbers 21:21-32). According to Numbers, Moses had sent emissaries to Sihon asking for safe passage through his territory. The king’s refusal ignited a battle with the Israelites, whereupon the Israelites took possession of all of the land of Moab, including the city of Heshbon. Tell Hesban, just south of Amman, Jordan, was excavated by members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. They, like theologians before them, were looking forward to publishing ‘Biblical finds’ dating from the time of the Conquest. However, only artifacts from the Iron II and III periods (1000-586 BCE) were found, dating from long after the supposed Conquest, and there were no occupation levels from the 13th to 12th century BCE. Did the Moabite campaign ever occur? Once again, we know that what was uncovered seems to fit into the context of the 7th century BCE.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 35

“During the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness, Moses engaged in a number of military confrontations, one of which took place between Israel and King Sihon of Heshbon. Heshbon lies in the central plateau east of the Jordan. The setting depicted in the Bible portrays Sihon as a mighty king who had conquered most of the Transjordan and ruled from the city of Heshbon. Archaeological excavations at the site of Heshbon (modern Tell Hesban) show no habitations in that site prior to 1200 BCE and the establishment of any capital for a local empire would have to have occurred much later in time, well after the time of Moses and the Exodus. Corroboration of the mythic nature of Moses’ encounter comes from Numbers 32:37, which says that after the Canaanite conquest, the children of Reuben built the city of Heshbon.” --Gary Greenberg, Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Sourcebooks, 2000), p. 232

“Egypt was the most powerful country in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 13th century BCE. Forts and strongholds were constructed from the delta to the borders of Canaan. Eliezer Oren of Ben Gurion University surveyed these fortresses in the 1970s. Any large group of people would certainly have been challenged by the military might of Egypt. The Bible tells us that more than 600,000 men of military age (Numbers 33:1) left Egypt in the Exodus, which could have swelled to 3 or 4 million people when including women, children and elderly. It would be impossible for even a small percentage of that number to have escaped the long arm of the Egyptians, according to the archaeological record. It is inconceivable that a group of that size could have survived in the wilderness for 40 years.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 27

“Finding the location of the Bible’s Mount Sinai has become part of a Biblical treasure hunt. Sites as far away as Ethiopia, and more recently Mount Karkon in Israel’s Negev region, have been suggested. The traditional location of Mount Sinai, in the mountainous region of southern Sinai, has been visited since the 4th to 6th centuries CE. Saint Catherine’s Monastery was built there in the 6th century CE by the Byzantine emperor Justinian to commemorate the supposed site of the Burning Bush and the Revelation. Above the monastery is Jebel Musa, or the mountain of Moses in Arabic. Extensive excavation and surveys around the area have not yielded any evidence or trace of an ancient encampment from the 13th century BCE. Modern archaeological techniques would be capable of finding even meager material remains of pastoral nomads and their campsites, if they existed.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 28

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Emergence of the Israelite People in Canaan:

c. 1200-1020 BCE

(Iron Age I)

“The Conquest of Canaan as described in the Biblical books of Joshua and Judges has provoked much interest and debate within the archaeological community. The books themselves do not agree in their descriptions of the events that took place. Joshua tells of a more sweeping and devastating campaign than the one portrayed in Judges. Recent excavations show that Jericho, Ai, and almost all Canaanite cities said to have been destroyed by Joshua were actually in ruins long before Iron Age I (1200 BCE), when an ‘Israelite presence’ was first recorded in Egypt on the Merneptah Stele of 1203 BCE. Only two sites, Lachish and Hazor, have yielded some material finds and signs of destruction in the Late Bronze period (1550-1200 BCE). The great Canaanite city of Shechem would have been a prime target, yet it is not mentioned among Joshua’s conquests, and only appears in Judges 9 without any connection to conflict.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 31

“The archaeological record shows remains of local coarse pottery above the levels of the rich 13th century BCE indigenous Canaanite material culture throughout the region. These material finds have yielded a tremendous amount of information in connection with the dramatic change that took place at the end of the 12th century BCE in the central hill country of Canaan. Conclusions from archaeological surveys indicate that there were no sudden invasions, and no massive destruction of Canaanite cities occurred at that time. Instead, there appears to have been a peaceful period of building hilltop communities.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 31-33

“Intensive surveys of the earliest Israelite settlements of the early 12th to late 11th centuries BCE have been carried out since 1967 by teams of archaeologists. Estimates suggest that these communities were small, ranging in size from one to 40 acres, with populations from 100 to 500 residents. At most there were fewer than 50,000 people who can be identified with the original Israelite people. … This archaeological work revealed a dramatic social transformation that occurred in the hill country of Canaan in approximately 1200 BCE. From the Judean hills in the south to the area of Samaria in the north, approximately 250 hilltop communities came to life in the 12th century BCE. These can be identified with some confidence as Israelite, since many of them were continuously occupied through the centuries up to the later period of the Monarchy.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 34-35

“Israel’s rise to power occurred over several centuries rather than through a sudden conquest early in the late 13th century BCE. Not only does the historical data disprove the existence of a Canaanite conquest in the time of Joshua, the Bible itself says that such a conquest never occurred. The first chapter of Judges gives a very different picture of Joshua’s campaign, which was mostly a failure. None of the tribes succeeded in conquering their targeted territory. Judges presents a litany of failure: Judah couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of the plain; Benjamin couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem; Manasseh failed; Ephraim failed; Zebulun failed; Asher failed; Naphtali failed; Dan failed. … For the most part, Joshua was written centuries after the time described. From both the archaeological and other biblical accounts, we can see that the author pieced the conquest stories together from a variety of myths and legends. It served as a propagandistic tool designed to portray the Hebrews as the beneficiary of the world’s most powerful god.” --Gary Greenberg, Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Sourcebooks, 2000), p. 253

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“Many of the earliest inhabitants of this area were pastoral nomads who gradually adapted to farming. It appears from animal bones collected that two different societies lived side by side. One segment consisted of traditional herders which accounted for the largest number of animal bone remains, while the other population was made up of agriculturists. It seems that the coalescence of early Israelite communities was actually a result of the collapse of the Canaanite culture, and not its cause. Most of the Israelite population emerged from indigenous people within Canaan, not from any mass exodus nor from a massive destruction or conquest.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 35

“Megiddo was very important, as it guarded the junction of major trade routes running from the Mediterranean coast through the hills of Samaria, across the Jezreel Valley to Lebanon and Syria. Armageddon, which is associated with Megiddo, became synonymous with apocalyptic visions of the end of the world due to the many battles that were fought there. Joshua 12 lists Megiddo as having been taken in the Conquest, while Judges 1:21 contradicts that. Megiddo has been excavated repeatedly for more than 100 years. Since 1994 the work has been under the direction of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Basically the city remained Canaanite until the late 10th century BCE with no evidence of an Israelite destruction from the 13th or 12th centuries BCE. It seems to have come under Israelite influence only during the Iron Age.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 35-36

