In Lester L. Grabbe’s book Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It, his aim was to not just tell a history of ancient Israel, but to survey sources and investigate data in order to understand the interpretations that the available sources give and to reconstruct an acceptable history for Israel. He referred to this as the “prolegomena” of the actual history of Israel- the question of how historians can verify that the history of ancient Israel is undoubtedly true, and how necessary it is to attempt to asses the issues that are directly related to writing a history. The author uses several types of methods in order to reconstruct this history, these included; original sources (surveyance and discussions of acceptable sources, translations, and secondary sources), analysis (critical examination of sources and theories), and synthesis (summarization and outline of events) of all episodes within a history.
In order to strengthen the reasons behind the need for reconstructing a history, the author presents challenges behind creating a history in all. These setbacks are things that could be far and wide to the reader, in contrast to the contextual understanding of the reader to previous experiences. These challenges included topics such as the social sciences and scholars inability to correctly utilize the information presented by the anthropology aspect of the social sciences. Additionally, the aspect of longue duree and the effect that long-term circumstances can have has been neglected in analyzing the outcome of a history. The authors believed that historical reconstruction should begin with the longue duree, and proceed to the archaeology aspect in order to present an actual reality to information.
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...ible as a historical text, or if it was more of a literary/theoretical text. By including the idea that everything that happens over a longer course of time has the capability of affecting the historical event was a profound realization that occurrences in the past can have a major effect on events in history. Archaeological evidence is an important tool that should be brought in to verify Biblical text, or perhaps to even challenge statements in the Bible, and to make more of an accurate historical outline. In addition, the author was able to bring in evidence from other historians and theorists that created a stronger argument by presenting a variation of different views. Grabbe’s work on incorporating what could be true in the Bible versus writings that could be considered as legendary have created an appropriate relationship among the analysis of the historical
...es are manipulated for his argument. Goldhagen’s controversial and stimulating study encourages research to continue and in 2013 Jewish leaders pressured Pope Francis to open the Vatican archives from 1939-1947. The opening of these archives will instigate more investigations in this field and until these archives are opened the historical record will not be clarified. The importance of these archives illustrates the interesting nature of historical literature. The study of history focuses predominantly around primary materials, however these materials do not provide a definitive depiction of the past. Historians analyze primary sources to deduce an interpretation of the past. The discrepancies between historian’s interpretations form historiographical debate. It would be interesting to examine the extent to which historians are perhaps just academic storytellers.
There is much debate over the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible and The Epic of Gilgamesh. Some claim that to understand a work of literature requires extensive knowledge of the background of this work. The contrary position is that a work of literature can be interpreted solely on it’s content. The meaning of the term classical literature is that it can be applied during any period of time, it is eternal. Yet the conditions surrounding the author might still be of interest to the reader, and of importance to the work. As with many cases, the truth is somewhere in between the two extremes. Both sides have valid arguments about the importance of historicity.
The study of past events have been a common practice of mankind since the verbal telling of stories by our ancestors. William Cronon, in his article “Why the Past Matters,” asserts that the remembrance of the past “keeps us in place.” Our individual memories and experiences shape how we act in our daily lives. In addition to influencing us at an individual level, our collective history binds us together as a society. Without knowing where we have been or what we have experienced, it is nearly impossible to judge progress or know which courses of action to pursue. The goal of the historian is to analyze and explain past events, of which they rarely have firsthand memory of, and apply the gained knowledge to make connections with current and future events.
Chamberlain Charles. “Mesopotamian Background of The Hebrew Bible--Creation”. Making of The Modern World Program. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla. January 7, 2011. Lecture.
A historical critical exegesis is a critical interpretation or analysis of religious texts such as the bible. When interpreting the historical component we are gathering an idea of the historical situations which gave rise to the texts as the authors often reflect their own historical context and have composed their writings to address people within their own socio-cultural background within that period of time. The critical component would include “an analysis of the book in terms of its form(s) or genre(s) or type(s) of literature” which each have its own unique patterns that contribute to probabilities in determining how a particular piece of literature developed and should be interpreted.
