The revealed Bible

the revealed Bible. New revelations of archeology. , of Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, is a work of synthesis which has the research result archaeological made around the events reported by the Bible. It is currently a best seller: always on sale with the Bayard editions, the work was published in book of pocket in the Collection Folio history with the editions Gallimard (January 13rd, 2004). Although presenting facts which were already known specialists, this work started various polemics with its publication. The talk of this work of synthesis is supplemented by a second book of Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, the crowned kings of the Bible. In the search of David and Solomon , Bayard editions, 2006, which details what the archeologists established over this period, while also giving an account of the datings to carbon-14 carried out since the drafting of the first book. The two books thus study the context in relation to the biblical account, and not the text itself, which is only briefly pointed out.

One will find below a summary precise and detailed text, page by page, and at the end of each paragraph a critical analysis presenting the many objections which were made with the book.

Recensions and critical

On the strict archaeological level (according to its author) a detailed criticism was made of the revealed Bible by William G. Dever, Who where the Early Israelites and where did they like from? , 2003, translated under the title At the origins of Israel. When the Bible tells truth , Éditions Bayard, 2005, delivers which presents an excellent bibliography.

Of the recensions and criticisms of the revealed Bible come from various laic mediums or monk are available on line.

See for example

* On the site of " history in primaire"

* Archeology and biblical account: the revealed Bible? by Damien Christmas

* a second reading of the Bible starting from archeology by J. - M. Van Cangh

* On the site writers, by Dye stick Willar

* the Bible the science proof by J.M Maldamé, COp

* concept of history in the Bible

Thanks, Prolog, Introduction (pp. 1-37)

The professors David Ussishkin and Baruch Alpern, co-directors of the excavations of Megiddo, were, for the two authors, a very rich source of reflections and discussions between colleagues on materials introduced into the text. They are thanked, as well as professors Nadav Naaman and Jack Sasson, for their advised councils and their answers to the questions and the problems of drafting.

This book aims at giving to the reader the lighting projected on the history of old the Israel and the birth of its crowned writing, by the archaeological discoveries most recent, still unknown apart from the circle of the experts.

How and why the Bible she was written? Which role did she play in the history of old Israel? The work is devoted to works known as " historiques" Hebraic Bible (Torah and first prophets), until the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem (- 586). The attentive study of the characteristics of terminology and geographical environment carried out by the biblists (see Patriarchs below) showed the existence of made up entirely distinct sources at various times and in different places (p. 24, " source; J" said " yahviste" , " source; E" said " élohiste" , " source; D" said " deutéronomique" , " source; P" said " prêtres" , " source; R" said " rédacteurs" , the last " rédaction" being postexilic).

The first archeologists as from 1900, such William F. Albright, sought in each discovery only one illustration of the biblical text, taking the historical accounts of the Bible literally: one called this way of doing the biblical archeology . It is only from 1970 that the methods employed by the archeologists and the anthropologists in other areas, concerned with the methods of social sciences, were essential little by little. If no archeologist would venture to deny that number of legends, characters and fragments of accounts of the Bible go up extremely far in time, the historical heart of the Bible developed (see p. 36) in the political, social and spiritual circumstances of a state fully made up, with a spread elimination of illiteracy, with the apogee of the kingdom of Juda, at the age of recent Iron, at the time of king Josias.

Critiques

As opposed to what Finkelsein affirms, the existence of distinct sources mentioned p. 24 (" source; J" said " yahviste" , " source; E" said " élohiste" , " source; D" said " deutéronomique" , " source; P" said " prêtres" , " source; R" said " rédacteurs" , the last " rédaction" being postexilic) is not shown but is not postulated. See also: documentary Assumption.

First part: the historicity of the Bible (pp. 39-174)

In search of the Patriarchs (pp. 41-63 and pp. 361-367)

For the senior of biblical archeology, William F. Albright (p. 48),

* as a whole, which depicts the Genesis is historical and nothing enables us to doubt the total exactitude of its biographical details .

A calculation according to the Bible results in locating towards -2100 the departure of Abraham, originating in Ur in Mésopotamie southernmost, for Canaan, where it would have carried out a pastoral life, making feed its herds in the sites of Sichem, Béthel, Beersheba and Hebron. Thus Albright makes of Abraham a merchant amorite come, north, in Canaan, during a migration amorite. Albright supposes this massive and sudden migration, destroying the urbanization cananéenne which characterizes the period of the old Bronze. However, there is now established that, during the time of the intermediate Bronze (- 2100 to -1800), the collapse of the urbanization cananéenne was not sudden but progressive, most of the population not becoming wandering but remaining sedentary in permanent villages. Moreover, the sites of Sichem, Beersheba and Hebron do not contain any object dating from the intermediate Bronze. In front of these contradictions, other attempts place the Patriarches more tardily, with the average Bronze, but it becomes incomprehensible then that the Bible does not mention powerful the city-States (p. 363) which became Hazor and Megiddo, with their palates and their temples, nor the strong cities of Béthel, Jerusalem and Sichem (the latter is mentioned as a site, but not as a strong city).

