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Jews Judea and Israel

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Early Iron Age[edit]

Main articles: History of ancient Israel and Judah and Kingdom of Judah

Map of the southern Levant, c.830s BCE.

Kingdom of Judah

By the Early Iron Age, around 1020 BCE, the Southern Levant came to be ruled by the Kingdom of Israel, and its successors, the Northern Kingdom and the Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. The Kingdom of Judah remained nominally independent, but paid tribute to the Assyrian Empire from 715 and throughout the first half of the 7th century BCE, regaining its independence as the Assyrian Empire declined after 640 BCE, but after 609 again fell under the sway of imperial rule, this time paying tribute at first to the Egyptians and after 601 BCE to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, until 586 BCE, when it was finally conquered by Babylonia.

Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham,Isaac and Jacob said to have been buried at Hebron in the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Persian and Hellenistic periods[edit]

Main article: Persian Judah

The Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE.^[13]Judea remained under Persian rule until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, eventually falling under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until the revolt of Judas Maccabeus resulted in the Hasmonean dynasty of Kings who ruled in Judea for over a century.^[14]

Roman conquest[edit]

Bar Kokhba revolt[edit]

Main article: Bar Kokhba revolt

Again 70 years later, the Jewish population rovolted under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba and established the last Kingdom of Israel, which lasted three years, before the Romans managed to conquer the province for good, at a high cost in terms of manpower and expense.

After the defeat of Bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) the Roman Emperor Hadrian was determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina. Until that time the area had been called "province of Judea" (Roman Judea) by the Romans.^[16] At the same time, he changed the name of the city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more into slavery; many Jews departed into the Jewish diaspora, but there was never a complete Jewish abandonment of the area, and Jews have been an important (and sometimes persecuted) minority in Judea since that time.^[17]

Timeline[edit]

11th century BCE–930 BCE — part of the Kingdom of Israel
930 BCE–586 BCE — Kingdom of Judah

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http://www.accuracyingenesis.com/exodus_population.html

Exodus Population
Deu 7:1 When Jehovah your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girga****es, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
Deu 7:7 Jehovah did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.
Deu 11:23 then Jehovah will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall possess greater and mightier nations than you.
It is easy to understand that they were fewer than the Hitites, for they occupied considerable territory or even the Amorites, but how about even the Perizzites and the Jebusites, for their territories were very small ! Each less than 1000 square miles. For them to have over 2 million population would require a density of over 2000 people per square mile and the present density of modern Israel is less than 1000 per square mile !!
Those that study ancient populations estimate that the world population was about 40 million at the time of the Exodus and with 3 million Egyptians give or take a million.

They also estimate that the population of ancient Israel was probably about 300,000 at its maximum in the time of David. This is based on estimates of about 10,000 for capital cities like Jerusalem and Samaria, 2000-3000 for regional centers like Dan, Megiddo and Beersheba, and 500-1000 for small country towns or villages.
Many have estimated that the population of the Exodus was between 2 to 3 million, which could be as many as one half of the population of Egypt at the time ! Does this seem realistic considering the preceding information ?? No !! For they seem to be forgetting that the Scriptures repeatedly emphasizes that Israel was smaller than the nations of the territory they were to occupy. As shown Deut. 7:1 lists the seven nations that were greater than they were, and v. 7 says they were the fewest of all the peoples (see also Deut. 9:1, 11:23, and 20:1). This is consistent with the fearful report of the spies in Num. 13. But, these nations were almost certainly not greater in population than two million each. Example, two to three million times 7 for the nations listed as being more numerous and this would be more than 14 to 21 million people or up to half of the estimated world population of 40 million at that time. In an area which even today has only about 15 million population with Israel and Jordan combined!!
Here are the figures from the most popular translations of the applicable Scriptures. The population of Israel is reported in two different censuses during the time of the exodus in Numbers 1 and Numbers 26. In both censuses the men from age twenty and upward were said to be counted by tribe, but the tribe of Levi was not included.
Reuben 46,500 Reuben 43,730 Simeon 59,300 Simeon 22,200 Gad 45,650 Gad 40,500 Judah 74,600 Judah 76,500 Issachar 54,400 Issachar 64,300 Zebulun 57,400 Zebulun 60,500 Ephraim 40,500 Ephraim 32,500 Manasseh 32,200 Manasseh 52,700 Benjamin 35,400 Benjamin 45,600 Dan 62,700 Dan 64,400 Asher 41,500 Asher 53,400 Naphtali 53,400 Naphtali 45,400 ------- -------
            Total:   603,550               Total:    601,730  
     or 598 families with 5550 men    596 families with 5730 men  