“In the 1960s, Dame Kathleen Kenyon excavated in Jericho, the Biblical city where Joshua made his first conquest on entering the Promised Land. The results of her multi-season excavation seemed to show that Jericho was an important city of the Late Bronze-Early Iron period (around 1200 BCE). It now appears that by the time of the Conquest, Jericho was a poor, small community without defensive walls. There is no sign that a walled city existed there in the 13th century BCE. In addition, Jericho was probably abandoned for the next 500 to 600 years. It was only in the 7th to 6th century BCE, or long after the Conquest as related in the Biblical narrative, that the city was fortified once more. No destruction levels could be identified from the time of the supposed Israelite invasion.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 38

“Joshua’s destruction of Jericho stands as one of the most famous battle stories in all history. As trumpets blared, Joshua commanded the Israelites to shout loudly and the powerful reverberations caused the walls to collapse. Joshua’s troops marched into the city and utterly destroyed what remained, putting to the sword all the men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses. It’s a pretty gruesome picture and quite a testament to the power of Israel’s god. … Archaeological evidence shows that at the time of Joshua, Jericho had neither walls nor residents. The city had been vacated centuries earlier. Jericho was one of the earliest and most ancient cities of the world. Archaeological data suggests an inhabitation going back to the 8th millennium BCE. Evidence for a destruction of the walls dates to about 2300 BCE, but inhabitants rebuilt the town and erected new fortifications. Jericho appears to have been thoroughly destroyed by fire during the 16th century BCE and, at best, only sparsely populated thereafter. Prior to 1300 BCE, the fortifications already had been destroyed, leaving no walls to tumble down before Joshua. At the time of the biblical battle, the city had been completely abandoned for at least a century or two. Not until about the 7th century BCE do we see evidence for a repopulation of the city.” --Gary Greenberg, Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Sourcebooks, 2000), pp. 239-240

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“After the battle of Jericho, Joshua set his sights on the city of Ai, a name that translates as ‘Ruin.’ The story places ‘Ruin’ between Beth-el (‘House of God’) and Beth-aven (‘House of Evil’), an image that already suggests an allegorical framework. As at Jericho, Joshua dispatched spies and they came back with reports of an easy victory requiring only a small force. Joshua marshaled a modest contingent and sent them towards Ai. There they suffered a major defeat and Joshua became wracked with despair. Israel’s leader conferred with God and learned that one of the Israelites had held back some of the Lord’s booty and Joshua would have to uncover the scoundrel and engage in a purification ritual. Joshua made inquiries and a man named Achan confessed. After the traditional stoning and immolation, Joshua buried Achan under a pile of rocks. This sacred execution brought about the necessary purification and on God’s word Joshua renewed plans for an attack on Ai. This time he had a new stratagem. … The plan worked like a charm. Ai was captured and destroyed, and the citizens all duly butchered. As with Jericho, archaeological data presents a different picture. The site of Ai once hosted a major fortified city, but it was destroyed sometime around 2400 BCE. It remained unoccupied until about the 12th century BCE, at which time evidence indicates the presence of a small village built over the ruins. … When Joshua attacked ‘Ruin,’ it had already been deserted for over a millennium and it had no fortified walls.” --Gary Greenberg, Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Sourcebooks, 2000), pp. 243-244

“The Conquest narrative in the book of Joshua and other conquest stories in the books of Numbers and Judges have long attracted archaeologists. Destroyed cities are something that archaeologists should be able to discover, and if indeed Israel destroyed many Canaanite cities then archaeologists should be able to uncover those ruined cities. In the early years of biblical archaeology, historians and archaeologists tended to accept the conquest narrative at face value. … Since the 1960s, however, it has become obvious that this was not the historical reality. Archaeological investigations have shown that many of the sites mentioned in these conquest stories turned out to be uninhabited during the assume time of the Conquest (c. 1200 BCE). This is the case with Arad, Heshbon, Ai, and Yarmuth. At other sites, there was only a small and unimportant settlement at the time, as at Jericho and perhaps Hebron. Others, like Lachish and Hazor, were indeed important Canaanite cities, yet they were not destroyed as part of the same military undertaking since approximately 100 years separate the destruction of Hazor (in the mid-13th century BCE) from that of Lachish (mid-12th century BCE). … It is thus now accepted that archaeology in fact contradicts the biblical account of the Israelite Conquest. Most scholars of the last generation regard the Conquest narratives as a literary work of a much later time, designed to create a pan-Israelite, national saga.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), pp. 61-62

“The Deuteronomistic books face real obstacles before we can accept them as straight factual history. Archaeology offers an insuperable stumbling block. Bluntly, we see no evidence of an invasion, or of invaders, at anything like the period in which Joshua should have flourished. The archaeology of Israel/Palestine is a thriving field of study, with much of the best work being done on the era known as Late Bronze/Early Iron Age, which should be the time of the conquest of Canaan and the Hebrew settlement. But these tumultuous events have left few obvious physical remains. If the mighty conflicts occurred as the Bible describes, they should have left significant traces in the landscape, particularly when biblical authors took such pains to identify exact sites.” --Philip Jenkins, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses (HarperOne, 2011), pp. 54-55

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“If we are tracking a war marked by the destruction of Canaanite cities and fortresses, then we need to find those settlements. These places should have flourished at the correct time -- say, between 1500 and 1200 BCE -- and then should have ceased to exist shortly after that point. Canaanite cities should reveal clear destruction layers, marked by evidence of tumbled walls and burning, together with unburied bodies. Because archaeologists are well used to finding such telltale marks of conquest and slaughter in other regions and from other eras, they know exactly what to look for. Not only should we be finding precisely such remains, but we should ideally see such catastrophes hitting several cities within a few years of each other, as a once-civilized region became a killing ground. … In the Canaanite context, we find virtually no evidence. Canaanite cities fought each other, and some communities were attacked and overcome. But we find nothing like the systematic ruin within a brief period that we would expect from the texts. Some cities supposedly conquered by Joshua did indeed exist long before the era of the conquest but had ceased to function by the appropriate time. Others would not be founded for centuries afterward. In a few cases, cities that actually were destroyed around 1200 BCE simply do not feature in the biblical conquest account, suggesting perhaps that they fell to enemies other than the Hebrews.” --Philip Jenkins, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses (HarperOne, 2011), pp. 55-56

“Putting the archaeological evidence together, Joshua’s conquest is close to invisible. Archaeologist William Dever concludes that available material evidence ‘supports almost nothing of the biblical account of a large-scale concerted Israelite military invasion of Canaan.’ Probably an author in the 8th century BCE looked around the landscape of his time and singled out the most spectacular sets of ruins, but without any accurate sense of the cities that had existed on those sites. Ai, in fact, comes from the Hebrew word for ‘ruins.’ Having no sense of just when those old settlements had existed -- had they fallen 300 years before, or a thousand? -- the author devised a saga of mass conquest intended to account for their destruction.” --Philip Jenkins, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses (HarperOne, 2011), p. 57

