Bronzeage

I thought that was only in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Sheshbazzar

That's popular entertaiment!

Torah tales were the popular entertainment of its time and place.
_And about as connected with any real history.

SLD

Interesting. I looked him up along with others of his name, and there are some indeed interesting parallels. I'd favor Shalmeneser III who was about 100 years before him, and about 100 years after the alleged Solomon. S-III had tribute paid to him by Jehu of Israel, and Israel may have simply become a client kingdom of Assyria by that point. Jehu used the alliance to fight off other enemies. It could be that the Israelites simply co-opted him as their own ruler.

It's an interesting thesis, but maybe tough to find hard evidence.

SLD

Minimalist

A lack of evidence never seems to stop fundies from blathering on about "Solomon," though.

The southern state of Judah prospered as it had never prospered before as part of the Assyrian economic sphere.

steve_bnk

From a show on the Jews and archeology, the bible likely paints a much greater Israel than what aaly existed.

No different then how our founders have become mythified. Revisiionist conservatives paint the USA before the likes of FDR as heaven on Earth. God's chosen.

Why would anyone other than biblical literalists take any of these accounts written after the fact as literal and other than embellishment.

The Walls of Jerihco, hyperbole or fact?

The Jews were a small gang in a rough neighborhood. If the had 25 tons of gold, they wouldn't hve it for long:Cheeky:

The OT tales makes perfect sense as an epic adventure story meant to create a Jewish self image.

Post Roman occupation, historical records became such that miraculous divine intervention beacame a little diffcult to fabricae.

outhouse

not only that there are two schools of thought

maxamalist

and

minimalist

with archeology destroying lies faith carries

tanya

Both mitochondrial DNA studies, and GWA (genome wide association) suggest a Babylonian/Iranian origin for modern day Jews, about 2500 years before present.

Shalmaneser V lived in the 9th century BCE.

Seems improbable that "Solomon" was a Persian monarch, ruling Jerusalem in that era.

Bronzeage

Whut?

outhouse

which also had better translate to Canaanites previous to Israelites

outhouse

In biblical studies there was a debate for a while with two camps.

One side takes the bible almost literally and adheres to a united monarchy of the early patriarchs like David and Soloman ect ect "maxamalist" they also discount modern archeologist and debate ever single finding.


the other takes it to the extreme like mythers, and claims all 100% fiction "minimalist"



Ill follow Finklestien and others that take each legend differently by what evidence supports said claims, carefully searching for a possible historical core. Where it merits.