Below the totals above is illustrated another way of translating the results of the censuses. The most frequently suggested alternate is that the Hebrew word translated as "thousand" in these population figures actually refers to an indeterminate-size clan, troop or family. The Hebrew word itself is transliterated 'elep (Strong's number 505 or 504) and also carries the meaning of a family complex or clan in some cases, such as family (KJV)(ASV)(RV)(NAB)(LITV) and clan (AAT)(GNB)(CEV) in Judges 6:15. Also translates in Numbers 1:16 as family (BER), clans (AAT) (ESV) and troops (NAB). And also in I Samuel 10:19 translated as families (LITV)(CEV)(GW), clans (JERUS) and in I Samuel 23:23 clans (CEV)(JERUS), families (GW), divisions (MOF), and multitudes (KNOX).
Decoding the Census Numbers:
Numbers 1:2-3 (ESV) gives the instructions:
"Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel,
(a) by clans (tribe),
(b) by fathers' houses (household, families),
(c) according to the number of names, every male, head by head.
From twenty years old and upward,
all in Israel who are able to go to war,
you and Aaron shall list them, company by company."
Numbers 1:18 (ESV) again tells us when and how the census was conducted:
"and on the first day of the second month,
they assembled the whole congregation together,
who registered themselves (they declared their pedigrees according to their families)
(a) by clans (tribe),
(b) by fathers' houses (household, families),
(c) according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head, "
Therefore, we should expect the census data to contain the following information;
(a) tribe,
(b) family,
(c) number
for every male older than twenty who is able to fight !!
Using Reuben, the first born as the example ;
Num 1:20 (LITV) And the sons of
(a) Reuben, Israel's first-born,
(b) their generations by their families, by their fathers' house,
(c) in the number of names, by their heads, every male from a son of twenty years and upward, everyone able to go out to war:
Num 1:21 those numbered of them for the
(a) tribe of Reuben were
(b) forty six families and
(c) five hundred (men).
So What is the Total Population Implied by the Alternate Translations ?
The results for the first census adds up to 598 families or troops consisting of a total of 5550 men and the results for the second census is nearly the same at 596 families or troops consisting of 5730 men. This could possibly put the total population including women and children at somewhere between 20,000 to 40,000 and also much more in alignment with they being the less numerous of all the nations in the area !!
The population total resulting could seem to be low on the basis of the Scriptural reports of the number of people killed in various events during the time of the journey. For example, Num. 16:49 tells of a plague that killed 14,700, and Num. 25:9 tells of another plague killing 24,000. In the New Testament, 1 Cor. 10:8 tells of 23,000 being killed in one day, presumably in the incident of the golden calf. (The total number who died at this time is not recorded in the Old Testament.) Thus these three events account for more than 50,000 deaths, which seems quite large if the total population was only about 20,000 to 40,000. However, this does not mean that this view is impossible. In the first place, the 23,000 killed in the incident of the golden calf was before the first census was taken. It is possible that the original population was around 40,000 or more, and only around 20,000 to 30,000 were left for the first census. The population could have increased during the first part of the 40 years of wandering, only to be reduced again by the aforementioned plagues. Also note that they were accompanied in the exodus by a mixed multitude of unspecified size (Ex. 12:38). It is possible that the death tolls recorded included a significant portion from among this mixed multitude who were not included in the census.
The other possible explanation is that the individuals counted in the censuses were men who were not part of any clan. Thus, the first census would add up to 598 clans of unspecified size and 5550 additional men. Then the actual number of men would be left unspecified. This may be a legitimate alternative, but it certainly seems like a strange way to conduct a census, especially in light of the Scriptural description of the process as "Lift the heads of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their heads;" (Num. 1:2 LITV). So this method is not considered!
Further Advantages of this View !
The assumption that Israel's population during the exodus was only around 20,000 to 40,000 instead of two million or more greatly simplifies the explanation of a number of difficult Scriptures. Some of them are discussed below:
The account of the conquest of Jericho would be hard to explain from a logistical point of view if the army of Israel numbered 600,000. Jos 6:3 "And you shall go around the city, all the men of war." The city would have been totally surrounded by the 600,000 men, unless it were many miles in circumference. But if it was that big, then how could the men march around it 7 times in one day? This problem is even more significant if we accept the archaeological findings that the walls of Jericho encompassed an area of only about 8½ acres, per research cited in The New Unger's Bible Dictionary (Moody, 1966, p. 672). Or less than a one mile walk depending upon how far they stayed away from the walls of the city. This is a much more reasonable fit for around 6000 to 10,000 men than 600,000.
In numerous places, Scripture speaks of the whole congregation of Israel listening to Moses or Aaron (e.g., Ex. 16:10, 35:1, Lev. 19:2, Num. 20:8, cf. Josh. 8:35), or gazing at Moses (Ex. 33:8), or assembling at the doorway of the tent of meeting (Num. 16:19). This is hard to fathom for a population of around two million, but probably plausible for a population of around 20,000 to 40,000.
In the incident of the golden calf, Moses instructed every man of the Levites to execute God's vengeance with the sword (Ex. 32:27). This they faithfully did (Ex. 32:28-29), and they ended up killing a total of 3000 people. If the tribe of Levi consisted of tens of thousands of men of fighting age, this seems like a rather small total assuming "every man" of them really did as he was told. But if the tribe of Levi consisted of only a few hundred men of fighting age to begin with, then it makes reasonable sense.
    Number of Levites at the first Census (Numbers 3:21-39) 
(The numbers below refer to the number of Levite males over 1 month old) 