“Archaeologists have long tested the evidence for the sweeping military campaign portrayed in the book of Joshua, and their results are not encouraging for a Late Bronze Age setting, sometime after Ramesses II during the 13th century BCE. The famed battle of Jericho cannot have happened, as no city and no walls existed at that time. They were destroyed several centuries earlier. The same is true of Ai, to which two chapters in the book of Joshua (7-8) are devoted. There is no evidence of a Late Bronze Age city or its destruction. At most, there may have been small, insignificant settlements, but no fortification walls at either site in the general period around 1200 BCE.” --Douglas A. Knight & Amy-Jill Levin, The Meaning of the Bible (HarperOne, 2011), p. 20

“The books of Numbers, Joshua, and Judges describe the destruction of a total of 16 cities, but only three or four of them -- Hazor, Lachish, Bethel, and perhaps Debir in the south -- reveal any archaeological evidence of destruction during this period. Jerusalem and Dan, also described as conquered (Judges 1:8; 18:27-29; Joshua 19:47), were minor settlements and show no 13th-century destruction layer. These biblical books report that 12 cities were occupied but not destroyed. Archaeologists, however, have found that only seven of them had any inhabitants at that time, and three of the 12 (Beth-shemesh, Gezer, and Megiddo) were razed to the ground in this time-frame. Another 12 cities in the region, not even mentioned in Joshua or Judges, do show evidence of destruction, though several of them were near the coast and were probably conquered by the Sea Peoples. The bottom line is that fewer than one-third of the reports in Numbers, Joshua or Judges can be confirmed by archaeology. In most cases these sites give very different material evidence than what the texts claim.” --Douglas A. Knight & Amy-Jill Levin, The Meaning of the Bible (HarperOne, 2011), pp. 20-21

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United Monarchy; Saul, David and Solomon:

c. 1020-920 BCE

(Iron Age II)

“The account of David’s rise to power cannot be corroborated by historical and/or archaeological remains. Three conflicting and irreconcilable stories about David are found in the Bible. In I Samuel 16:1-13, David is secretly appointed by Samuel as king-to-be, which is part of Samuel’s rejection of Saul. The second incident is found in I Samuel 16:14-23, when David the harpist is summoned to Saul’s court to soothe the king’s melancholy spirits. The third story, in I Samuel 17:49, and the one most frequently repeated, is when David is transformed from shepherd boy to folk hero when he kills the Philistine giant Goliath with one stone from his trusty slingshot, an event that also marks the beginning of Saul’s jealousy toward him. However, in II Samuel 21:19, the credit for killing Goliath goes to Elhanan, the son of Jair of Bethlehem.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 49

“In spite of Saul’s mistrust, David wins the hand of Saul’s daughter Michal and becomes a commander in Saul’s army. Saul’s increasing jealousy toward David causes him to flee from the court, making him a fugitive and an outlaw. He takes refuge in Ein Gedi and assembles a band of armed followers. This stronghold was excavated in 1949 and again in 1960 by Benjamin Mazar. The excavations revealed that the site was not inhabited until late in the 7th century BCE, nearly 400 years later, which coincides with the time when the interplay between Saul and David was probably written down by a scribe.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 49

“There is no archaeological indication of monumental architecture in Jerusalem from the time of David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE that would be expected in a major city. This holds true for Megiddo, Gezer, and Hazor as well. There was very little changed in the north and the Canaanite material culture continued. The area was mainly rural with about 250 sites that have been recorded by archaeologists. No written documents, inscriptions, or signs of literacy have been found, and it is difficult to identify a centrally administered state north of Jerusalem, while the south was sparsely populated. Jerusalem was a typical highland village. Population estimates suggest that 45,000 people lived in the hill country, 90% of whom resided in villages in the north, Perhaps 5,000 people were scattered between Jerusalem, Hebron, and an additional 20 small villages. … The familiar stories about David and Solomon based on a few early folk traditions are the result of extensive reworking and editorial expansion during the four centuries that followed the reigns of David and Solomon.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 55

“The slopes of every ancient city mound in the Near East served as dumps for the garbage of the ancient inhabitants, and thick layers of bones, building material, and broken potsherds are found outside the wall. Yet thorough, large-scale excavations on the slope to the south and southwest of the Temple Mount have failed to find more than a scatter of potsherds from the 10th century BCE. The archaeological results in this part of Jerusalem have been impressive, but they do not mesh with the chronology of the biblical narrative. Although the site was occupied continuously from the Chalcolithic period (four millennium BCE) to the present, there were only two periods of major building and expansion before Roman times -- and neither could possibly be identified with the reigns of David and Solomon. In the Middle Bronze Age, 6 or 7 centuries before the estimated time of David, massive walls and towers of an impressive city fortification were built on the eastern slope of the City of David. And only in the late 8th and 7th century, 200 to 300 years after David, did the city grow and dramatically expand again, with fortifications, close-packed houses, and indications of foreign trade.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), pp. 273-274

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“During all the centuries between the 16th and 8th centuries BCE, Jerusalem shows no archaeological signs of having been a great city or the capital of a vast monarchy. The evidence clearly suggests that it was little more than a village, inhabited by a small population living on the northern part of the ridge, near the spring of Gihon. If analyzed from a purely archaeological standpoint, Jerusalem, through those intervening centuries -- including the time of David and Solomon -- was probably never more than a small, relatively poor, unfortified hill country town, no larger than three or four acres in size.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), p. 274

“What is the origin of the biblical tale of an illustrious United Monarchy? In order to answer this question, we need to remember that the biblical narrative of the ancient history of Israel -- the Deuteronomistic History -- was put in writing in the late 7th century BCE, in the days of King Josiah, who is described in the Book of Kings as the most righteous monarch of the lineage of David. The Deuteronomistic History was intended to serve Josiah’s agenda of centralization of the cult in Jerusalem and territorial expansion into the northern lands of vanquished Israel after the withdrawal of Assyria. It is not difficult to identify the landscapes and costumes of late-monarchic times -- the time of the compilation of the text as well as the immediate past -- as the stage setting behind the biblical tale of the United Monarchy.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 115

“Some of the David stories in the Books of Samuel may contain earlier, even 10th-century BCE traditions. But they too had been put in writing much later, possibly in the late 8th century, and were then inserted into the larger history of Israel in the 7th century. At that stage, they absorbed the realities and ideology of the later time. … But why was it so important to project these late-monarchic images back into the early history of Israel? The tale of a glamorous United Monarchy had an obvious meaning for the people of Judah in the days of the compilation of the text. In a time when the Northern Kingdom was no more than a memory and the mighty Assyrian army had faded away, a new David -- the pious Josiah -- came to the throne in Jerusalem, intent on ‘restoring’ the glory of his distant ancestors. He was about to ‘replay’ the history of Israel. By cleansing Judah of the abominations of the nations and undoing the sins of the past, he could stop the cycle of idolatry and calamity that characterized the history of ancient Israel. He could ‘recreate’ the United Monarchy the way it should have been, before it went astray. So Josiah embarked on re-establishing a United Monarchy. He was about to ‘regain’ the territories of the now-destroyed Northern Kingdom, and rule from Jerusalem over all Israelite territories and all Israelite people. The description of the glamorous United Monarchy served these goals.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 116