For the specialists in the textual critic, the such biblists Julius Wellhausen, in connection with the documents " J" and " E" , then John Van Seters and Thomas Thomson, the account of the patriarchs was written tardily, during the monarchical time (- 1000 to -700), even later (- 600 to -500). It is what explains the presence of many anachronisms in the account, most known being the camels and the Philistines. It is known that the Genèse mentions in a repeated way the camels at the time of the Patriarchs, whereas it is firmly established that the dromedary was domesticated only at the end of the second millenium and was employed like beast of burden only well after -1000. The caravan of the camels of Joseph transports gum adragante, balsam and laudanum, goods indeed characteristic of the Arab trade, but at the time -700 and -600 (see hereafter, Between war and survival ). As for the Philistins, it is firmly established that they come in Canaan only from -1200. Moreover, the city of Gérar, presented like their capital in the account of Isaac, is only one tiny village with the Fer I, which becomes a strong city only towards -700 Assyrian pennies the .

The biblist Martin Noth pointed out that the activities of Jacob are geographically bound, essentially, with the northern part of Canaan, those of Isaac to the southern part, those of Abraham with Hebron between the two.

The conclusion of Finkelstein and Silberman is that the text " J" and the text " D" on the Patriarches have both summer made up in Jerusalem towards -700, at one time when the kingdom of north, Israel, was not any more, and where Juda dreamed to formulate a pious prehistory of Israel in which Juda plays the central role.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Did the Exodus take place? (pp. 65-89)

If the Patriarchs are not historical characters, one can then ask for if the Exodus such as it is described in the Bible corresponds to an historical event.

During all antiquity, people leave Canaan to come to settle in the delta of the Nile (p. 70). Indeed, the climatic risks periodically involve famines in Canaan whereas, comparatively, Egypt is a rich country (fertility due to the Nile) and organized well (storage of the grain). Some are engaged like operations, others are tradesmen, unquestionable become dignitaries (soldiers, priests), some one are prisoners of war (nonfree).

From -1670 to -1570, the Hyksôs (" kings étrangers" , p. 72) from Palestine, take the control of the north of Egypt, melting a dynasty of Pharaons. They are finally expelled in Canaan. Several common points were raised between the adventure of Hyksôs and that of the Hebrews of the biblical account of the Exodus (a population come from Canaan, which becomes very powerful in Egypt where she is opposed to the soldiers of Pharaon successfully and ends up turning over in Canaan). But it is not possible to see the Hebrews in the population of Hyksôs and not only one allusion being able to be attached to the Hebrew or Israel does not appear in the many documents relating to Hyksôs, both in Egypt and in Canaan.

There does not exist either least allusion to the Hebrew or Israel in the Lettres of Amarna, however extremely detailed on the populations present in Canaan. The first mention of Israel is in the Stèle of Mérenptah, indicating a group of people in Canaan (p. 75), and it acts of the only mention relating to the Hebrews or Israel in the Egyptian literature all confused types of literature.

The Stèle of Mérenptah, the mention in the Bible of the town of Ramsès , the mention in (Ex 14,2) of the name Migdol (fortresses of the New Empire which keeps the road between Egypt and Canaan) as several other indications (p. 77) lead, in the search for tangible archaeological traces of the Exodus, to give an special attention at the time of Ramsès II.

However, according to Finkelstein and Silberman (pp. 80-82):

* no trace of camping, no sign of occupation, going back from Ramsès II or its predecessors, or its immediate successors, were found nowhere in the the Sinai. And it is not fault of having sought them… There does not exist quite simply the least obviousness of this type of activity at the time allotted to the Exodus, i.e. in XIIIe front century J.C…. On the long list of campings in the desert, Kadesh-Barnéa and Éçyon-Gébèr are the only ones that it is possible to identify with certainty. One finds there no trace of the Jews moving.

According to Donald B. Redford, the most evocative details of the Exodus are attached to VIIe century (Pitom, for example, identified in Per-Atoum, was built by Nékao II towards -600), which indicates that the account was written at that time. Towards -700 and -600, Kadesh-Barnea was inhabited and comprised a fortress, and Éçyon-Gébèr was a flourishing port (p. 86). At that time, finally, the kingdom of Juda considered the Egypt with a mixture of respect, fear and aversion (p. 90), allied potential in the event of Assyrian invasion by north, a rival in her aimings on Israel. It is as a combatant Nékao II that Josias will be killed.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

The conquest of Canaan (pp. 91-117 and pp. 373-384)

As for the Exodus, the biblical account of the conquest of Canaan runs up against the reality which archeology reveals us. It can only be posterior at the time of the Lettres of Amarna and former to the Stèle of Mérenptah. However the presence Egyptian in Canaan, with the fortified towns such as Beth-Shéân for example, full with hiéroglyphes of Séthi Ier (- 1294, -1279), Ramsès II (- 1279, -1213) and Ramsès III (- 1184, -1153), makes paradoxical a military conquest in the presence of the garrisons which supervise the country but are completely absent from account (p. 98). It is difficult to believe that, if this conquest had taken place, the Egyptian soldiers did not realize any (the abundant Egyptian files do not make mention of it).

In the spirit of the biblical Archeology , William F. Albright about 1930 then Yigael Yadin towards 1950 discovered on the ground the evidence, irrefutable according to them, of the biblical account which guided their research, in the brutal destruction of Béthel, Lakish and Hazor in particular, destruction which they allotted, in the general euphoria, with the conquests of Josué (p. 101).