              Numbers if | Numbers if 'elep = families |   males
Tribe       'elep = 1000 | # of families  | # of males | per family
Gershon         7,500           7             500           71 
Kohath          8,600           8             600           75 
Merari          6,200           6             200           33 
Total          22,300          21            1300           48 
Note; In verse 3:39 the Levites in most translations are listed as 22,000 and 300 seem to be missing. Since the total of families is 21, this 22,000 represents 21 families and 1000 males. In the Talmud and also The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 1985, Victor Books, p. 220, it is pointed out that the 300 were the firstborn Levites and who could not serve to redeem the firstborn males of Israel. This number of 300 firstborn of the tribe of Levi also indicates that there could not be a total of 22,300 since this would mean that only about one in 74 would be firstborn ! But, 300 firstborn for a total of 1300 would be about one in 4.3, a very reasonable number !
In Num. 20:17, Israel requested permission of the Edomites to travel through their land, promising to stay on a certain highway. The same request is made to the Amorites in Num. 21:22. If the population of Israel was around two million, how could they possibly travel through on a single highway, along with all their possessions? Even if they could go 10 abreast with only 10 feet between groups, the line would stretch out for nearly 400 miles! This would be a difficult enough task even for a population of only around 20,000 to 40,000. It seems utterly inconceivable for a population of around two million.

Conclusion:
We have presented the best estimates of those that study ancient populations, and shown an alternate interpretation of the populations of the exodus, and illustrated how these much smaller estimates of around 20,000 to 40,000 are more in line with they being "the fewest of all people" and with a number of other verses that give clues for a much smaller population than the estimate of 2 million or more made by many well meaning scholars.
from Strong's Hebrew Dictionary http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs/STRHEB5.htm
504 'eleph eh'-lef
 from ''alph' (502); a family; also (from the sense of yoking or taming) an ox or cow:
 --family, kine, oxen.
 