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Divided Kingdom; Israel in the North, Judah in the South:

c. 920-722 BCE

(Iron Age II)

“With the fall of the United Monarchy, we now confront the new reality of two kingdoms: Judah in the south and Israel in the north. The sequence of events leading to this reality occurred in a dramatically different version than the one described in the Bible. In the 200 years following Solomon’s death (c. 920 BCE), the configuration of Israel and Judah changed significantly. Jeroboam I, described in the Biblical text as ‘a mighty man of valor’ (I Kings 11:28), led the Northern Kingdom of Israel out of the union with Judah almost immediately after Solomon’s death. After a long period of centralized government in Jerusalem, and prosperity for both the north and the south, the tribes of the northern hill country and the Galilee began to resist the demands for forced labor that were begun by Solomon and intensified by his son Rehoboam. This situation eventually led to a split between Judah and Israel. The result was a resurgence of violence and idolatry in the Northern Kingdom.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 57

“The northern hill country of Israel dominates the last days of the United Monarchy, while the Judean highland areas were weaker until the collapse of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE. … While both communities grew in size, the northern hill country had a more populated settlement area than the south. The pattern of Israel & Shechem versus Judah & Jerusalem slowly emerged. Due to its geographical location, Judah was able to maintain its national identity. It had the advantage of being far from the trade routes and had Israel on the north as a buffer against Assyrian destruction. During the 1980s the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted surveys in the northern areas that brought to light settlement patterns of the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. Judah was made up of approximately 20 small villages, while Israel in the north had dozens of sites with a well-developed settlement system and large regional centers. In other words, Israel was booming.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 57-58

“Jeroboam fortified Shechem as the new capital of Israel. … In order to consolidate his position as king, Jeroboam had to establish an official religious cult to rival that of Jerusalem’s Temple in the south. To counter the Jerusalem Temple, Jeroboam set up two cult sanctuaries, one in Dan on the extreme northern border of Israel and the second at Beth El, 12 miles north of Jerusalem. Jeroboam ruled for 22 years. When he died, his son and successor Nadab (909-908) was overthrown by a military coup in which all the surviving members of the house of Jeroboam were killed. King Baasha reigned until 885 BCE before he was also killed and Zimri, an army commander, lasted just 7 days as ruler. Finally, Omri, the head of the army, was chosen by the people to be the next king.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 58

“Omri (884-874 BCE) succeeded in stabilizing the Northern Kingdom. He and his son Ahab (873-852 BCE) brought the kingdom of Israel to the peak of its strength and political importance. Omri restored stable government and reduced tension with Jerusalem by marrying his daughter Athaliah to the king of Judah. Omri also cemented an alliance with the Phoenicians with the marriage of Ahab to Jezebel, a Phoenician princess. He reigned for 12 years, and built a new capital at Samaria. Despite Omri’s successful endeavors, the prejudicial accounts in the Bible make it sound as though Omri and Ahab brought the ‘new’ kingdom to its ruin. Again, it is important to recall that the scribes at the time when the Bible was written were aligned with Jerusalem-oriented priests.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 58

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“It is at this point, in the period of Omri and Ahab, that we have an interface with contemporary records from a neighboring state. The black basalt Moabite Mesha Stele, inscribed with an account of King Mesha’s struggle against Israel, was found in 1868 in the village of Dhiban by the Reverend F.A. Klein, a Prussian missionary. This site is on the east side of the Dead Sea, referred to as Moab in the Bible. The inscription tells us that Israel extended at that time further east and south of its earlier heartland in the central hill country. The 34-line text was written in approximately 830 BCE to commemorate King Mesha’s victory over the Israelites in his battle for freedom. Mesha is mentioned in the third chapter of II Kings as a rebellious vassal of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This stele is one of the earliest historical descriptions, apart from the Biblical narrative, of the Omride dynasty.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 59

“Excavations at Samaria have revealed the Omride royal city with its elevated platform and elaborate palace, demonstrating the wealth and power of this reign. At Megiddo in the 1920s, a team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago excavated an Iron Age palace that was similar to the palace at Samaria. John Crowfoot, leader of the expedition to Samaria, was also on the team with the Oriental Institute. He recognized the parallels in the architecture and made the supposition that both had been built by the Omrides. However, the Megiddo team was more inclined to maintain the earlier dating, placing their palace during the United Monarchy of David and Solomon. When Yigael Yadin uncovered another palace in Megiddo in the 1960s, he attributed both of them to Solomon, while dating the later levels which included the stables and other structures to the Omrides. This dating was later re-evaluated to an even later period. The lack of acknowledgement of the impressive architectural achievements of the Omrides was typical of the field of Biblical archaeology in the mid-1900s. The Biblical account had more credence than the actual archaeological finds.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 59-60

“The most revealing site of the Omride period is Jezreel, 10 miles east of Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley. The excavation by David Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University and John Woodhead of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem brought to light a large compound with similarities to the royal compound in Samaria. What was most unusual was that this compound was inhabited for only a short time in the 9th century BCE before it was destroyed. Since it was occupied so briefly, it was not contaminated by other occupation. Because of this unique situation, the site is used to date Omride occupation. It is assumed that it was destroyed with the defeat of the Omrides by the armies of Aram Damascus as they invaded northern Israel. The collection of pottery found at the site was identical to the ceramics that appeared in the palace of Megiddo, which had been attributed to Solomon. Therefore, we can assume that the pottery typology at Megiddo is Omride and not from the period of the Monarchy as previously thought. The other ashlar-type buildings at Jezreel were of the same construction as those in the Samaria compounds. It seems that almost all of the monumental buildings attributed to David and Solomon were actually Omride.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 60

“Since the redactors preserved stories and oral traditions from their own points of view, we must depend on the archaeological record for an accurate reading of the history of this period. It is evident that the scribes were trying to write the texts for their own aggrandizement. The writers of the first book of Kings wanted to show the vile side of the Omrides (I Kings 16:25). … The goal of the scribes was to delegitimize the Omrides and the Northern Kingdom, and to justify the horrible defeat of the Omride family at the hands of the Assyrians. … There is now a general agreement that the period of the Omrides shaped the largest and most powerful early Israelite kingdom.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 61-62