However, a disorder occurred with the excavations of Jericho, modest village without trace of occupation in XIIIe century, uninhabited since XIVe century, without walls and traces of violent destruction. The excavations of Have, carried out of 1933 to 1935 by Judith Marquet-Krause according to the scientific methods of the French school, then confirmed about 1960, led to the same result: the city, imposing with average Bronze, was uninhabited with recent Bronze. It was the same with Gabaôn, Kephira, Béérot, Qiryat-Yéarim, Arad and Heshbôn. As for the destruction of Béthel, Lakish and Hazor, the indices suggested finally that their destructors were not necessarily Israélites (p. 103).

After the dead end of the biblical Archeology , in fact the archaeological research , this time, undertaken in the whole of the Mediterranean basin reflect the scientists of agreement: the invasions of the Peuples of the Sea (p. 107) signed in the whole of the area and during one century, the collapse of the world of the Bronze Age and the passage to the age of Iron.

Well before these archaeological discoveries, it should be noted that the biblists of the German school, Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth, had located in the screen of the book of Josué an assembly, in the etiologic tradition , of legends of local inspiration (p. 112).

In addition, various theories (pp. 373-384) were proposed to try to reconcile a historical interpretation of the biblical account with the reality noted on the ground ( theory of the peaceful infiltration , theory of the country revolt ) but it acts of intellectual constructions (of assumptions), and not of a synthesis of the archaeological data. For the needs for the theory, certain data are even contradicted.

* In its theory of the peaceful infiltration , Albrecht Alt compares the Jews to the Shasou, which are however Bedouin (p. 376).

* In the theory of the country revolt , the biblist Georges Mendelhal allots to the Apirou, without the shade of a proof, the worship of supposed YHWH to provide them a common ideology which unifies them and allows them to raise the peasants in a revolt against the established social order. According to this theory, taken again by the sociologist Norman Gottwald (p. 127), the conquest Jew is accomplished when a big number of peasants cananéens reversed their Masters and lords of the cities to become the community of the Jews. The archeologist William G. Dever took again the theory of the country revolt , by allotting the occupation of the highlands to two technological innovations: capacity to dig cisterns in the rock and the capacity to coat them. Unfortunately, according to Finkelstein and Silberman, these two technologies were already known and employees well a long time before the emergence of primitive Israel. Moreover, it is established that the first Jews installations on the high plateaus, from -1200, are the fruit of nomads which sédentarisent themselves and not of revolted peasants who gather. Lastly, the elements of potteries presented by William G. Dever to support its arguments do not come from the first installations, as he thought it, but of sites corresponding to the second phase of occupation of the highlands (p. 383): these potteries thus do not indicate anything as for starting process. These new data clearly contradict the theory of the country revolt , whose success near a certain public is due less to the solidity of its bases than to the ideology than it conveys, according to Finkelstein and Silberman: that of a world shaken by the propagation of this new faith (p. 381).

For Finkelstein and Silberman, the trace of the ideology of the Deutéronome, very present in the book of Josué, indicates, there still, the time of the king Josias like that of the drafting of the account (p. 114).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Who were the Jews? pp. 119-147

The local excavations, in the cities, did not give any trace of the first Jews. A new technique, the regional prospection of surface, on the whole of the highlands of current the the West Bank, is undertaken timidly as from 1967, then with large scales about 1990. It is this statistical technique, consisting in systematically collecting the least traces of life, dating them and charting the whole of the traces by dates, which will make it possible to locate the habitats of the first Jews. Approximately 250 communities are localized on the heights, sheltering for the majority about fifty adults and as many children, a few hundreds of individuals for largest, approximately 45000 inhabitants on the whole towards -1000, the very first installations starting little before -1200. The plan of the habitat is oval, around a large interior court, surrounded by rectangular dry stone parts, on the model of the campings of tents of the Bedouin . The detailed study of one of these large sites of the Iron I, Izbet Sartah, located in a fertile zone, was made by Baruch Rosen, specialist in agriculture and the nutrition in antiquity. The found archaeological material indicates a hundred inhabitants, 350 hectares of grounds of which the half cultivated and the remainder in grazing ground, a maximum annual production of 53 tons corn and 21 tons of barley, forty ox and a herd of 300 goats and sheep (p. 134).

It acts wandering pastors who sédentarisent themselves gradually, in the not very accessible areas, first of all near the desert for the majority, then more in the west then. Three waves of establishments were identified (table p. 138), the two first with the old Bronze then with the average Bronze, each abandoned time (return to the nomadism), the third with the Fer I being that of the first Jews (250 sites), reinforced with the Fer II (500 sites). It is this third vague that, contrary to the two preceding ones, the bones of pig are completely absent from waste of food: the first Jews did not eat a pig. This habit their is clean because, at the same time, the Philistins make an abundant consumption of pig (p. 144).