505 'eleph eh'-lef
 prop, the same as ''eleph' (504); hence (the ox's head being the first letter of 
 the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousand:--thousand.

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http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/2223/what-was-the-world-population-around-970-bc-does-it-fit-the-biblical-narrative

According to the graph on the World Population wiki page, global population at 1000 BC was about 50 million. The vast majority of that would have been in the areas of intensive farming, which at that time means Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and perhaps the Indus valley.

So that number doesn't seem completely out of line. However, Israel is much more marginal agricultural territory than Mesopotamia. Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel, by Paula M. McNutt postulates a far lower population for the area. In particular, based on archeological evidence, perhaps 40,000 people in the 12th century (which gives them a lot of ground to cover to make a over a million warriors in the next 2 centuries). She admits this doesn't jibe well with biblical accounts.

For a modern comparison, the state of Israel today has about only 1.5 million men considered "fit for military service". So this passage would have you believe they almost had as many available in the same area 3000 ago as they could muster today.

Note that current thinking is that Samuel was written sometime around 630-540 BCE, which would have been 300 to 500 years after the events being described. As such, this portion of The Bible should not be taken as a literal history.

The edit I made to the question (adding back in the bit about Judah) should be your first clue. There was no such thing as "Judah" until the civil war after the death of Solomon in 930 (50 years later). That's when the state split, with the 10 northern tribes continuing to call themselves "Israel" and the two southern ones calling themselves "Judah" (which was one of the two tribes' names).

So the sentence is an anachronisim. There was no such split then, and "Judah" was just one of the 12 tribes in the country. Most likely if such a report were given, it either wouldn't have been split up at all, or it would have been split up by tribe (which would have required 12 numbers, not two).

Samuel was trying to relate a story, and tell some deeper truths about the authors' conception of God. It was not trying to be a modern-style historical documentary. If you are poking around in it looking for history in every detail, you are completely missing the point.

edited May 30 '12 at 21:21

answered May 30 '12 at 13:27

T.E.D.♦
29k163123

5

I didn't say "shouldn't be taken literally". I said "should not be taken as a literal history". That seems to me to have the same meaning as your proposed change. Anyone who thinks it should be taken as a literal history is perfectly free to downvote the answer. – T.E.D.♦ May 30 '12 at 15:32

4

Thanks for bringing up the context of the Bible, people forget that much of it was written far after the events described. The Bible is not History, but it allows us to look at events through a different set of lenses. – MichaelF May 30 '12 at 16:35

1

Well, most of it isn't a great historical reference. However, Mark was written only a generation or so after the events described, Acts was nearly contemporanious, and Paul's letters, while not all actually written by Paul, were essentially a snapshot of the Christian community at the time they were written. – T.E.D.♦ May 31 '12 at 14:18

2

-1:"which would have been 300 to 500 years...As such, this portion of The Bible should not be taken as a literal history." Very wrong: From your source: "combining a number of independent texts of various ages" i.e: There were documents that dated back to the time of the actual events that were compiled and edited to arrive that the current text. Traditional biblical scholars also agree to this. According to your reasoning, if today someone writes a book about Columbus based on solid written sources, it's not history because Columbus lived a few hundred years ago. Not really... – user2590 Aug 11 '13 at 7:45

2

@T.E.D. "Most likely if such a report.." Hebrew text effectively quotes Yoav: Are you saying the quote was later falsified or fabricated? Why? The distinction between Israel and Judah dates to before the civil war-very ancient roots going back to patriarchal times: Joseph and Judah. (The kings of Israel were from the tribe of Joseph & in the prophets we find the "House of Joseph"-Amos 5:6 1 of many) The split was just the final manifestation of the rivalry. Just as "Dixie" referred to the Confederate states before the Civil War, "Israel" referred to the northern areas. – user2590 Aug 11 '13 at 8:21

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Crying King David: Are the ruins found in Israel really his palace?

