What was the historical character of Israel?

Answer 1

A:Ancient Israel is unique in that it has two 'histories': the history of The Bible and the history that archaeologists, historians and scholars are painstakingly uncovering.

The Bible tells that all the people of Israel were descended from a single ancestor, Jacob. His family went to Egypt where they were enslaved for four hundred years, then fled in the famous Exodus. Approximately 1400 BCE, they conquered the land of the Canaanites because it had been promised to them by their God, at the same time committing acts of genocide. After a period of occasional rule by a series of Judges, a monarchy was set up, but Israel soon split into two warring kingdoms. The northern kingdom, Israel was soon conquered and disappeared from history. The southern kingdom, Judah took over the inheritance of Israel but was taken into Exile by the Babylonians. fter their return, the Jews suffered under the Hellenists and then the Romans. In this history, the Hebrews were at all times monotheistic, although frequently guilty of backsliding.

The Israel known to historians was rather different. The clear consensus is that there was no Exodus from Egypt, as described in the Bible, and therefore no enslavement in Egypt. The stories of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are no more than legends. The noted archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein, says that Israel and Judah were never united but had their own separate cultures, pottery, religious beliefs and even dialects of the Hebrew language. Historians are now trying to unravel the history of the monarchies and even the post-Exilic period, separating fact from invention. As for monothreistic religious beliefs, Lang (cited by Keel and Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel), tells us: "In the four and a half centuries during which there were one or two Israelite monarchies (ca. 1020-586 B.C.), there was a dominant, polytheistic religion that was indistinguishable from that of neighboring peoples. Insofar as there were differences between the Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Tyrian, etc. versions of religion, these beliefs stayed within the framework of Near Eastern polytheism, and each should be interpreted as a local variant of the same basic pattern. The Israelites . . . venerated their own protector god who was there to provide for health and family. But they venerated Yahweh [God] as well, the regional and national god, whose special domain dealt with war and peace issues."