The archeologist Amihai Mazar, of the Hebraic University of Jerusalem, found in one of these villages of north a small bronze bull, probable figurine of a worship cananéen of Baal. These villages are strengthened, no warlike concern is not raised there, the inhabitants carry out a peaceful pastoral life to it. Reality such as we reveals it archeology is thus extremely far away from the accounts of the Livre of the Judges, with its conflicts of the Jews against the Philistines, the Moabites, the Médianites and the Amorites. The biblists attach these accounts to the deuteronomic history, which indicates, according to Finkelstein and Silberman, the king Josias like time of their drafting (p. 146).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Memories of a golden age? (pp. 149-174 and pp. 385-389)

Finkelstein and Silberman note it:

* During centuries, in the whole world, all the readers of the Bible shared an identical vision of the reigns of David and Solomon, like a kind of golden age of the history of Israel. Until recently, many scientists estimated that unified monarchy was the first biblical period which one could regard as authentically historical.

However, neither David nor Solomon appears in any Egyptian text or mésopotamien and Jerusalem do not contain the least vestige of constructions of Solomon.

The Stele of Such daN, written in araméen, refers to the house of David . It proves that there was well a king David and two kingdoms, that of Israel in north and that of the house of David in the south (p. 155).

Guided by the reading of the Bible, the archeologists of the biblical archeology allotted each remains of Philistine potteries to the valiant exploits of David. Thus the archeologist Benjamin Mazar, finding in Such Qasile a Philistine city ignored by the Bible, but carrying traces of destruction by fire, added it without hesitating, but without the least proof, with the list of the Philistine cities shaven by David (p. 162). The large found buildings with Megiddo between 1920 and 1930 from the start were allotted to Solomon, inter alia the stables, inevitably of Solomon since the Bible spoke about the stables of Solomon (p. 163). Yigael Yadin exhumed with Hazor a monumental door called to triple clippers, of the same type as that found with Megiddo 20 years earlier, and noted that the drawings of the excavations of Gézer comprised them also the same type of doors. Yadin thus affirmed that an architect of Solomon to Jerusalem was the author of this plan, duplicated in the provincial towns (p. 165). Excavating in Megiddo in the east of the door, he discovered under the stable of Solomon an extraordinary stone palate of size, which was, also, allotted to him to Solomon, as well as a second palate of the same not very front type discovered. The stable, inevitably posterior, not being able more to be allotted to Solomon, Yadin allotted it to Achab, king d' Israël (p. 167).

However, as for the conquest of Canaan, this beautiful theory built in enthusiasm crumbled as the analyzes were done finer and the more precise datings. It appeared so well that the Philistine potteries had continued to be well manufactured after the death of David, the use of their remains as technical of dating had led to errors (too old estimates of certain dates). The progress of the datings to the carbon-14 recently makes it possible to obtain reliable and precise datings, which show in particular that the palates of Megiddo were built several decades after the death of Solomon and famous stables still well later (p. 169).

But the principal doubt on the width of the kingdom of David and that of Solomon comes from the study of the southern part, which contains Jerusalem, the capital. The strong geographical disparity between the north of the highlands, sprinkled well and fertile, and the south, very dry and arride, are found in demography. On 45000 Jews for the whole of the highlands in -1000,90% are in the northern part, 5000 only in the southern part (p. 171). The habitat in the southern part is thus very sparse. As work of David Ussishkin (p. 160) shows it, the Jerusalem of Solomon, like that of David, does not have anything a large city: it is a typical village of the highlands. David and Solomon did not control any empire and it is logical that they left any trace of their existence, neither in the Egyptian document, nor in the documents mésopotamiens.

It is only in VIIe century that Jerusalem becomes a large city, maintaining a luxury trade with the remote countries, a taught reading and writing capital. Unified monarchy, such as it is described in the Bible, does not represent the reality of Xe century: biblical Jerusalem symbolizes, in fact, the capital of Josias, and unified monarchy constitutes the political project of which the king Josias dreams (p. 173).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Second part: the emergence and the fall of old Israel (pp. 175-260)

Only one State, only one nation, only one people? (approx. -930 to -720, pp. 177-197)

Until about 1980, the vision of a unified kingdom, strongly centralized, with great constructions of Solomon, vision taken again of the Bible, was largely accepted by the archeologists and the historians. In this logic, the bursting between Israel and Juda gave rise to two States, twins thought one, supposed them also fully organized administratively, juridically and militarily.

It is only after the first basic prospections of the habitats of the high plateaus that contrast between the northern zone and the southern zone was noted, contrasts climatic from which rose, as of the first wave of establishments at the age of the old Bronze, a contrast of the strongly marked economic potential. The mode of habitat of north, around Sichem, is then dense, with a sedentary agriculture. That of the south, around Jerusalem, is poor and without permanent constructions (p. 182). One finds this contrast second vague, with the average Bronze, Sichem being the principal center and Jerusalem strongly being then strengthened. With the recent Bronze, the Lettres of Amarna show us in detail this competition between Sichem (or Labayou reigns) and Jerusalem (or Abdi-Héba reigns), the valleys and the littoral plain being organized in city-States of reduced but strongly populated territories (p. 184). At the time of David and Solomon, archeology shows us Juda still economically marginal, while Israel thrived, developing the specialized culture of olive and the grape, the technique of manufacture of oil and the wine and a commercial economy with transport and trade (p. 187). Towards -900, Israel carries already the germs of a State fully made up, with strengthened administrative centers and stone palates of size, in Megiddo, Jezréel and Samarie. Jerusalem, by contrast, is really urbanized only a little before -700, the industrialization of the production starting only after this date.

