A Concise History of Ancient Israel

Bernd U. Schipper is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

List of Illustrations

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Chronology



Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1. Ancient Israel and Biblical Israel

1.2. The Approach of This Work

1.3. Israel/Palestine and the Southern Levant

1.4. Story and History: Preliminary Methodological Remarks



Chapter 2 The Origins of Israel and Its Early History (1208–926/925BCE)

2.1. Egypt and the Southern Levant (Fifteenth to Twelfth Cent.)

2.2. “Israel” in the Merneptah Stela and the “Conquest of the Land” (Thirteenth to Twelfth Cent.)

2.3. Israel in Egypt? The Exodus

2.4. Philistines, “Canaanites,” Arameans, and the Early Monarchy in Israel (Eleventh to Tenth Cent.)

2.5. The Davidic Monarchy and Jerusalem (Tenth Cent.)

2.6. The Reign of Solomon and the Ancient Near East (Tenth Cent.)

2.7. The Palestine Campaign of Shoshenq I (926/925) and Solomon’s Architectural Politics

2.8. Summary



Chapter 3 Israel and Judah from 926/925 to the Conquest of Samaria in 722/720 BCE

3.1. The Ancient Near East and the Western Expansion of the Neo-Assyrians

3.2. The Israelite Monarchy in the Ninth Century and the Omrides

3.3. Neo-Assyrians, Arameans, and Israelites in the Ninth Century

3.4. The Kingdom of Judah in the Ninth and Eighth Centuries

3.5. Israel in the Eighth Century and the Consolidation of the State

3.6. Judah and Its Capital Jerusalem in the Eighth Century

3.7. Israel and Judah from Tiglath-pileser III to the Conquest of Samaria (722/720)

3.8. Summary



Chapter 4 The Judean Monarchy from 722/720 to the Conquest of Jerusalem in 587/586 BCE

4.1. Hezekiah and the Growth of Judah in the Eighth/Seventh Centuries

4.2. The Anti-Assyrian Coalition from 713 and Sennacherib’s Siege of Jerusalem (701)

4.3. The Kingdom of Manasseh and the Neo-Assyrian Conquest of Egypt (Seventh Cent.)

4.4. Josiah, the Egyptian Intermezzo, and the “Cultic Reform”

4.5. Nebuchadnezzar II and the Two Conquests of Jerusalem (598/597 and 587/586)

4.6 Summary



Chapter 5 The Persian Period (550–333BCE)

5.1. The Babylonian Exile

5.2. Persian Policy from 539 to 333

5.3. The Administrative System of the Persian Empire and the Province of Yehud Until the Fourth Century

5.4. Egypt and the “Judeans/Arameans” of Elephantine

5.5. The YHWH-Sanctuary on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans

5.6. Persian Religious Policy and the Second Temple in Jerusalem

5.7. Summary



Chapter 6 The Hellenistic Period (333–64/63 BCE)

6.1. Alexander the Great and the Rise of the Ptolemies

6.2. Judea Under Ptolemaic Rule (Third Cent.)

6.3. Jerusalem and the Ptolemies

6.4. High Priests Between Ptolemies and Seleucids

6.5. Antiochus IV and the Maccabean Revolt (Second Cent.)

6.6. The Hasmonean Kingdom: Judea in the Second and First Centuries

6.7. Qumran

6.8. Outlook: Palestine Under Roman Rule—From 63BCE to the Destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE

6.9. Summary



Archaeological Periods

Maps

Bibliography

Index of Authors

Index of Place and Personal Names

Index of Scripture

Index of Other Ancient Sources