Niels Peter Lemche - Historical Dictionary of Ancient Israel

Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations
and Historical Eras

Series editor: Jon Woronoff

1. Ancient Egypt, Morris L. Bierbrier, 1999.

2. Ancient Mesoamerica, Joel W. Palka, 2000.

3. Pre-Colonial Africa, Robert O. Collins, 2001.

4. Byzantium, John H. Rosser, 2001.

5. Medieval Russia, Lawrence N. Langer, 2001.

6. Napoleonic Era, George F. Nafziger, 2001.

7. Ottoman Empire, Selcuk Aksin Somel, 2003.

8. Mongol World Empire, Paul D. Buell, 2003.

9. Mesopotamia, Gwendolyn Leick, 2003.

10. Ancient and Medieval Nubia, by Richard A. Lobban, Jr. 2003.

11. The Vikings, by Katherine Holman, 2003.

12. The Renaissance, by Charles G. Nauert, 2004.

13. Ancient Israel, by Niels Peter Lemche, 2004.

Niels Peter Lemche

Historical Dictionaries of Ancient
Civilizations and Historical Eras, No. 13

SCARECROW PRESS, INC.

Published in the United States of America

by Scarecrow Press, Inc.

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The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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OX2 9RU, UK

Copyright 2004 by Niels Peter Lemche

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lemche, Niels Peter.

Historical dictionary of ancient Israel / Niels Peter Lemche.

p. cm. (Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras ; no. 13)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN: 978-0-8108-4848-1

1. JewsHistoryDictionaries. 2. JudaismHistoryDictionaries. I. Title. II. Series.

DS102.8 .L38 2004

933.003dc22

2003015311

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Of all the ancient civilizations that will be included in this series none is smaller than the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, otherwise known as ancient Israel. Small both in geographical area and population, they were barely noticed by the major civilizations of the time in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere, which either crushed or ignored them. Yet, several millennia later, ancient Israel is the civilization we remember most acutely, which we know (or think we know) the most about, and which has even been revived after a manner. Alas, what we know (or think we know) about Israel comes partly from the Old Testament and partly from fragmentary and sometimes distorted bits of historical evidence. So it has been doubly hard to figure out just what is true and what is false, what can be proven historically and what must be left to conjecture. This is a second way in which the subject matter of the Historical Dictionary of Ancient Israel differs notably from other books in the series.

This makes it considerably more problematic to determine the suitable coverage of a reference work, since it is necessary to include in the dictionary entries on persons, places, and events about which there is painfully little solid data and where even the Bible may be ambiguous or confusing. But they must be there, and they are, with as much information as can be mustered. The same applies to the broader environment: historical, political, and economic, as well as anthropological and sociological, since they give useful clues as to what life in ancient Israel was like. To put things in their proper place as much as possible, the introduction plays a significant role. And the chronology, actually this time two chronologies, can give us a feel for the sequence of events in Israel and surrounding areas. Naturally, since opinions still vary so much, from an older maximalist to a newer minimalist view, the bibliography is crucial not only to learn more and understand better but also to find different interpretations of the evidence.

Obviously, all this does not facilitate the compilation of the volume on ancient Israel. It is necessary for the author to acquire considerable information; part gleaned from the biblical and related literature, part won from archaeological and related research. And it is also essential to decide how much credit to give to the former and the latter. The author, Niels Peter Lemche, certainly has the background and experience. Receiving his doctorate at the University of Copenhagen in 1985, he had already served as an associate professor at the University of Aarhus, and after a brief stint at the University of Hamburg, he became and remains professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen. He has lectured and written widely on prehistoric and early Israel and on the Canaanites and other early peoples. He has a broad knowledge of the whole region, including the major civilizations. And he has also delved into the archaeology and anthropology of the period. It should doubtlessly be added that, although a minimalist, Dr. Lemche is aware of the maximalist positions, and therefore makes an attempt to encompass a broader view. For such reasons, he is an unusually reliable guide through an era that can be more confusing and misleading than most.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor

The Historical Dictionary of Ancient Israel covers the history of Palestine to the conquest of Alexander in 331 B.C.E. with an emphasis on the periods reflected by the historiography of the Old Testament. It breaks off at the point when Judaism becomes the major intellectual and political factor of the country; the following history is not the history of ancient Israel but of early Judaism. Although any division made between historical periods is artificial and in a way unsatisfying, this division is a practical one, as the history of early Judaism also covers the history of early Christianity and the world of the New Testament.

The following sections show the complexity of the task of providing a historical dictionary of ancient Israel, as most of the historiography in the Old Testament is not history in the modern meaning of the word but will have to be characterized as narrative, tales from the past and legendary information.

At the same time, the history of Palestine followed its own course. It is as if two histories are present, the one in the Old Testament, and the one in the world outside the Old Testament, sometimes engaged in a dialogue, sometimes separating in two monologues. The dictionary has to cater to both subjects. This may leave the reader in confusion, but it is the hope that the preface will help the reader to understand the types of problems that are involved when dealing with biblical history. This preface discusses the merits of the historiography in the Old Testament and presents an overview of the history of Palestine in ancient times.

Terminology is a major problem. In this dictionary the Old Testament has been chosen as the name of the collection of biblical books otherwise known as the Hebrew Bible. Although many biblical scholars seem to prefer the Hebrew Bible as the politically correct terminology, it also limits the Old Testament to its Hebrew (and Aramaic) version, thereby disregarding the far larger collection, otherwise known as the Greek Old Testament, or the Septuagint, the Old Testament of the Orthodox Church. Also, the Old Testament of the Roman Church includes more books than the Hebrew Bible.