Israel and Juda have the worship of YHWH in common, but also of other gods, their Hebraic dialects are close and, from -800, they will use the same alphabet.

On the lowlands, the Philistins consolidated their establishment on the southernmost littoral (city of Gat, on the grounds of Gaza) and the Phéniciens settled in the seaports of North. The Cananéens of the lowlands started again to thrive in the city-States, Megiddo for example, prosperity which lasted until towards -900.

On a wall of the temple of Amon-Re to Karnak is reported the military countryside of Shéshonq Ier in Canaan. It, unfortunately, is not dated precisely by archeology, but it took place between -950 and -800. The cananéennes cities of north, Rehov, Beth-Shéân, Megiddo, the valley of Jezréel are attacked. The list of Karnak comprises 150 names of cities and villages, whose some villages Jews of the highlands, in the north of Jerusalem, the destruction of the city-States cananéennes left the free field to the Israélites populations of the kingdom of North to extend.

The First book of the Kings (1 R 14,25-26) reports the episode with its way:

* the fifth year of king Roboam, the king of Egypt, Shéshonq, went against Jerusalem. It was made deliver the treasures of the Temple of Yahvé and those of the royal palace, absolutely all, to all the gold shields which Solomon had made .

It should be noted that Jerusalem does not appear among the 150 names of the list of Karnak and that the objective of Shéshonq Ier was city-State cananéennes, like some villages Jews of the highlands located at the north of Jerusalem: the small village of mountain located on the headland of the Cité of David did not form part of its objectives. The biblical account provides a date for this forwarding, -926, but to use this date to readjust the carbon-14 constitutes a methodological abuse.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Israel, the first kingdom fallen into the lapse of memory (- 884 to -842, pp. 199-227)

The dynasty of the Omrides (- 884 to -842) is particularly hated in the Bible, is shown worse turpitudes and is overpowered deeper contempt. The close kingdoms, Aram, Moab and Assyrie, provide us historical sources by their files and three steles: the Stele of Such daN (in araméen, in which the king of Damas, probably Hazaël, praises himself to have killed RAM wire of king d' Israël), the Stèle of Mésha (in moabite, dialect cananéen very near to Hebrew, praising the victory of Mésha, king de Moab, on Omri and his/her son Achab and the black Obélisque (long inscription in wedge-shaped characters, praising the victory of Salmanazar III, king d' Assyrie, on a coalition joining together Damas, 1200 tanks, 1200 riders and 20.000 warriors, and the king Achab, 2000 tanks and 10.000 warriors). We learn that Israel reigns from now on on a territory which very largely overflows the highlands and the central valleys, approaching Damas and including the the Jordan as well as part of Moab. In addition to the Jews on the highlands, the population of Israel thus comprises from now on a whole population cananéenne in the plains of north, the valley of the Jordan and the valley of Jezréel. The Assyrian files also teach us that Samarie is the capital founded by Omri, since the kingdom is indicated there like the house of Omri .

The splendid palate of Samarie, out of perfectly cut stone, most beautiful and largest ever discovered in Israel (2500 square meters), decorated with carved capitals announcing the Greek style eolic, gives us the measurement of the power of the kingdom. All the top of the hill was cleared to form a rectangular platform of 3 hectares, girdled by a wall with casemates reaching by places 7 meters in height. In 1990, David Ussishkin, University of Tel-Aviv, excavated with Jezréel a large esplanade built exactly on the same model, dated from Omrides and destroyed shortly after its construction. Its time very court of occupation makes it possible to use the styles of the potteries which were found there to go back to other sites. However, in the two cut stone large palaces of Megiddo, of the potteries of the same style were found. Moreover, the archeologist Normalized Franklin, member of the team of excavations of Megiddo, identified signatures of stone masons which are identical to Megiddo and Samarie, indicating that same the masons, under the Omrides, built these buildings.

Finkelstein and Silberman point out (p. 224) that this obvious success of the kingdom of North can be conceived only with one harmonious integration of the component cananéenne of the population, many and active with Jezréel in particular (the total population of Israel is then evaluated with 350000 inhabitants). They underline the cultural opening on the Phénicie, which one regularly finds potteries, and whose 200 finely engraved ivory plates (p. 246) were put at the day in the palate of Samarie.

Finkelstein and Asherman note that the names of the characters and the places of the biblical account are well, here, histories. They estimate finally that what more the Bible hates it is precisely the success of the Omrides (p. 226): the biblical account adapts the achievements of the Omrides by allotting them to Solomon.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

In the shade of the Empire (- 842 to -720, pp. 229-260)

During 120 years, the successors of Omrides continue the development of one country to the centralized administration, with an industrial mode of production and a flourishing export trade. The country is subjected to attacks of king d' Aram, Hazaël, devastating Such Rehov, Beth-Shéan, Megiddo and Jezréel. Damas occupies the area of daN and Hazor for one short period, leaving various inscriptions and constructions (p. 238). But Assyrie subjects Aram: Israel is thus released (p. 239).

