The Ottawa School of Theology & Spirituality

1. The Ottawa School of Theology & Spirituality The Bible: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives September 16 – November 25, 2013 Lecturer - David Steinberg http://www.houseofdavid.ca/ steinberg.david0@gmail.com Tel. 613-731-5964 Lecture 2 Archaeology; Biblical Archaeology; Documentary Hypothesis; Minimalists and Maximalists Sept. 23, 2013 Lecture 1 slides available at http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture1.ppt ORhttp://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture1.pdf Lecture 2 slides available at http://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture2.pptORhttp://www.houseofdavid.ca/lecture2.pdf

3. Archaeology • Definition – Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. • Goals - are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies. It is considered in North America to be one of the four sub-fields of anthropology.

4. Archaeology A Few Key Points– 1. Oldest at the Bottom (usually) 2. Relative Date vs. Absolute Date and Synchronicities (Limmu Lists from 911 through 631 B.C.E. (= B.C.) 3. Surveys, rescue digs, digs 4. Population c. 100 per built up acre; 5. Geophysics, pollen, middens etc. 6. Archaeological vandals – bad methodology, excessive digging, not publishing

5. Archaeology and the Bible Archaeology can– • Prevent the Bible from being mythalogical by anchoring it in the realm of history • Provide the geographical and chronological context of biblical people and events; show their cultural, economic, political etc. contexts • Uncover the empirical evidence for clarifying the text • Shed light on the daily life of biblical people by recovering their pottery, utensils, weopons, seals, architecture etc.

6. Trends in Archaeology • It has become a team effort • More analysis for less digging • Geophysical and remote sensing technology • Interest moved from trying to prove historical events to reconstructing ancient societies with the aid of anthropological models • Centre of interest moved from elites to ordinary people

7. Two Sage ObservationsFrom Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000 Excavations, as a rule, record only those things which appear to them important at the time, but fresh problems in Archaeology and Anthropology are continually arising …. Every detail should, therefore, be recorded in the manner most conducive to facility of reference, and it ought at all times tio be the chief object of an excavator to reduce his own personal equation to a minimum. (Pitt-Rivers 1887) Palestine: “Where more sins have probably been committed in the name of archaeology than on any commensurable portion of the earth’s surface.” (Mortimer Wheeler 1956)

8. Tel(l) 1 • Tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides. • Tells should be distinguished from more transiently populated sites which may not show any elevation

9. Tel(l) 2 Usually tells are located on or near: • Permanent water supply • Enough arable land to feed the population • Trade routes • Good defensive position

10. Tel Megiddo Over 20 strata of occupation c7,000-586 BCE. 2 Kings 23:29-30. “In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; and Pharaoh Neco slew him at Megiddo … and his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.

11. Tel Hazor The largest archaeological site in northern Israel, featuring an upper tell of 30 acres and a lower city of more than 175 acres “Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them … Then he burnt Hazor with fire” Joshua 11:10–11

12. Importance of Publication1From Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000 • Without publications, the best of archaeological field work is a failure…. (A) well-published volume with plans, drawings, photographs and so on, enables others to reconstruct in their own minds exactly how the site was excavated. If a trained archaeologist cannot do this, then the publication is faulty and of limited, if any, use. A good publication also allows other archaeologists to interpret for themselves what the archaeological data mean.

13. Importance of Publication 2From Archaeology and the Bible, J C H Laughlin 2000 • It is to be hoped that it will soon be possible for computer information from all digs (past and present) to be readily accessed so that research and study can be conducted in the most comprehensive way possible.

14. Most Unusual Rescue Dig 1

15. Most Unusual Rescue Dig 2

16. Most Unusual Rescue Dig 3

17. From the “Great Man” to the Interdisciplinary Team 1 Prior to the 1960s, Palestinian/Israeli digs were dominated by a single individual usually a trained clergyman or biblical scholar who sidelined as an archaeologist. Professional standards were very uneven, a great deal of key evidence was discarded unrecorded and unexamined and publication did not occur or was poor and/or late.

18. From the “Great Man” to the Interdisciplinary Team 2 Now, excavations are headed by fully trained archaeologists, full recording is accomplished with the aid of computer systems and a full interdisciplinary team of surveyor, geophysicist, paleo-botanist, geologist, paleo-anthropologist, epigrapher, etc. aided by a large number of student and other volunteers.