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“The mention of the ‘House of David’ in the Tel Dan inscription from the 9th century BCE leaves no doubt that David and Solomon were historical figures. And there is good reason to accept that many of the David stories in the books of Samuel contain genuine, early historical memories. … But the great biblical story of the United Monarchy is left with no material evidence. The kingdom of David and Solomon was no more than a poor, demographically depleted chiefdom centered in Jerusalem, a humble village. The beautiful Megiddo palaces date to the time of the Omride dynasty of the Northern Kingdom, almost a century later than Solomon. They were probably constructed by King Ahab. This should come as no surprise. Contemporary monarchs -- Shalmaneser III of Assyria, Mesha of Moab, and Hazael of Damascus -- all attest to the great power of 9th-century Israel. The biblical story about the reign of the Omride princess Athaliah in Jerusalem, which is widely considered to be a reliable historical testimony, indicates that the Omrides dominated the marginal, powerless Judah to their south. The great, powerful, and glamorous Israelite state was the Northern Kingdom -- the wicked kingdom in the eyes of the biblical historians -- not the small and poor territory dominated by 10th-century Jerusalem. If there was a United Monarchy that ruled from Dan to Beer-sheba, it was that of the Omride dynasty and it was ruled from 9th-century Samaria.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), pp. 114-115

“The Northern Kingdom reached full-blown statehood in the days of the Omride dynasty in the early 9th century BCE. This is attested by both text and archaeology. Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria, mentions ‘Ahab the Israelite’ as his most powerful opponent in the battle of Qarqar in western Syria in 853 BCE. The 9th-century Mesha stele recounts how the Omrides had conquered territories in Moab, and the Tel Dan inscription, most probably written by Hazael, king of Damascus, states that before his time Israel took territories from Aram. Archaeologically, the skills and power of the Omrides are reflected in their great building operations. At Megiddo, the Omrides constructed two or three elaborate ashlar palaces. Samaria, Jezreel, and Hazor evince similar characteristics of monumental architecture with large-scale filling and leveling operations. The palace at Samaria is the largest and most elaborate Iron Age edifice known in the Levant.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 149

“After the fall of the Omrides, Israel became a vassal to the fearsome Assyrian superpower, as graphically depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, with the Israelite king Jehu groveling before the Assyrian throne. By the early 8th century BCE, the northern kingdom, though dominated by Assyria, reached its peak economic prosperity, territorial expansion, and diplomatic influence. Archaeologically, this is seen in the inscribed Hebrew ostraca found in the palace of Samaria, whose lists of agricultural commodities and royal officials attest to a highly organized, bureaucratic economy. Likewise, the elaborately carved Samaria ivories are evidence of a flowering of Phoenician-influenced artistic styles.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), p. 125

“To the people of the kingdom of Judah, the cosmopolitan society of the north must have seemed like an alien world. At that time Jerusalem was still restricted to the narrow ridge of the City of David, which remained unfortified. Despite its emerging royal culture, there was not a single real urban center in the entire southern highlands, which was still relatively sparsely settled. … Evidence of meaningful scribal activity in Judah in the early 8th century BCE is lacking. Very few inscriptions and personal seals can be assigned to this period. There is no evidence for a specialized production of agricultural commodities or mass production of pottery, which was characteristic of the north. In short, Judah in the early 8th century BCE was still in a low state of economic and social development.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), p. 126

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“The cause of Israel’s defeat was its success, economically, politically and militarily. In the shadow of the huge Assyrian empire, it was a threat. It was eliminated to add to the prosperity of Assyria’s imperial design. Judah was poor and was left as an unattractive destination for the remaining people of Israel. The smaller kingdom of Judah was ruled from Jerusalem, where the First Temple was built as a small shrine during the reign of Solomon. Solomon would not have had the resources to construct an elaborate structure like the one described in the book of Kings. … No archaeological remains of the First Temple, as described in detail in Kings and Chronicles, can be identified. Not even one foundation stone or ashlar in secondary use has been found. It was only after the conquest of Israel in 720 BCE and the destruction of Samaria that Jerusalem was established as the religious center and experienced a population explosion. At that time the city of David expanded onto the Western Hill (today’s Old City). Jerusalem increased in size from a 12-acre town to a city of some 150 acres in the space of one generation. This growth in population is attested to by the remains that have been uncovered from the vast excavations in the Jewish Quarter since the Six-Day War in 1967.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 63-64

“Jerusalem did not become a religious center until the reign of Hezekiah in the late 7th century BCE. Idolatry was practiced throughout the hill country, attested to by the hundreds of figurines, incense burners, and sacrificial artifacts that have been excavated throughout Judah. The small hill communities had not changed their religion since the early Iron Age. Prior to the time of Hezekiah (727-698 BCE), the Kingdom of Judah went through varying periods of success and failure.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 64

“The end of the aggressive Northern Kingdom actually served as a catalyst for the growth of the kingdom of Judah. King Ahaz (743-727 BCE) gave up the national identity of Judah and became a vassal king to Assyria. Always aware of his position, he nevertheless launched a massive building program throughout his ‘country’ which coincided with the influx of a new population from the north. The previously empty countryside was settled, new towns emerged, and Lachish became a major center as the population increased tenfold. The Be’er Sheva valley expanded with new settlements and trade centers that lay astride the trade route with Arabia. These changes brought economic stabilization, which in turn led to an accumulation of wealth in Jerusalem that supported the training of scribes and priests. Their role was to create a ‘new’ history that would serve as Judah’s central scripture and create cohesiveness among the people.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 67

“In the wake of the conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel, Judah became the only autonomous state in the highlands. Its long life in the shadow of the larger, wealthier kingdom of Israel was over. Judah emerged from this great historical watershed transformed almost beyond recognition. By the end of the 8th century BCE, it had all the hallmarks of a proper kingdom: massive building activity, mass production of commodities, centralized administration, literacy, and, most important, a new understanding of its own historical destiny. The composition of the David and Solomon story as a written narrative -- and indeed the composition of biblical texts as we now have them -- would not have been possible were it not for this dramatic change in Judah’s character as a society.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), pp. 128-129

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“The changes can be seen first and foremost in Jerusalem itself. The city underwent a period of explosive expansion. The ancient core of settlement, perched for millennia on its narrow ridge near the Gihon spring, was heavily fortified. … The process of expansion seems to have been fairly rapid. From the pottery types recovered on the western hill it is clear that it took place during the few decades that preceded and immediately followed the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel. In the span of just a few years, Jerusalem grew from a modest hill country town of about 10 to 15 acres to a large, fortified city of almost 150 acres. The population spiked accordingly. A rough estimate of the demographic growth that took place in this period would suggest that Jerusalem’s population skyrocketed from around 1,000 inhabitants to approximately 12,000. That made it a significant urban population by the standards of the ancient Near East -- and far and away the largest city that ever existed in the southern highlands.” --Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (Free Press, 2006), p. 129

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Kingdom of Israel falls; Kingdom of Judah survives and prospers:

722-587 BCE(Iron Age III)

