Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The ‘Hebrew slave’: comments on the slave law, Exodus 21:2-11
- 2 The manumission of slaves – the fallow year – the Sabbatical Year – the Jubilee Year
- 3 Andurārum and Mišarum: comments on the problem of social edicts and their application in the ancient Near East
- 4 The Greek ‘amphictyony’: could it be a prototype for Israelite society in the Period of the Judges?
- 5 The chronology in the story of the Flood
- 6 ‘Hebrew’ as a national name for Israel
- 7 Rachel and Leah: on the survival of outdated paradigms in the study of the origin of Israel
- 8 The Old Testament: a Hellenistic book?
- 9 Power and social organization: some misunderstandings and some proposals, or is it all a question of patrons and clients?
- 10 Is it still possible to write a history of ancient Israel?
- 11 Is it still possible to speak about an ‘Israelite religion’? From the perspective of a historian
- 12 Kings and clients: on loyalty between the ruler and the ruled in ancient ‘Israel’
- 13 Justice in western Asia in antiquity, or why no laws were needed!
- 14 From patronage society to patronage society
- 15 Are we Europeans really good readers of biblical texts and interpreters of biblical history?
- 16 History writing in the ancient Near East and Greece
- 17 Good and bad in history: the Greek connection
- 18 On the problems of reconstructing pre-Hellenistic Israelite (Palestinian) history
- 19 How does one date an expression of mental history? The Old Testament and Hellenism
- 20 Chronology and archives: when does the history of Israel and Judah begin?
- 21 ‘Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts’, or ‘We and the rest of the world’: the authors who ‘wrote’ the Old Testament
- Index of biblical references
- Index of authors
16 - History writing in the ancient Near East and Greece
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The ‘Hebrew slave’: comments on the slave law, Exodus 21:2-11
- 2 The manumission of slaves – the fallow year – the Sabbatical Year – the Jubilee Year
- 3 Andurārum and Mišarum: comments on the problem of social edicts and their application in the ancient Near East
- 4 The Greek ‘amphictyony’: could it be a prototype for Israelite society in the Period of the Judges?
- 5 The chronology in the story of the Flood
- 6 ‘Hebrew’ as a national name for Israel
- 7 Rachel and Leah: on the survival of outdated paradigms in the study of the origin of Israel
- 8 The Old Testament: a Hellenistic book?
- 9 Power and social organization: some misunderstandings and some proposals, or is it all a question of patrons and clients?
- 10 Is it still possible to write a history of ancient Israel?
- 11 Is it still possible to speak about an ‘Israelite religion’? From the perspective of a historian
- 12 Kings and clients: on loyalty between the ruler and the ruled in ancient ‘Israel’
- 13 Justice in western Asia in antiquity, or why no laws were needed!
- 14 From patronage society to patronage society
- 15 Are we Europeans really good readers of biblical texts and interpreters of biblical history?
- 16 History writing in the ancient Near East and Greece
- 17 Good and bad in history: the Greek connection
- 18 On the problems of reconstructing pre-Hellenistic Israelite (Palestinian) history
- 19 How does one date an expression of mental history? The Old Testament and Hellenism
- 20 Chronology and archives: when does the history of Israel and Judah begin?
- 21 ‘Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts’, or ‘We and the rest of the world’: the authors who ‘wrote’ the Old Testament
- Index of biblical references
- Index of authors
Summary
1999
It is with hesitation that I engage this subject as it has been so well covered by John Van Seters in his classic study In Search of History from 1983. In this monograph, Van Seters sets the standard for dealing with historiography in the ancient world, with an extensive discussion of the genres, aims and techniques of ancient writers, their methodological outlook, interest in the past, propagandistic ideas, etc. It will be difficult to surpass this study. The scope of Van Seters's investigation is limited, however, by his earlier studies in the history of the Yahwist and the origins of biblical narrative, which he considers generally to be exilic (i.e. belonging to the sixth century BCE), an opinion he has never given up. This was revolutionary when it was first proposed more than 25 years ago. It has now become mainstream and tacitly accepted by students of the scholars formerly in opposition to the idea of such a late date for the oldest history writing in the Old Testament. Although this has few consequences for his evaluation of the expressions of historical recollection within the ancient Near East, it restricts his interest in Greek history writing to the earliest of the Greek tradition: the logographers of the sixth century BCE and Herodotus of the fifth century BCE. Accordingly, Herodotus is not introduced as ‘the father of history’ but as a parallel to the history writing found in the Old Testament.
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- Biblical Studies and the Failure of HistoryChanging Perspectives, pp. 253 - 263Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013