Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible
History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition

$43.99 (P)

  • Date Published: July 2012
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781107669994

$ 43.99 (P)
Paperback

Add to cart Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an examination copy?

This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible undertakes a comprehensive reevaluation of the Bible's primary narrative in Genesis through Kings as it relates to history. It divides the core textual traditions along political lines that reveal deeply contrasting assumptions, an approach that places biblical controversies in dialogue with anthropologically informed archaeology. Starting from close study of selected biblical texts, the work moves toward historical issues that may be illuminated by both this material and a larger range of textual evidence. The result is a synthesis that breaks away from conventional lines of debate in matters relating to ancient Israel and the Bible, setting an agenda for future engagement of these fields with wider study of antiquity.

    • New synthesis recasts the dialogue between Bible and archaeology
    • Addresses core questions of the biblical story's basic shape
    • Links to the larger study of antiquity
    Read more

    Reviews & endorsements

    "In this far-ranging and important book, Fleming acutely analyzes the distinctive features and texts of Israel and Judah. Fleming argues that "Israel" and "Judah" were fundamentally different polities and that knowledge of their differences can help identify originally "Israelite" components of Judah's Bible. Furthermore, Fleming reconceptualizes the history of "Israel" from its premonarchal origins to a succession of royal rulers with different geographic bases (including David in Jerusalem) to Assyrian destruction. Few should leave reading this book without reconsidering long-held assumptions about Israel's history and literature. One of the most important books published in biblical studies in the last decade."
    David Carr, Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Union Theological Seminary in New York

    "In this remarkable study, Daniel E. Fleming deals with one of the hottest issues in the current study of Ancient (biblical) Israel: the role and impact of Israelite traditions embedded in the Judahite Bible. Fleming storms into the scholarly minefield of the reconstruction of Ancient Israel equipped with formidable ammunition: all four disciplines necessary to prevail - Ancient Near Eastern studies, biblical studies, archaeology, and anthropology. The result is a fascinating study into the time, location, and concerns of the biblical authors. This book is a classic - a must for anyone interested in the Bible and the history of Ancient Israel."
    Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University

    "Daniel Fleming has a track record of producing extremely well researched publications brimming with insights. His highly original The Legacy of Israel in Judah’s Bible successfully distinguishes genuine northern Israelite traditions that have come down to us in the Hebrew Bible that is itself a product coming from Judean hands. Yet Fleming has much larger goals in mind. This volume is a breath of fresh air that serves as a catalyst for biblicists and historians to look at the Hebrew Bible in dramatically different (even revolutionary) ways when it comes to history."
    Theodore J. Lewis, Blum-Iwry Professor and Chair, Department of Near Eastern Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

    "For decades the field of biblical studies has been engaged in a series of literary and historical debates regarding the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel, yet there has been little consensus about these subjects. Fleming breaks through this impasse with a remarkably fresh insight into Israel as an association of groups engaged in collective and collaborative politics differing considerably from Judah’s more centralized political life. Fleming also explores several important cross-cultural analogies for Israel’s tradition of collaborative politics from the ancient Near East and traditional societies from Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and pre-Viking Denmark. For this aspect of his research, Fleming draws heavily on recent theory on power and political organization. This book is a superb piece of scholarship; every chapter marked by deep erudition and engaging insights. No professor or graduate student interested in the Hebrew Bible or ancient Israel can do without it."
    Mark S. Smith, Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, New York University

    "Scholarly debate about the early history of Israel has run into the sand. Extreme conservatives and radical revisionists shout across each other with little solid gain. The combination of a thoroughly critical analysis of the written sources together with an informed use of archaeological and other sources has been lacking until now. With his major proposal that we should disentangle the account of Israel from the Bible that has come to us from Judah, Fleming has broken this stalemate. While his analysis will no doubt provoke debate, nobody can deny the authority of the scholarship that he displays."
    H. G. M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford

    "Fleming offers the reader an important discussion of methodology, insightful historical reconstructions, and arguments for the "genuineness" of early biblical traditions. His approach ultimately represents what Richard Hess calls "critical orthodoxy" in that both the biblical account and critical methodology are given equal footing. Fleming’s mediation of differing interests in reconstructing an ancient Israel will likely spur on countless debates …"
    Tad Blacketer, Stone-Campbell Journal

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: July 2012
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781107669994
    • length: 408 pages
    • dimensions: 235 x 155 x 21 mm
    • weight: 0.58kg
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    Part I. Israel and Judah:
    1. Why Israel?
    2. Israel without Judah
    Part II. Israelite Content in the Bible:
    3. Writing from Judah
    4. An association of peoples in the land (the book of Judges)
    5. The family of Jacob
    6. Collective Israel and its kings
    7. Moses and the conquest of eastern Israel
    8. Joshua and Ai
    9. Benjamin
    10. Israelite writers on early Israel
    Part III. Collaborative Politics:
    11. Collaborative politics
    12. Outside the Near East
    13. The Amorite backdrop to ancient Israel
    14. Israel's Aramean contemporaries
    Part IV. Israel in History:
    15. The power of a name: ethnicity and political identity
    16. Before Israel
    17. Israel and Canaan in the 13th–10th centuries
    18. Israel and its kings
    19. Genuine (versus invented) tradition.

  • Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses

    • History of Ancient Israel
    • Torah and Historical Writings
  • Author

    Daniel E. Fleming, New York University
    Daniel Fleming has taught and served in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University since 1990, when he received his doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Committee for NYU's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. The current volume was launched with financial support from a Guggenheim Fellowship (2004). Fleming was also a senior Fulbright fellow to France (1997–8) and recipient of a one-year research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2004–5). He is author of three books and co-author of a fourth: The Installation of Baal's High Priestess at Emar (1992); Time at Emar (2000); Democracy's Ancient Ancestors (Cambridge University Press, 2004); and, with Sara J. Milstein, The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic (2010). Fleming has contributed many articles on topics related to the ancient Near East to a range of professional journals and collected works.

Related Books

also by this author

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
Ă—

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×