Judaism is a religion with an excess of 13 million believers located mainly within the United States and Israel. Of all the religions practiced today, Judaism is one of the oldest. The roots of Judaism can be traced back over 3500 years to the Middle East with a lineage that descends from Abraham as a patriarch. With Abraham as a common ancestor, Judaism is considered one of the Abrahamic faiths alongside Christianity and Islam. The historical events within the Bible of Judaism’s past, all the way back to Abraham, have molded the beliefs and traditions practiced by Jewish adherents today.
John Lewis Gaddis, in his book, The Landscape of History, generates a strong argument for the historical method by bringing together the multiple standpoints in viewing history and the sciences. The issue of objective truth in history is addressed throughout Gaddis’s work. In general, historians learn to select the various events that they believe to be valid. Historians must face the fact that there is an “accurate” interpretation of the past ceases to exist because interpretation itself is based on the experience of the historian, in which people cannot observe directly (Gaddis 10). Historians can only view the past in a limited perspective, which generates subjectivity and bias, and claiming a piece of history to be “objective” is simplistic. Seeing the world in a multidimensiona...
From 167-164 BCE, a series of conflicts between the Jewish people and the Seleucid's occurred that are referred to as the Maccabean Revolt. Two books of the Jewish bible, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, offer slightly different depictions of the events of the Revolt. However, as sources that are nearly two millennia old, it is important to consider their historical reliability. When trying to discern fact from fiction and gain a better understanding of the Maccabean Revolt, it is useful to consider who the authors of 1st and 2nd Maccabees were and what emotions these authors hoped to invoke in readers.
The Epic of Gilgamesh does just that: It serves as a model for the warrior, the king and the tragic hero and the standards for divine right, friendship, brotherhood and loyalty. Finally, it becomes evident from the beginning of a higher consciousness that justifies love, brotherhood and loyalty in the midst of this need for war and gods.
In a comprehensive summary and analyzation of the history of mankind’s record of affairs, Mark T. Gilderhus tackles the many aspects of the overall biography of human existence. Through scrutiny of the goals of past and present historians, a brief explanation of the origins of historiography, a thorough exploration of the philosophies behind history, and a review of the modern approach to past events, Gilderhus sums up the entirety of historical thought in one hundred and twenty-five pages. His superior knowledge is exemplified through his work which effectively conveys the full extent of historiography.
When one approaches the biblical text, it is important to explore the cultural context in which the text occurs. With regard to the Book of Genesis, it is important to examine the writing with other contemporary works of similar geography and topics. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, where the oldest civilizations originated, produced a number of stories of creation and natural occurrences. It is important to note that many of the stories of the Sumerians, Akkadians and Hebrews began as oral traditions as the events they depict predate writing, so it is difficult to date these works on the basis of when these prehistoric myths were initiated. Comparison to writings contemporary to the people of Israel, can offer a deeper understanding of the meaning of their stories of origin as they give a point of reference from similar cultures. There are a number of ways that one could view the writings of the ancient Near East for the purpose of interpreting each culture. Because there are many parallels among the creation and flood stories of the ancient Near East, this will be the focus of comparison. While the similarities in ancient literature demonstrate the commonalities of humanity, the differences between Genesis and other Near East works give us a unique impression of the character of the Hebrew God.
Through examining these texts, it is evident that the advantages historians have when drawing on evidence such as this is that they can easily reveal certain social and cultural values of the society from which the authors came from, just as easily as it shows social and cultural values of the society of which it was written about. The limitations for historians when collecting written evidence is that some key features of the complex civilizations written about were often left out or could be easily misinterpreted or
Main Events in the history of Jerusalem. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2011, from Century One Educational Bookstore: http://www.centuryone.com/hstjrslm.html
The Exodus beautifully illustrates an ultimate symbolism for mankind's greatest faith in God's existence and capability; hence, the ideal portrayal of God still remains ambiguous to the readers whether these events were recorded based on historical records or not. The scripture, which was favorably exaggerated by supernatural elements, contains a holistic approach of an ancient Hebrew civilization, as well as its path to creation. In addition, the text portrays the hardship of developing a nation in a deserted continent, and its connection of faith to a greater outcome of liberation. With such visual of the characters and events, the scriptor ultimately implied the comprehension of the Hebrew’s emancipation from the corrupted power of the Egyptians, the establishment of the Hebrew civilization, and the significance of God’s ten words.
Robinson, Sarah. The Origins of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature: Prophecy, Babylon, and 1 Enoch. CA: Department of Religious Studies, University of South Florida, 2005. Print.