With Samarie one found 350 shards of potteries with a Hebrew inscription (p. 241), dating from the reign of Jéroboam II (- 788 to -747), inscription which is the indication of source of wine and the standardized olive oil earthenware jars. With Megiddo, always under Jeroboam II, an underground hydraulic system is arranged, with a gallery of 70 meters bored with 25 meters of depth, which leads to a cave and ensures the drinking water supply in the event of seat (sketch p. 215, note p. 220, table p. 253). The relation more or less of vassalage maintained with the Assyrie allows the development of a very active trade (olive oil, wine, probably horses) with what constitutes more the regional great power, as well economic as military. The prosperity of Israel reaches its culminating point.

The successors of Jéroboam II take their distances with Assyrie, without measuring the inequality of the report/ratio of the forces. Assyrie, after being itself seized Damas, invades Israel, destroying the cities of Hazor, daN and Beth-Shéan (p. 251). The dwellings of Megiddo are set fire to, but the two palates and the stables are preserved to make of Megiddo a great Assyrian regional center. After a last Israeli plot against Assyrie, Salmanazar V lance a campaign liquidation, Israel is dismantled, the fifth of its population is exiled with Babylon and of the Assyrian colonists settle in their place. In 722, when Sargon II arrives at the capacity, there remain nothing any more the kingdom of North (p. 254).

In the biblical account, the disappearance of Israel is presented like the divine sanction of the depravities of the country (p. 259).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Third part: Juda and the creation of the Biblical story (pp. 261-353)

The transformation of Juda (approx. -930 to -705, pp. 263-286)

This chapter shows it (p. 263):

* it is precisely the fall of Israel which will make it possible Juda to transform itself into a State fully made up, equipped with a professional clergy and educated scribes, only able to undertake such a task. .

The population of Juda grows bigger considerably. The Israeli archeologist Magen Broshi shows, by excavations carried out these last decades, that Jerusalem knows a demographic explosion, overflowing the old cornice of the Cité of David (6 hectares) to cover the Western hill in his totality (75 hectares, chart p. 279), girdled by an impressive rampart. The growth is read by the position of the tombs and their dating: as one buried deaths outside the cities, the tombs draw contour of it. Farms settle everywhere in the back country, Lakish becomes a major administrative center protected by a formidable wall, the valley of Beersheba knows the same expansion and the population of Juda passes from 10.000 to 120.000 inhabitants. The production of wine and olive oil reaches of a blow an industrial stage, inscriptions appear, as well as many ostraca administrative (p. 280). The increase in population benefits from the massive surge from refugees come from the late kingdom in North, and the saving in a profitable trade with the Assyrian Empire.

In same time, under Ézéchias, a religious school of thought develops and undertakes to make disappear, with the profit of the only worship of YHWH, the various worships of the campaigns (Baal, worships of fertility, worships of the ancestors, p. 281).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Between war and survival (- 705 to -639, pp. 287-311)

After the death of Sargon II (- 705), Ézéchias thinks of being able to free itself, with the support of Egypt, the supervision of Assyrie. It is a disastrous error in the evaluation of the power struggle, because Sennachérib, arrived at the capacity (- 701), will raise a gigantic army.

Ézéchias, in order to prepare Jerusalem with a seat, makes bore a tunnel of 512 meters to bring, by a unevenness of 30 centimetres, the spring water of Gihon in a cistern located inside the ramparts of the city. It is referred there in the Bible (2 R 20,20). The realization represents a technological feat of ingenuity because the tunnel, of form in S very marked (chart p. 279), was bored by the two ends. A commemorative plaque is engraved at the place where the two teams met (p. 292).

Sennachérib besieges the principal fortress of Juda, Lakish. It seizes some and devastates the area in order to reduce its economic capacities to nothing. It illustrates its victory, with Ninive, over a low-relief of 20 m length and 3 m in height, in which topography is described with exactitude (illustration p. 297). David Ussishkin, at the time of excavations carried out in 1970, found the slope of Assyrian attack and the against-slope of defense. Ézéchias is subjected, pay a heavy tribute with the Assyrie, which saves Jerusalem, but of many Judéens are off-set in Assyrie and the best cereal grounds of the west, part of the Shefelah, are given by Philistine Sennachérib to the city-State.

Manassé, the successor of Ézéchias, restores prosperous, vassal Juda subjected, which is used as plug in Assyrie against Egypt (p. 301). The surface built in the area of Beersheba, therefore the population, is multiplied by 10 between -800 and -700. Juda is integrated into the system of economic exchange of Assyrie and practical also the trade of the luxury items and the incense with the Arabia, exporting in this country the olive oil (p. 303). Three southernmost Arabic ostraca engraved on vases typically judéens were found in the Cité of David, proving that an Arab population settled. The great transportation routes connect the Western Shefelah, the most important olive oil production center of all the Middle East antique (the olives came from the hills of the highlands), with the Assyrie, the Phénicie, Egypt and Arabia, via Gaza, that Assyrie regards as its customs house on the tracks of the desert (p. 304). On a site close to Gaza were found many bones of camels and dromedaries, all adults, being useful, according to the archéo-zoologist Paula Wapnich, with transport of the caravaneers in VIIe century.