19. Volunteer Opportunities

20. The First “Great Man”, the Father of Palestinian ArchaeologyFlinders Petrie (1853-1942)

21. Flinders Petrie • At Tell el-Hesi (1890) he established pottery typology combined with stratigraphy as the key to (relative) dating. “… once settle the pottery of a country and the key is in our hands for all future explorations.” • Ever since pottery typology plus stratigraphy has been the key to dating particularly in periods (e.g. Iron Age/Israelite period) where inscriptions are rare or non-existent

22. The Greatest of the “Great Men” - Albright

23. The Greatest of the “Great Men” - Albright

24. Albright (1891-1971) • The Biblical Archaeologist par excellence • Master of almost the whole of Ancient Near Eastern studies • Developed the Albrightian synthesis (see below) • Trained two generations of epigraphers and Israeli and American Biblical Archaeologists • The Biblical Archaeologists he trained eventually morphed into Syro-Palestinian archaeologists

25. Biases in Archaeological Interpretation It is a paradox of archaeology that the objects dug up are concrete and real things, yet it is difficult to ascribe any meaning to them. Interpretation takes place, for example: • in the choices made about what sites to excavate and what portions of those sites to excavate • about what kinds of information to record and what kinds of material to send off to specialists for analysis, in the reports written by the excavators and specialists; and, • in the choices made about what reports to consult in resolving a particular problem. Interpretation is greatly affected, therefore, by the question of who makes what decisions in what context. Certain objects or places, for example, may be considered important for one interpreter and not worth bothering about by others.

26. Phases of ArchaeologyOverview • Culture History – Relates to History • Processual Archaeology – Relates to Anthropology • Post-processual Archaeology – Post-Modernism • Gender Archaeology • Behavioral Archaeology • Evolutionary (Selectionist) Archaeology

27. Culture HistoryRelates to History • Grouping sites into distinct "cultures", to determine the geographic spread and time span of these cultures, and to reconstruct the interactions and flow of ideas between them. • Cultural historians employed the normative model of culture, the principle that each culture is a set of norms governing human behaviour. Thus, cultures can be distinguished by patterns of craftsmanship; e.g., if one excavated sherd of pottery is decorated with a triangular pattern, and another sherd with a chequered pattern, they likely belong to different cultures. • Approach leads to a view of the past as a collection of different populations, classified by their differences and by their influences on each other. • Changes in behaviour could be explained by diffusion whereby new ideas moved, through social and economic ties, from one culture to another or by replacement of one population (culture) by another.

28. Processual Archaeology (New Archaeology) Relates to Anthropology • In the 1960s, American archaeologists (pre-history) developed a "New Archaeology", aimed at being more "scientific" and "anthropological". • Culture - a set of behavioural processes and traditions responsive to environment. Processual archaeology has seen social system predominantly as a set of standard types of society drawn from cultural evolutionary thought – bands, lineage, chiefdoms, states (and derived and related forms). The main features are horizontal and vertical divisions, particularly class and ranking, and the distribution of resources, through social groupings, via exchange and other economic mechanisms. • Borrowed from the exact sciences the idea of hypothesis testing and the scientific method. • They believed that an archaeologist should develop one or more hypotheses about a culture under study, and conduct excavations with the intention of testing these hypotheses against fresh evidence. • Partly response to evidence of anthropology, that ethnic groups and their development were not always entirely congruent with the cultures in the archaeological record. (Very important point for Biblical Archaeology)

29. Critiques ofProcessual Archaeology • Too one-sided, too deterministic, too inflexible. Explanations generated are dominated by general overarching social forces and entities. How did real people fit into them? how we are to conceive of society in a way that allows its constituent people to be active and creative in reproducing and changing their society. • How are we to understand how people are both determined by social structures, yet also act in ways that work to change those structures? • Post processual archaeology has followed a great deal of social theory in positing much more dynamic social structures. The issue is one of balancing determinism and free-will when clearly people do not make history as they will, but nevertheless are not wholly determined in their actions by transcendent social structures and historical forces. It is about how action is to be conceived.

30. Post-processual Archaeology 1Post-Modern Archaeology • In the 1980s, British archaeologists questioned processualism's appeals to science and impartiality by claiming that every archaeologist is in fact biased by his or her personal experience and background, and thus truly scientific archaeological work is difficult or impossible. • Exponents of this relativistic method analysed not only the material remains they excavated, but also themselves, their attitudes and opinions. The different approaches to archaeological evidence which every person brings to his or her interpretation result in different constructs of the past for each individual. The benefit of this approach has been recognised in such fields as visitor interpretation, cultural resource management and ethics in archaeology as well as fieldwork. • Post-processualism provided an umbrella for all those who decried the processual model of culture, which many feminist and neo-Marxist archaeologists for example believed treated people as mindless automatons and ignored their individuality