“Hezekiah the son of Ahaz is well liked by the Deuteronomic scribes. The second book of Kings states that ‘he did what was right in the sight of the Lord’ (II Kings 18:3). According to scripture, this citation was probably given to him because of his religious reforms which were a reason to ‘save’ him from the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 BCE. An Assyrian assault was always a fearful possibility. While Sennacherib was trying to quell the revolt that had taken place in various parts of his empire, Hezekiah made the mistake of joining that revolt. Three years later, after much consolidation, Sennacherib struck Judah with a vengeance. The Sennacherib Prism, a hexagonal clay column found in Nineveh, describes Hezekiah as ‘a prisoner, like a bird in a cage,’ though there is no archaeological evidence of a siege wall or remains of an Assyrian army camp outside the walls of Jerusalem. The story in II Kings 19:35 is quite different. Although Hezekiah was encouraged by the prophet Isaiah, he refused to yield to Sennacherib. When Sennacherib returned from Lachish, ‘the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000, and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead.’ This story is refuted by most historians and considered folklore.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 68-69

“Shortly before this supposed battle for Jerusalem, a crucial event took place at Lachish, approximately five miles south of Jerusalem in the plain of the Shephelah. This battle was the climax of Sennacherib’s campaign and he chose it as the subject of a series of carved wall reliefs that are now on display in the British Museum in London. These large panels are very detailed, showing captives executed and hung on the walls of Lachish or being led away to slavery and exile. They also depict Sennacherib watching as Lachish is consumed by flames, an event that caused most of the surviving population in the area to flee to Jerusalem. These panels are considered to be the most graphic documentation of conquest ever found in the ancient world.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 69

“According to traditional folklore, the religious reforms of Hezekiah began with the destruction of the Nehushtan, the bronze serpent that Moses had made which had the power to protect people from snakebites. Its destruction was a symbolic act, carried out to appease the priesthood. Hezekiah established the division of the priests and the Levites according to their tasks. The priests who came from the north were of the Aaronid line and probably wrote the priestly sections of the Bible. … This was also a time of great literary activity. The books of Isaiah, Micah, Hosea and Proverbs were written. Centralization of religion was established for future kings, including Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, and Josiah, who was his equal as a reformer.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 70-71

“Although Hezekiah inherited a unified, wealthy state, Sennacherib destroyed it. Hezekiah’s disastrous confrontation with Assyria was a huge mistake. From the period of Hezekiah and Manasseh onward, the gap between the Biblical account and the archaeological record narrows. The Bible now becomes a more reliable source for the historical events of the time. Hezekiah died in 698 BCE and his 12-year-old son Manasseh took the throne. The Bible portrays Manasseh as a terrible king and his reign as a black period. He is, however, well documented in Assyrian inscriptions. Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 BCE and was succeeded by Esarhaddon (681-669 BCE) who left us many royal inscriptions in which Manasseh, king of Judah, is listed.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 71

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“It appears that Manasseh realized that it was in the best interest of the Assyrians for the small state of Judah to act as a buffer against Egypt and was therefore granted special treatment. His long reign of 45 years was a prosperous and peaceful time for Judah. Along with the increased construction and trade, the territory expanded as a wave of settlements was established in the Be’er Sheva valley, following the trade routes of the southern coastal plain. Two 7th century BCE forts, deep in the desert, are attributed to Manasseh’s reign.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 71

“However successful Manasseh was in integrating Judah into the economy of Assyria, the scribes of the Bible condemn him for destroying all of his father’s religious reforms. According to II Kings 21:16, he spilled the blood of his own people. The archaeological record, however, does not bear this out. That the scribes portrayed him as the wickedest of all kings only attests to the prejudices of the Deuteronomists, who took power for a short period after Manasseh’s death in 642 BCE. It seems that Manasseh and his advisors pacified their Assyrian overlords, as Manasseh is mentioned in a group of kings who supplied material for a royal project, and again as one of the kings who helped the next Assyrian king conquer Egypt. He re-established the ritual cult of Baal-Asherah, gaining the confidence of the rural population. Economically he rebuilt his smaller kingdom even though Judah was a vassal of Assyria. Later in the 7th century BCE Jerusalem had no rivals, yet there is little evidence that the city was an administrative center which would have required large buildings. It may be that the city functioned as a commercial and trading center.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 71-72

“In most of the period known as the ‘Assyrian century’ in the history of Judah, the kingdom was ruled by three kings: father, son, and grandson. The first, Ahaz, is depicted by the Bible as a sinner and as one who cooperated with the Assyrians and compromised Judah’s independence. His son Hezekiah is described as the second-most-righteous king from the lineage of David and as a hero who stood firmly and courageously against Assyria. The Deuteronomistic Historian even makes a special effort to hide the fact that Judah remained under Assyrian domination many years after the ‘miraculous’ rescue of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. The grandson, Manasseh, who ruled in Jerusalem for over half a century, is described as the most evil of all apostates and head of all villains. The Exilic redactor of the Deuteronomistic History flatly puts the responsibility for the fall of Jerusalem on his head. Archaeology has given us a completely different story. Ahaz saved Judah from the bitter fate of the Northern Kingdom and incorporated it into the Assyrian economy. His policy led Judah to unprecedented prosperity in which Jerusalem and Judah experienced dramatic demographic growth. This was the time when Jerusalem expanded to the Western Hill. Judah apparently participated in the Assyrian-led Arabian trade and as a result the Beer-sheba Valley flourished. In contrast, Hezekiah made a reckless decision to rebel against Assyria and was therefore responsible for the events that led to the utter devastation of Judah. … Archaeology also shows us that Manasseh saved Judah from annihilation. Under his Realpolitik of cooperation with Assyria, the Southern Kingdom emerged from the ashes, was reincorporated into the Assyrian economy, and reached unprecedented prosperity. … Ostraca, seals and seal impressions, weights and other finds indicate that in Manasseh’s days, Judah enjoyed an impressive literacy rate.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), pp. 15-16

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“In a few decades in the late 8th century BCE, Jerusalem grew in size from about 5 hectares to about 60, and in population from around 1,000 inhabitants to over 10,000. The population of the Judahite countryside also grew dramatically. … This sudden increase cannot be explained as a natural growth or as a result of a peaceful migration from neighboring areas. The only way to explain it is as the result of a flow of refugees from the north following the conquest of Israel in 722 BCE. In Jerusalem and the southern hill country, such growth probably continued with a second wave of refugees who arrived after 701 BCE. All this means that ‘the great leap forward’ in the demography of Judah took place in a short period of time, between 732 (but mainly 722) and 700 BCE (or a few years later). In two to three decades, Judah was totally revolutionized. It was transformed from an isolated, formative tribal state into a developed nation-state, fully incorporated into the Assyrian global economy. And no less important, the population changed from ‘purely’ Judahite to a mix of Judahites and ex-Israelites.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 154

“In Judah, the new demographic situation must have presented a challenge to the leadership as the need became ever more urgent to unite the two segments of the society, Judahites and Israelites, into one entity. The main problems that needed to be addressed were probably the different cults and royal traditions of the northerners who settled in Judah. Indeed, in the late 8th century BCE, King Hezekiah and his Jerusalem elite focused the new nation exclusively on Jerusalem’s Temple and the Davidic dynasty.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 155