The Bible draws up Ézéchias one carried flattering. She remains discrete on her error, but rents it to have saved Jerusalem. She is very critical towards Manassé, shown to restore all the abominations of the past. It is Josias, the most pious king of the history of Juda according to the Bible, which will arrive at the capacity (p. 310).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

The great reform (- 639 to -586, pp. 313-334)

In Egypt, Psammétique Ier establishes its capital with Know in the delta, pushes back Assyrie and, into -656, restores its control on the near total of the territories of the Raising, until the Phénicie. It thus controls the agricultural richnesses and the transportation routes. The Assyrian capacity declines, torn by a civil war into -623. The collapse of the Assyrie leaves the free field to Juda which dreams to recover the highlands of North, to centralize the worship in Jerusalem and to establish a great State panisraélite.

Josias is 8 years old when it arrives on the throne into -639. The religious movement which will give the Deutéronome began under Ézéchias. It is the political context, favorable, which will enable him to become all its extensive.

According to Finkelstein and Silberman:

* Then, to remove the worship from YHWH of slags which encumbered it, Josias initiates the most radical reform and most puritan of the history of Juda. It is caught some in first with the rites idolâtres practiced inside even of the Temple of Jerusalem (2 R 23,4-7)… It demolishes the sanctuaries which were dedicated to the worship foreigners… It puts also fine at the worships returned by the rural priests… It institutes great national religious holidays… .

According to the Bible, one found the then delivers Law, that which God had given to Moïse in the the Sinai, and this book was used as model with the drafting of the Deutéronome and all that Josias promulgates, in Jerusalem, in -622 (p. 318).

According to Finkelstein and Silberman, the political project of the large combat panisraélite was prepared by the drafting of the deuteronomic history and part of the Pentateuque, combining the regional alternatives of the accounts of the Patriarches Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, underlining the domination of Juda on Israel, locating the account of the conquest of Canaan in precise places, striking exclusion the Cananéens, i.e. the inhabitants not Israélites, and strictly prohibiting the marriage of the Jews with the foreign women, of fear, according to the biblical text, which they do not induce their husbands withidolatry.

The two authors add (p. 322):

* One is unaware of if some previous version of the history of Israel had been made up at the time of Ézéchias, or by dissenting factions, under the long reign of Manassé, or if the whole of the epopee were entirely made up during the reign of Josias. However, it is clear that many characters described by the history deutéronomique-such that very pious Josué, David and Ézéchias, and the apostates Achaz and Manassé- are introduced like mirrors, into positive or negative, of Josias. From this point of view, the deuteronomic history does not have anything history, in the modern direction of the term. Its composition met a double need, ideological and theological.

One shows Finkelstein and Silberman a little quickly all to bring back to Josias. In connection with the deuteronomic history, they specify, in their second work the crowned kings of the Bible (p. 20):

* Resulting from an assembly carried out starting from various former sources, it does not result from an original work, written by an individual or a group of authors living at the same time.

The Book of the Deutéronome contains also ethical codes and clauses in favor of the social wellbeing (p. 323). Its laws express a new concern in favor of the weak ones and the poor ones. The complaint of a worker to the officer who employs it was found on a ostracon, in a fortress dated little before -600, proof that the reform is actually put in practice (p. 325). Archeology also shows us that the symbols of other worships which carried the official seals disappear at the same date, at the end of VIIe century (p. 326). The ground shows finally (ostraca), under Josias, the generalization of the elimination of illiteracy, certainly supported by the writings and the sermons (p. 323).

Psammétique Ier, feeling the Egyptian interests in Asia threatened by the pressure of Babylon, flies to the help of Ninive into -616, but the Assyrian capital falls into -612. Nékao II, the successor of Psammétique Ier, decides to put countryside on north and seizes Megiddo. At the time of the battle of Megiddo, Josias is killed. The exact circumstances of its death are not established, nor the precise reason of the Egyptian attack.

The deuteronomic ambitions are destroyed. The Bible gives a very precise account of the fights of influences which proceed then, implying the Egypt and Babylon, account completely confirmed by independent historical sources.

Nabuchodonosor, after having crushed the Egyptian army with Karkemish in Syria moving -605, on Jerusalem and seizes some into -587. The campaigns are plundered, Arad and Lakish falls, Jerusalem burnt (p. 334) and is destroyed systematically (p. 346). The Temple is destroyed, the population is taken along captive to Babylon.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

The exile and the return (- 586 to -440, pp. 335-353)

About the exile, one distinguishes information concerning exiled those relating to the life from those which remained. With the return, Juda becomes Yehoud, the Judaea, name araméen of the province within the Persian Empire, and Judéens will become the Yehoudim, the Juifs.

Before the invasion of the Babylonian (the Chaldéens in the Bible), the total population of Juda is estimated at 75.000, including 15.000 in Jerusalem and 15.000 on the arable lands around the capital. Starting from the biblical sources, it seems reasonable to think that the total of exiled did not exceed 15.000 to 20.000. Three Judéens out of four, approximately, thus remained with the country (p. 346). In Jerusalem, an activity begins again on the headland of the Cité of David, but the Western hill, entirely burned, is not re-occupied. The occupation continues however in the south and north, in particular with Miçpa (13km in the north of the city, close to Ramallah). Oded Lipschits, of the University of Tel-Aviv, showed by excavations that Miçpa had not been destroyed and had become the most important regional center with the Life century. An activity also persists with Béthel and Gabaôn , like worms Bethlehem.