31. Post-processual Archaeology 2 • Started as a reaction to processual archaeology criticizing processualism as positivist, and materialist • Now consists of a wide range of approaches focusing on e.g. religion, belief systems, social complexity, gender • Studies art, architecture, burial goods, non-utilitarian artifacts • Consists of a wide range of approaches all viewing culture as being comprised of individuals From http://www.geog.unt.edu/~lnagaoka/arch2500/outlines/postproc.pdf#search=%22post-processual%20archaeology%22

32. Gender Archaeology • Method of studying ancient societies by closely examining the roles played by men and women in the past as exhibited through the archaeological record. • Gender archaeologists examine the relative positions in society of men and women through identifying and studying the differences in power and authority they held. These differences can survive in the physical record although they are not always immediately apparent and are often open to interpretation. The relationship between the genders can also inform relationships between other social groups such as families, different classes, ages and religions. • Only 8% of the names in the Hebrew Bible are those of females!

33. Chronology – Absolute and Relative 1

34. Chronology – Absolute and Relative 2

35. Chronology – Absolute and Relative

38. Views of the BibleThese lectures relevant to views 2 and 3 • Divine or divinely inspired error-free document. Although revealed or authored at one time and place can be understood in every time and place without regard to original context. • Divinely inspired complex document whose original meaning(s) can only be understood in context of authors’ social-cultural-historical context. • Human complex document whose original meaning(s) can only be understood in context of authors’ social-cultural-historical context.

39. Key Concept 1What We Mean by Myth • A structure through which a community organizes and makes sense of its experience. The world "out there" does not impinge itself on us … organized into meaningful patterns. Our experience of the world is a complex transaction between what comes to us from "out there" and the way we structure or "read" it. • Myths are the spectacles that enable us to see order in what would otherwise be confusion. They are created, initially, by "reading" communities, beginning with their earliest attempts to shape, explain, or make some sense out of their experience of nature and history. • Gradually, as the mythic structure seems to work, to be confirmed by ongoing experience, it is refined, shared, and transmitted to later generations. It becomes embodied in official, "canonical" texts and assumes authoritative power. In its final form, it becomes omnipresent and quasi-invisible, so much has it become our intuitive way of confronting the world.

40. Key Concept 2Ritual • “… underlying the rituals, the careful reader will find an intricate web of values that purports to model how we should relate to God and to one another. • Anthropology has taught us that when a society wishes to express and preserve its basic values, it ensconces them in rituals.‘… (R)ituals endure with repetition. They are visual and participatory. They embed themselves in memory at a young age, reinforced with each enactment. • (W)hen rituals fail to concretize our theological commitment they become physical oddities, superstitions, or small idolatries. Ritual is the poetry of religion that leads us to a moment of transcendence. When a ritual fails because it either lacks content or is misleading, it loses its efficacy and its purpose. A ritual must signify something beyond itself, whose attainment enhances the meaning and value of life.

41. History of Biblical Israel(1930-1970) Two choices • Literary analysis (including Documentary Hypothesis) of the Genesis-2 Kings = archaeology of the biblical text. Key names J Wellhausen; A Alt; M Noth (Noth’sThe History of Israel 1958) • Biblical archaeology = dirt archaeology in intimate combination with (often naïve) reading of the biblical text)– key names W F Albright; G E Wright (J Bright’s A History of Israel 1959)

42. Background to Documentary Hypothesis 1 • The variations in the divine names in Genesis; • The secondary variations in diction and in style; • The parallel or duplicate accounts (doublets); • The continuity of the various sources; • The political assumptions implicit in the text; • The interests of the author(s). • Many portions of the Torah seem to imply more than one author. Doublets and triplets repeat stories with different points of view. Notable repetitions include: • the creation-accounts in Genesis. The creation-story in Genesis first describes a somewhat evolutionary process, starting with the creation of the Earth, then the lower forms of life, then animals, and finally man and woman (created together). It then begins the story again, but this time with the creation of man first, then animals to assuage man's loneliness, and when this fails, the creation of Eve from Adam's rib; • in the flood story Noah takes his family into the ark twice; • the stories of the covenant between God and Abraham; • the naming of Isaac; • the three strikingly similar narratives in Genesis about a wife confused for a sister; • the two stories of the revelation to Jacob at Beth-El;