Not all agree that the ruins found in Khirbet Qeiyafa are of the biblical town Shaarayim, let alone the palace of ancient Israel's most famous king.

By Julia Fridman | Aug. 26, 2013 | 6:37 AM |

20

Khirbet Qeiyafa: Are these the ruins of King David's palace? Photo by Tali Mayer

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Unearthing clues hidden in the earth for thousands of years is something akin to magic. Now imagine excavating an entire city, and your job is to tell its story.

What is this city? Who lived there and what did they do? And, who ruled it? Recreating the narrative of an ancient city whose antecedents are lost in time is a serious task, because your interpretation shapes the way others view their history.

“There is a certain distance in archaeology between finds and interpretation,” Says Professor Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University. Never was this truer than the case of Khirbet Qeiyafa, one of the most discussed and argued about archaeological finds in Israel today.

The site is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley in the Judean hills, where according to the Bible, David and Goliath held their legendary battle. The excavators, Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, have identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as the biblical town of Shaarayim, and after completing their final excavation season this summer, they announced the discovery of a palace.

Not just any palace: they attribute the ruins to none other than King David himself.
Asked about Garfinkel and Ganor's claims, Finkelstein first affirms commonalities: “The first and most important thing for us as archaeologists to agree on the finds. And I think that regarding Qeyiafa we all agree that it is a very well fortified site which dates back to the 10th century BCE."

Archaeologists also agree that a site that well-fortified is unique to this region at that time period. They agree that no pig bones were found at the site, a fact the excavators underscore in attributing the site to Judah. They also agree on the cultic finds, most notably of three portable shrines, common to the Levantine region at that time. Nor is there a dispute over the ceramics. The clay vessels used by the people are very much like those used by the people inhabiting nearby sites.

Ultimately archaeology is, at the end of the day, a way to reconstruct history, Finkelstein explains: "I see myself as a historian practicing archaeology." In this case, a good starting place is to decide on the territorial affiliations of the site.
There are presently three theories for that.

"The first is Yossi Garfinkel’s - that it was a Judahite city. That's a possibility. It is indeed close to the west of Jerusalem, and located in an area which was later a part of Judah," says Finkelstein.

But a very different theory, from Prof. Emeritus of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, Nadav Na’aman and Ido Koch, a Ph.D. candidate in Archaeology and Biblical History at Tel Aviv University, is that the ruins are Canaanite. Finkelstein himself generously suggests that it’s a strong possibility: a very similar layer, with almost exact pottery types and other finds hinting in this direction, was found in the nearby Canaanite dig in Bet Shemesh directed by Prof. Shlomo Bonimovitz and Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University.

The third theory is his, constructed together with Alexander Fantalkin, assistant professor at Tel Aviv University, and published in 2012: They support Yossi Garfinkel in the sense that they agree the site is associated with hill country. But who were the people? Here Finkelstein and Fantalkin disagree with Garfinkel: "We think the strongest possibility is that the site is affiliated with a North Israelite entity," he says.

Basing interpretation on the Bible

Theories are based on finds, but in the U.S. and Israel they are also often based on the Bible. Thus the excavators identified the site with the biblical town of Shaarayim, due to its location and the (somewhat disputed) discovery of two gates - which is the literal meaning of the town's name in Hebrew.

“This would demonstrate a literal reading of the Bible,” points out Finkelstein, who questions how the author of Joshua 15, who lived in the 7th century BCE, had the information on a city inhabited over three centuries before his time. He points out that Megiddo also had two gates at this time, as did several other ancient towns in the region.

In reality it is quite possible that this particular hilltop site had nothing to do with the Bible at all.

So what about the claim that the ruins at Khirbet Qeiyafa are King David’s palace?