In -539, the Babylonian Empire falls to the hands from the Perses. The Persian satrapie Beyond the river (in the west of the Euphrate) comprises, according to the historian Hérodote, the Palestine, the Syria, the Phénicie and Cyprus (p. 401). Yehoud is a province. The edict of Cyrus, in -538, mark the beginning of the return. The estimate made starting from the sources Esdras 2 and Jérémie 7, approximately 50.000 people of return, obviously is very exaggerated because archeology results in estimating at 30.000 inhabitants the total population of Yehoud into -500 and -400, on a territory much smaller than that of Juda before the Babylonian invasion. The Persian province of Yehoud is in particular cut down by Hebron, Beersheba and most of the Shefalah (p. 399, chart p. 348). The extent of Yehoud is confirmed, by archeology, starting from the cartography of several hundreds of seals and potteries of the Persian period comprising in araméen the word Yehoud (p. 402).

Cyrus II, then his/her son Cambyse, encourages the return of exiled and leaves a broad autonomy to the local elites (without establishing immigrants not Jews). These elites, impregnated from the deuteronomic ideas, from a social status and economic raised, come from the community from exiled. Yehoud probably constitutes, in the policy of Cyrus and Cambyse, a plug between Persia and Egypt. Yehoud from now on is controlled, politically, by High-Commissioners appointed by the Persian authority and, religieusement, by the priests. It is about a crucial change since any trace of davidic monarchy disappeared.

For the biblist Frank Moore Cross-country race, the deuteronomic history comprises 2 versions: the version (Dtr1) going back to Josias, the version (Dtr2) being postexilic (p. 341). The second version has as a task to tell the continuation of the history since the death of Josias and to explain, théologiquement, why the history of the Josias piles had been concluded from this bloody way. The responsibility was allotted by it to abominable the Manassé, Josias having delayed the best possible inevitable sanction (p. 344).

According to the book of Esdras (Esd 4,3), the Second Temple is rebuilt and the rebuilding by Zorobabel, remote going down from David, with the large priest Josué, is completed into -516. Esdras, then Néhémie, applies the deuteronomic law strictly and takes care, in particular, to make respect the prohibition made with the Juifs marry foreign women (pp. 339-340). Worried by the questions of purity and assimilation, they establish a clear border between the Jewish people and his neighbors.

The clerical elite with the capacity, to Jerusalem, most probably provides the " source; P" , mainly postexilic, of the Bible (p. 350). The history of the tomb of the Patriarchs , in the cave of Hebron, takes a particular resonance with the loss of the city, under the foreign occupation of the Édomites (p. 352). It is also the " source; P" who locates the origin of Abraham at Ur, in Chaldée, place to know of a very high antiquity, but also important religious center, from -550, under the king Nabonide (p. 353). The texts insist on the idea of the centrality of Juda and promote its superiority on its neighbors. Lastly, always in connection with the influence of this clerical elite, one notices that the biblical account of the Exodus comprises a series of common points with the situation of the repatriates of Babylon: a very hard stay abroad during which they lost their freedom, military rout of those which kept them captive, their return in great number, while crossing the desert, in their country where, because of the foreign occupation, surrounded by hostile populations, they find only one part only of the Promised land (p. 351).

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

Epilog, bibliography

The province of Yehoud, in -332, passes with the hands of the Perses to those of Alexandre Large the. Large the priests direct the Judaea. The Bible is translated into Greek (- 300 to -200). The account of the conquest of Josué is used as leaven with resistance against the Roman occupant (- 100). The king Hérode is the lackey of the Romans. The Second Temple is destroyed into 70.

For Finkelstein and Silberman (p. 358 and p. 359):

* the capacity of the biblical saga rests on the fact that it is the coherent and irresistible expression of eternal and fundamental topics: the release of people, permanent resistance to oppression, the search of the social equality, etc It expresses with eloquence the major feeling to have an origin, experiments and a destiny communes, necessary to the survival of any human community.

* the greatest contribution offered by archeology to a better comprehension of the Bible is perhaps this one: that such reduced and isolated companies, relatively poor, like were the kingdom of Juda of late monarchy and Yehoud postexilic, were able to produce the broad outlines of this eternal epopee in such a short amount of time.

Critiques

This place is reserved for the report of criticisms which were published.

the personal opinions are to be put at the page Discussion . The comments on Interpretation do not raise of Archeology .

The work ends in a bibliography comprising 262 references, classified by chapters and divided into 120 sets of themes categories. One will find, in the page Israel Finkelstein a list of his principal professional publications (20 contributions). The recent professional contributions to the datings by the Carbon-14 were gathered in a book: T. Levy and T. Higham, editors, '' Radiocarbon Dating and the Old Iron off the Raising Southern: The Bible and Archæology Today '', London, 2005 (27 contributions, 448 pages).

Televised adaptation

Thierry Ragobert realized under the same title, “the Bible dévoilée" , a film in 4 parts, adapted book, written by Isy Morgensztern and Thierry Ragobert, with the collaboration of Jacques Briend (Professor emeritus of the catholic Institute of Paris) and of Thomas Römer (Professor of Old Testament at the University of Lausanne). Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman play their own part there. The film was diffused on Arte and France 5. The box of 2 DVD left in February 2006 to the Montparnasse Editions.

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