43. Background to Documentary Hypothesis 2 • three different versions of how the town of Be'ersheba got its name; • Exodus 38:26 mentions "603,550 men over 20 years old included in the census" immediately after passage of the Red Sea, while Numbers 1:44-45 cites the precisely identical count, "The tally of Israelites according to their paternal families, those over 20 years old, all fit for service. The entire tally was 603,550", in a census taken a full year later, "on the first [day] of the second month in the second year of the Exodus" (Numbers 1:1); • the story of the flood in Genesis appears to claim that two of all kinds of animal went on the ark, but also that seven of certain kinds went on, and that the flood lasted a year, but also lasted only 40 days; • the Ten Commandments appear in Exod 20, but in a slightly different wording in Deut 5. A second, almost completely different set of Ten Commandments appears in Exod 34; • Numbers 25 describes the rebellion at Peor and refers to daughters of Moab, but the same chapter portrays one woman as a Midianite; • Moses' wife, though often identified as a Midianite (and hence Caucasian), appears in the tale of Snow-white Miriam as a "Cushite" (Ethiopian), and hence black; • in some locations God appears friendly and capable of errors and regret, and walks the earth talking to humans, but in others God seems unmerciful and distant; • a number of places or individuals have multiple names. For instance, some passages give the name of the mountain that Moses climbed to receive the commandments as Horeb and others as Sinai, Moses' father-in-law has at least three names in the Hebrew original (יֶתֶר, יִתְרוֹ, and רְעוּאֵל), etc.

44. Documentary Hypothesis 1 • That the Five Books of Moses (the Torah; Genesis-Deuteronomy) represent a combination of documents from different sources rather than a single text authored by one individual. • We do not know the original contexts in which the original documents were written • Clear that different sources had different points of view and wrote in different historical contexts

45. Theological Concerns of the “Documents” • P – priesthood and cult. • D – covenant for Israel; its relationship to God in terms of divine obligation and reciprocity. • J– God’s role both directly confronting the individual and working behind the scenes of human history. • E– Role of the prophets in proclaiming God’s message to the people.

46. Documentary Hypothesis 2 • The earliest documents incorporated probably date to 9th-8th c. BC though could have drawn on earlier written or oral traditions. Most written c. 700 BC – 586 BC in Jerusalem and after 586 BC in Babylon • Genesis seems to be among the later parts to be written yet it describes anachronistically stories of Abraham (c. 1700 BC?). El Shaddai early or late? Also note dates of David (c. 1005- 965 BC). See Wikipedia article The Bible and history • Continuing authoring, editing and final assembly c. 586 BC – c. 460 BC in Babylon. Key to final product but blank to us.

47. Documentary Hypothesis 3 The hypothesis a redactor (R) composed the Torah by combining four earlier source texts (J, E, P and D), specifically: • J(Jerusalem perhaps from 9th to 7th c. BC) - the Jahwist. J describes a human-like God called Yahweh and has a special interest in Judah and in the Aaronid priesthood. J has an eloquent style and uses an earlier form of Hebrew than P. • E(Samaria region perhaps from 9th or 8th and before 722 BC) - the Elohist. E describes a human-like God initially called El or Elohim, and called Yahweh subsequent to the incident of the burning bush. E focuses on biblical Israel and on the Shiloh priesthood. E has a moderately eloquent style. E uses an earlier form of Hebrew than P.

48. Documentary Hypothesis 4 • P(Jerusalem 8th and 7th c. BC) - the Priestly source. P describes a distant and unmerciful God, sometimes referred to as Elohim or as El Shaddai. P partly duplicates J and E, altering to suit P's opinion P wrote most of Leviticus. P has its main interest in an Aaronid priesthood and in King Hezekiah and lists and dates. • D(Shiloh priestly traditions developed in Jerusalem after 715 and before 622 BC) - the Deuteronomist. D consists of most of Deuteronomy. D probably also wrote the Deteronomistic history (Josh, Judg, 1 & 2 Sam, 1 & 2 Kgs). D has a particular interest in the Shiloh priesthood and in King Josiah. D uses a form of Hebrew similar to that of P, but in a different literary style.

49. Collapse of the Documentary Hypothesis (DH) • Wellhausen’s classical presentation of the DH was based on knowing the date of D (7th c. BCE) and assumptions about the evolution of religion. • Date of D remains valid but his evolutionary assumptions are now widely rejected. • The Making of the Pentateuch (1987) R. N. Whybray examined the evidence for the Documentary Hypothesis and concluded that it was insubstantial. His alternative proposal was that the Pentateuch was essentially the work of a single author who drew upon multiple sources and disregarded, or was ignorant of, modern notions of literary consistency and smoothness of style and language.

50. Consequence of Collapse of the Documentary Hypothesis (DH) • Analysis of the text to recover its history have gone in every direction. Some scholars still maintain a modified version of the DH (See Who Wrote the Bible by R. E. Friedman). Other biblical scholars consider the DH to be dead without any consensus on anything to replace it. • Many archaeologists (e.g. Dever; Finkelstein) continue to assume the validity of the DH because, probably, there is no usable alternative in sight. • Given the fact that the limited evidence of the biblical text has been closely examined for over 200 years there is no likelihood that further reliable historical information can be derived from the text. (Contrast archaeology where data is always increasing.)