holoc

Can someone point me to some info (hopefully online) that discusses what we know about the origin of the Hebrew people.

I am trying to better understand how that cultural group came into existence as I believe it would aid me in my attempts at framing some of the mythological elements in early Genesis for some fundamentalists I have been discussing this with.

Online resources would be great but some books would be welcomed as well.

Thanks!

Asha'man

I've found <a href="http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm" target="_blank">this page</a> to be helpful, though I don’t know how accurate it may be. It is a starting point, at least.

cloudyphiz

<a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_tora.htm" target="_blank">here's a place to start</a>

you should be able to search google.com for some of the keywords you find on that site.

the history of the hebrew people goes hand in hand with the authorship of the torah. and once you learn a little about that history the books make a lot more sense in proper context. the jedp theory also turns out the lights on biblical errancy (but of course they don't buy it, despite the plain-as-day evidence that it's accurate).

-gary

Major Billy

There's an interesting new book by biblical minimalist Israel Finkelstein called <a href="http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/" target="_blank">The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Text</a>.

"Minimalist" is term rival archaeologists use to criticize those who do not accept a literal interpretation of the old testament.

Apikorus

Major Billy, you are making an extreme and factually incorrect statement regarding "orthodox" criticism of minimalist scholarship. William Dever, who is hardly religious (he's essentially an atheist), is an outstanding archaeologist who harshly criticizes the minimalists. There are rather few bona fide archaeologists among the minimalist camp, which is more defined by bible critics from the Sheffield and Copenhagen schools (e.g. Davies, Whitelam, Vikander-Edelman, Lemche, Thompson). Finkelstein apparently thinks highly enough of these folks to cite their articles in his own scholarly publications, but he's not quite a minimalist himself. For example, Finkelstein believes that the Tel Dan stele is authentic (contra Thompson, Garbini, and other extreme minimalists) and believes in a historical King David, though one who is highly refracted in the biblical account.

Dever, who for years enjoyed twitting credulous biblical fundamentalists, now is battling the minimalists. You don't have to be religious to believe that the Hebrew Bible contains real historical data. Indeed, many kings of Israel/Judah and battles mentioned in the Deuteronomistic history are corroborated (more or less) in extrabiblical sources, such as the Assyrian annals.

An even better book than Finkelstein and Silberman is Dever's "What did the Biblical Writers Know and When did they Know it?"

As for the origin of the Israelites, I think Finkelstein and Dever are largely in agreement. That is, the Israelites emerged in the Judean highlands from among the autochthonous population. The rise of Israelite culture in the late Bronze/early Iron age was in fact the third in a series of settlement waves in the region stretching back to the Early Bronze period. (This one stuck, though.)

Pantera

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802847943/internetinfidelsA" target="_blank">What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel</a> by William G. Dever

logansluf

for a little bit of an off-beat interpretation of the genesis myths check out Zecharia Sitchin's The Twelfth Planet

Sitchen was a biblical scholar and archeoligist who probed into ancient Sumerian texts and artifacts for links to the myths told in the bible

Vorkosigan

Sitchin was nothing of the sort. He's another in a long line of a half-baked Pyramidiots.

<a href="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/FDoernenburg/mainpyr.htm" target="_blank">http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/FDoernenburg/mainpyr.htm</a> is Frank Doernenburg's excellent site on Sitchin's nonsense.

Michael

Marduk

"Sitchin was nothing of the sort. He's another in a long line of a half-baked Pyramidiots."

Oh No, he's completely baked!

Sitchin does point out the similarities between Hebrew, Babylonian and Sumerian myths when he's not going on and on about Nibiru & the Annunaki, he got me interested in this stuff, bless him.

Adamantia

According to this site he is but an imaginative writer who seems to take his tales seriously...

<a href="http://www.skepdic.com/sitchin.html" target="_blank">http://www.skepdic.com/sitchin.html</a>

This has great links about Sitchin at the bottom, as well as a link to a fan of his called Rael who seems even crazier. He’s definitely built himself a great lifestyle with his tale spinning though...the things people will believe...