“Archaeology has shown that full-blown statehood in Judah did not develop until the late 8th century BCE. This included the appearance of elitist literacy and scribal activity. Over a century of archaeological excavations in Jerusalem and in almost every important mound in the countryside of Judah has failed to find any significant inscription before this time.” --Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), p. 156

“Manasseh was followed on the throne by Amon (641-640 BCE) who was assassinated in Jerusalem after only two years, an event that brought his young son Josiah (various sources give his age as 3 or 8 years old) to the throne. Josiah (639-609 BCE) reigned for 31 years and is praised as the most righteous king, rivaling King David himself. In fact, Josiah is represented as the quintessential example of a king and is probably the model for the grandeur that is attributed to David. During his reign the Jerusalem priests and scribes flourished, leaving us the history they devised based on current events. These writings were later redacted into the Hebrew Bible. II Kings 23:25 sings the praises of Josiah at a level that surpasses all other kings. He is portrayed as the hope for national redemption.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 72

“When Josiah was 18, he received a message that the High Priest Hilkiah had found a scroll during the refurbishing of the Temple in Jerusalem in 622 BCE (II Kings 23:2-3). When Shaphan, the scribe, read the text, Josiah rent his clothing in anguish as he recognized that the scribe was reading from the ‘Book of the Law.’ Scholars who hold the view that the completion of the Bible began no later than the reign of King Josiah suggest that the ‘Book of the Law’ given to Josiah (II Kings 22:10-20 and II Chronicles 34:14-31) was actually an early version of Deuteronomy. It was during Josiah’s reign that priests and scribes began compiling the Torah, along with the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, all of which underwent redaction after the Babylonian Exile before reaching their present form.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 72

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“The Bible says that prior to Josiah’s administration, not only had a written copy of the ‘Law’ disappeared from the kingdom, but also nobody seemed to know what it was or whether it was being followed. According to II Kings 22:8-13, the high priest of the temple, Hilkiah, found the text somewhere in the temple and he gave it to a scribe named Shaphan. The scribe in turn brought it to King Josiah and they read it together. To their amazement, they found that they were in violation of the laws handed down by Moses, and Josiah became so upset he rent his clothes, fearing that God would be angry at Judah. But for his good fortune in discovering a copy of the ‘Law’ just laying around in the temple, lost for ages, the Hebrews would have continued to live in sin. Based on this newly found manuscript, Josiah launched a series of religious reforms intended to bring back the Law of Moses. His priests and scribes probably wrote Deuteronomy.” --Gary Greenberg, Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History (Sourcebooks, 2000), pp. 224-225

“Josiah died by the hand of Necho II of the Twenty-sixth Egyptian dynasty. Two different versions of Josiah’s encounter with Necho II at Megiddo are found in II Kings 23:29 and II Chronicles 35:23, both attesting to Josiah having been shot with an Egyptian arrow and dying. This episode is disputed, and Josiah may in fact have been executed by Necho II. These texts were translated from the Hebrew into Greek centuries later and use the name Armageddon for Megiddo. It was Josiah’s death in 609 BCE that gave rise to the tradition that Megiddo is where the forces of good and evil will, some time in the future, do battle on the site where Josiah, the last Davidic king, perished. Thus, the traditions of Judeo-Christian eschatology and Davidic messianism were born. The great reforms initiated by Josiah, both religious and economic, collapsed after his death in 609 BCE. The population once again came under the rule of Egypt. The next four kings, three of them the sons of Josiah, presided over a period of decline, leading to the collapse and destruction of the Judahite state. Despite all the praise lavished on Josiah by the priestly scribes, he is only known from Biblical sources. There are no references to him in contemporary Egyptian or Babylonian texts, and although we are nearing the point of relying on the Biblical text for historical credibility, we can only document his existence with limited archaeological evidence.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 74

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Fall of Judah; Exile to Babylon:

587 BCE(Iron Age III)

“King Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian empire, was succeeded in 604 BCE by his son Nebuchadnezzar II, called the Chaldean. Nebuchadnezzar drove the Egyptians out of Syria and concentrated his efforts on the beautification of his capital city Babylon with such projects as the Hanging Gardens. While excavating in the area of the Hanging Gardens, a cache of approximately 200 tablets was uncovered. Four of the tablets refer to the rations of grain and oil supplied by Jehoiachin, king of Judah. This is confirmed by the Babylonian Chronicles in 597 BCE when Nebuchadnezzar makes a token assault on Jerusalem and takes the king, his mother, and his family captive, along with 10,000 others, including the aristocracy and the priests (II Kings 24:12-14). But that was only the beginning of the slide to destruction. Nebuchadnezzar replaced Jehoiachin with his uncle, Zedekiah. Zedekiah rebelled and the Babylonian army began the siege of Jerusalem. The outlying areas fell to the Babylonian army. Jeremiah 34:7 notes that Lachish and Azekah were the last cities in Judah to fall, while II Kings 25:3-7 describes the capture of Zedekiah as well as the murder of his sons in his presence. The Babylonians then put out Zedekiah’s eyes and took him into exile in Babylonia. Jerusalem was left desolate.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 76-77

“The literary and historical traditions of the Israelites were reshaped in Babylon. Written accounts of the past were framed in terms of the present to construct a pattern of history influenced by their captivity and separation from Jerusalem. The scribes and redactors during this period had an enormous influence on the formation of Israelite tradition, since it was they who put their people’s earliest memories into literary form during the Babylonian Exile.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), pp. 77-78

“Previously it was thought that the Babylonian Exile was almost total, emptying Judah of its populations between 586 and 538 BCE, and that only the poorest people stayed behind. However, I Kings 24:14 uses the number 10,000 to count the exiles and then two chapters later says that 8,000 Judahites went into exile. The prophet Jeremiah recounts three deportations of 46,000 (Jeremiah 52:28-30). Accordingly, it is now estimated that only 5% to 20% of the population was deported to Babylonia. Most of the people, especially those from rural areas, were not removed, and the exiles came mainly from Jerusalem and its environs. This was the area called Yahud, comprised mainly of the Judean hills. The boundaries of the area can be reconstructed archaeologically by the seal impressions with the name Yahud. Several hundred of these have been found in Jerusalem and at sites within 15 to 20 miles to the north and south of the city. It is from the word Yahud that the name Yehudim or Jews was derived. Yahud remained under Persian control for two centuries, until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE.” --Bernard Alpert & Fran Alpert, Archaeology and the Biblical Record (Hamilton Books, 2012), p. 79

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Development of the Hebrew Bible(9th century BCE to 4th century BCE)

c. 9th century to 8th century BCE

(900-700 BCE)

J Source (portions of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers), written in Southern Kingdom of JudahE Source (portions of Genesis, Exodus), written in Northern Kingdom of Israel

722 BCE Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) falls to AssyriansKingdom of Judah (Jerusalem) survives (and prospers) for next 125 years

c. 727-698 BCE(late 8th century BCE)(Reign of Hezekiah)

(A time of great literary activity in Jerusalem.)

