The Dawn of Israel

Description

In this companion volume to his bestselling Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? Lester L. Grabbe provides the background history of the main ancient Near Eastern peoples and empires: Babylonia, Assyria, Urartu, Hittites, Amorites, Egyptians.
Grabbe’s focus is on Palestine/Canaan and covers the early second millennium, including the Middle Bronze Age and the Second Intermediate Period and Hyksos rule of Egypt. Grabbe also addresses the question of a ‘patriarchal period’. The main focus of the book is on the second half of the second millennium: Late Bronze and early Iron Age, the Egyptian New Kingdom, the Amarna letters, the Sea Peoples, the question of ‘the exodus’, the early settlements in the hill country of Palestine, and the first mention of Israel in the Merenptah inscription. Archaeology and the contribution of the social sciences both feature heavily, as does inscriptional and iconographic material. As such this volume provides a fascinating portrayal of ancient Israel and this definitive work by one of the world’s leading biblical historians will be of interest to all students and scholars of biblical history.

Lester L. Grabbe provides a comprehensive history of the main ancient Near Eastern peoples and empires, drawing on insights from archaeology, iconography and the social sciences. Lester L. Grabbe is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, UK. He is founder and convenor of the European Seminar in Historical Methodology. He is also Series Editor of our own Library of Second Temple Studies Series.

AbbreviationsPrefacePart I: IntroductionChapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Third Millennium Context
Part II: Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1600 BCE)Chapter 3: Ancient Near Eastern Context
Chapter 4: Syria and Palestine
Part III: Late Bronze Age (c. 1600-1200 BCE)Chapter 5: Ancient Near Eastern Context, Including Syria
Chapter 6: Palestine/Canaan
Part IV: Early Iron Age (c. 1200-900 BCE)Chapter 7: Ancient Near Eastern Context, Including Syria and Transjordan (1200-900 BCE)
Chapter 8: Palestine (1200-900 BCE)
Part V: ConclusionsChapter 9: The Origins of Israel – A Holistic Approach
BibliographyIndex

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