“This reminds me of the fairy tale of the little girl who cried wolf," says Finkelstein. "Yesterday they found King David's Palace in Jerusalem, today it’s in Qeiyafa, tomorrow they'll find it ... who knows where. Such statements exhaust the public’s attention.”

A certain jadedness can be seen in responses to the spate of "King David's Palace found" articles: even believers are starting to question all the finds ostensibly proving the bible's veracity. For his part, Finkelstein questions how scholars, in this day and age, with so many scientific advances in the field, believe in such a literal interpretation of the Bible, an approach that had begun to go out of fashion with the skeptic philosopher Baruch Spinoza in the 17th century.

Dabbling in Disneyland archaeology

Finkelstein regards himself as an Israeli patriot and feels that it is especially important for Israel, which receives more prestigious scientific grants per capita than most other countries, to exhibit especially rigorous scientific standards in the discipline of archaeology as well.

So why have we been hearing such sensationalist claims?

Simple. Prof. Jacob L. Wright, a participant in recent discussions on the subject and author of a book on King David scheduled to appear this fall, observes: “The most certain way to create a buzz is to claim that you’ve found something related to the reign of King David."

Attempts to link all kinds of finds to King David demonstrate an impoverishment of the historical imagination, as if there weren’t many other kings and warlords in the 10th century B.C.E. highlands, Wright says.

“Careful research on both the biblical materials and the archaeological record reveals a much greater diversity of polities, which gradually coalesced into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Khirbet Qeiyafah is an important site, but it is likely part of a smaller local polity,” he says.

Archaeology is a lucky discipline, in that the public is interested in it, especially in the history of the Land of Israel. Just look at how many shows there are on the subject on National Geographic television, the History Channel, Discovery and the like. People like hearing about what we find and learning about the ancient cultures that once inhabited this land as well as others.

Of course, they also yearn for finds to prove the Bible. They are fascinated that there were illicit shrines and nude female figurines in most of the sites of Judah during the late monarchic period. They want to know what implications these finds have for their understanding of the Bible. All this adds up to powerful proof that the public will continue to support archaeological research without any need to cry wolf, nor King David.

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Bronze Age[edit]

Middle Bronze Age terracotta figurine, Israel National Maritime Museum

The Bronze Age is the period 3300-1200 BCE when objects made of bronze were in use. Many writers have linked the history of the Levant from the Bronze Age onwards to events described in the Bible. The Bronze Age and Iron Age together are sometimes called the "Biblical period".^[4] The periods of the Bronze Age include the following:

Early Bronze Age I (EB I) 3330-3050 BCE
Early Bronze Age II-III (EB II-III) 3050-2300 BCE
Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I (EB IV/MB I) 2300-2000 BCE
Middle Bronze Age IIA (MB IIA) 2000-1750 BCE
Middle Bronze Age IIB (MB IIB) 1800-1550 BCE
Late Bronze Age I-II (LB I-II) 1550-1200 BCE

The Late Bronze Age is characterized by individual city-states, which from time to time were dominated by Egypt until the last invasion byMerenptah in 1207 BCE. The Amarna Letters are an example of a specific period during the Late Bronze Age when the vassal kings of the Levant corresponded with their overlords in Egypt.

Iron Age/Israelite period[edit]

Lachish letters

The Iron Age in the Levant begins in about 1200 BCE when iron tools came into use. It is also known as the Israelite period. The Israelite period is characterized by large numbers of urban dwellings and a new local culture. The rich and diverse archaeological findings attest to strong international links and trade relations. The abundance of writings found indicate a broad distribution of knowledge among common people of ancient Israel and not just scribes, a unique phenomenon in the ancient world.

In this period both the archaeological evidence and the narrative evidence from the Bible become richer and much writing has attempted to make links between them. A chronology includes:

Iron Age I (IA I) 1200-1000 BCE
Iron Age IIA (IA IIA) 1000-925 BCE
Iron Age IIB-C (IA IIB-C) 925-586 BCE
Iron Age III 586-539 BCE (Neo-Babylonian period)