P Source (portions of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)Book of MicahBook of HoseaBook of ProverbsBook of First Isaiah (chapters 1 to 39)

c. 639-609 BCE(late 7th century BCE)(Reign of Josiah)

(Also a time of great literary activity. The priests and scribes of Jerusalem were flourishing. Compilation of the

Torah was begun.)

D Source (portions of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings)

597 BCE Kingdom of Judah (Jerusalem) falls to Babylonians

c. 6th century BCE(600-500 BCE)

Book of EzekielBook of JeremiahBook of Lamentations

c. 550 BCE Book of Second Isaiah (chapters 40 to 55)

c. 5th century BCE(500-400 BCE)

Book of JobBook of ZechariahBook of Third Isaiah (chapters 56 to 66)

c. 450 BCE Book of ChroniclesBook of NehemiahBook of EzraBook of Malachi

c. 4th century BCE(400-300 BCE)

Book of EcclesiastesBook of Psalms

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Kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (late 10th century to late 8th century BCE)

c. 922-901 BCE(reigned from Shechem for 22 years)

Jeroboam I - Died of natural causes.

c. 901-900 BCE(reigned from Shechem for 2 years)

Nadab - Killed, along with his whole family, by his successor, Baasha.

c. 900-877 BCE(reigned from Tirzah for 24 years)

Baasha - Died of natural causes.

c. 877-876 BCE(reigned from Tirzah for 2 years)

Elah - Killed by his successor, Zimri, while drunk in his house in Azra.

c. 876 BCE(reigned from Tirzah for 7 days)

Zimri - Committed suicide by setting his palace on fire after Omri laid siege to the city.

c. 876-869 BCE(reigned from Tirzah at first, then moved capital and reigned from

Samaria)

Omri - Died of natural causes. Omri and his son, Ahab, brought the Kingdom of Israel to the peak of its strength and political importance. Yet the biblical accounts minimize Omri’s accomplishments, making it sound like Omri and Ahab caused the Kingdom’s ruin. It’s important to remember that these accounts were written two centuries later (after the Kingdom of Israel was gone), by scribes aligned with Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah.

c. 869-850 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 19 years)

Ahab - Shot by archer during battle at Ramoth Gilead. Died upon arrival in Samaria.

c. 850-849 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 2 years)

Ahaziah - Died from injuries sustained after falling through lattice of his upper room.

c. 849-843/2 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 7 years)

Joram - Killed by his successor, Jehu.

c. 843/2-815 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 28 years)

Jehu - Died of natural causes.

c. 815-802 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 13 years)

Jehoahaz - Died of natural causes.

c. 802-786 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 16 years)

Jehoash (Joash) - Died of natural causes.

c. 786-746 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 40 years)

Jeroboam II - Died of natural causes.

c. 746-745 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 6 months)

Zechariah - Killed by his successor, Shallum.

c. 745 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 1 month)

Shallum - Killed by his successor, Menahem.

c. 745-737 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 8 years)

Menahem - Died of natural causes.

737-736 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 1 year)

Pekahiah - Killed in his palace by his successor, Pekah.

736-732 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 4 years)

Pekah - Killed by his successor, Hoshea.

732-724 BCE(reigned from Samaria for 8 years)

Hoshea - The Assyrians attacked and captured Samaria. Hoshea was charged with treason, and imprisoned. Cause of death unclear. The Israelites were deported to Assyria. Israel ceased to exist.

--Douglas A. Knight & Amy-Jill Levine, The Meaning of the Bible (HarperOne, 2011), p. 28

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Kings (and one Queen) of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (late 10th century to early 6th century BCE)

c. 922-915 BCE(reigned from Jerusalem for 7 years)

Rehoboam - Died of natural causes.

c. 915-913 BCE(reigned for 2 years)

Abijah - Died of natural causes.

c. 913-873 BCE(reigned for 40 years)

Asa - Died of foot disease.

c. 873-849 BCE(reigned for 24 years)

Jehoshaphat - Died of natural causes.

c. 849-843/2 BCE(reigned for 7 years)

Jehoram - Died of stomach disease.

c. 843/2 BCE(reigned for 1 year)

Ahaziah - Killed by Jehu, who usurped the throne of Israel.

c. 843/2-837 BCE(reigned for 6 years)

Athaliah (Queen) - Killed by troops assigned to protect Joash (the Queen Mother, widow of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah).

c. 837-800 BCE(reigned for 37 years)

Jehoash - Killed by his servants.

c. 800-783 BCE(reigned for 17 years)

Amaziah - Killed in Lachish by men sent by his officials.

c. 783-742 BCE(reigned for 41 years)

Uzziah (Azariah) - Died of tzaraas.

c. 742-735 BCE(reigned for 7 years)

Jotham - Died of natural causes.

c. 735-715 BCE(reigned for 20 years)

Ahaz - Died of natural causes. Described by the Bible as a sinner who cooperated with the Assyrians. Yet Ahaz’s capitulation saved Judah from the destruction suffered by the Northern Kingdom. Ahaz may have given up Judah’s national identity, but the result was that the local economy stabilized and Jerusalem prospered. This included the development of a class of scribes and priests.

c. 715-687/6 BCE(reigned for 29 years)

Hezekiah - Died of natural causes. The Bible describes Hezekiah as the second-most-righteous king of David’s line, and a hero who stood firm against Assyria. Unfortunately, Hezekiah joined a revolt against Assyria, setting in motion events that led to Judah’s destruction.

c. 687/6-642 BCE(reigned for 45 years)

Manasseh - Died of natural causes. Manasseh is portrayed in the Bible as a terrible king and his reign as a dark period. He was condemned for destroying the religious reforms of his father, and for pacifying the Assyrians. Yet Manasseh’s reign was actually a time of extended peace and prosperity for Judah.

c. 642-640 BCE(reigned for 2 years)

Amon - Killed by his servants.

c. 640-609 BCE(reigned for 31 years)

Josiah - Killed in Megiddo by King Necho of Egypt.Josiah is praised by the Bible as the most righteous king, rivaling King David himself. He is portrayed as the hope for national redemption. During his reign the priests and scribes of Jerusalem flourished.

c. 609 BCE(reigned for 3 months)

Jehoahaz - Dethroned by King Necho of Egypt. Carried off to Egypt where he died.

c. 609-598 BCE(reigned for 11 years)

Jehoiakim - Died of natural causes.

c. 598/7 BCE(reigned for 3 months, 10 days)

Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) - Summoned to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar where he died.

c. 597-587/6 BCE(reigned for 11 years)

Zedekiah - Oversaw second rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. After lengthy siege, Jerusalem was captured, the Temple burned. Zedekiah was blinded and taken into exile.

--Douglas A. Knight & Amy-Jill Levine, The Meaning of the Bible (HarperOne, 2011), p. 28

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