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Abstract
This series of articles covers scholarly works in English which can, at least potentially, be associated with a generally positive view of biblical historicity regarding periods preceding the Israelites' return from exile. Part 2 covers works that treat the methodological issues at the center of the maximalist–minimalist debate. Parts 2.1 and 2.2 selectively survey the works of 24 non-minimalist scholars during two decades. In the absence of consensus, this article analyzes the works in Parts 2.1 and 2.2, tracing elements of approach that are held in common, at least among pluralities of non-minimalists (possible majorities are not noted). The first commonality of approach is that history is provisional, not final. The second is that history should become fully multidisciplinary. The third commonality is that historians should receive all historical evidence on an equal footing before examination and cross-examination. The fourth and last is that historians should become increasingly sensitive to cultural aspects and coding in ancient Near Eastern materials. Parts 3–5 will cover select works on evidences.
Notes
1The year 1992 was chosen, because during that year, two books brought major changes to biblical studies and to the study of ancient Israel's history: Thompson's Early History and Davies's In Search.
2Rev 4:4, 10; 5:8; 11:16; and 19:4.
3Here I take the liberty of listing an important non-minimalist not covered in Parts 2.2 and 2.3: David M. Carr. Appended to this article is a summary of Carr's approach in his book, The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: A New Reconstruction (2011). Carr is substituted for Israel Finkelstein, because the limited coverage of only two of Finkelstein's minor publications in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (143–144 n. 2) does not add to the list of commonalities, whereas coverage of Carr's book does.
4Treatment in an endnote merely signifies that the select works treated were published after 2008, hence covered in the “beyond” of the article title (except for A. Mazar, “Spade and the Text”).
5Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (143–144 n. 2), paragraph in parentheses.
6See note 4.
7See Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (109–110).
8Grabbe (Ancient Israel 26), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (119).
9Hayes and Miller (82); Brettler (16); Becking (68), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (109, 121, respectively). Frendo (99–100), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (142 n. 2).
10Moore (Philosophy 183), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (118).
11Becking (68–69) and Ralph W. Klein's review of 1–2 Kings by Gina Hens-Piazza (2), both quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening 2.1 (121–122, 132 n. 29, respectively).
12Becking (68), described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (121); Vaughn (414), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (115–116).
13Becking (68), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (121), appropriating Newman (175–208 passim), Frendo (100), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2.
14Becking (68), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (121).
15These two hypotheses relate to the gap between event and writing/editing favoring intermediate sources of historical data mentioned in Mykytiuk Strengthening 2.1 (110–111). Mazar reasonably asserted that at least a kernel of important ancient evidence may exist in a given biblical text, despite a lengthy chronological gap between the time to which the text purports to refer and the time of writing and/or editing. “Late monarchic authors and redactors used early materials, such as temple and palace libraries and archives” (A. Mazar Spade and the Text 144, quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening 2.1 123). Williamson made a case for archival sources during the united monarchy and for that period as the most appropriate time for the growth of a strictly political history of Israel. Israel's national consciousness looked back from the standpoint of the monarchy (Williamson 148–149, described in Mykytiuk Strengthening 2.2 119). On the likelihood that such archives or libraries existed in the Hebrew kingdoms and on their possible role in relation to the Hebrew Bible, cf., du Toit; Löwisch, review of du Toit Textual Memory.
16See Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (110, 112–115).
17Hess (14–15), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (106–107). Kitchen (Hebrew Bible 150) and Moore (Writing 35); Moore (Beyond 5–6, 7) are both quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (130 n. 12). Thompson (Early History 215–221).
18Bartholomew (404), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120); Kofoed (200), quoting Hirsch (70), in turn quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (129). Norman (119–135), described and quoted in Kofoed (13–15); Hoffmeier (22, point 3), described or quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (124, 139, respectively).
19Killebrew and Vaughn (10); Vaughn (412–416), described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (115); Bartholomew (404), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120); Sternberg (320), described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120–121). By apparently espousing Collingwood's view of realism, Becking implies a similar point of view in his Inscribed Seals (67), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (121).
20Vaughn (413, 414), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (115).
21Kofoed (13–15) and Norman (130–131), both described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (124). White (20).
22Long (Narrative and History 84), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (137).
23R. D. Miller (157, 160), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (117, 118, respectively).
24R. D. Miller (158), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (118); Long (Israel's Past 580–586), cited by Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (118); Grabbe (Are Historians 193); Becking clearly implied cross-examination in discussions among scholars in his Inscribed Seals (68), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (121–122).
25Briefly discussed in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (143–144 n. 2).
26Grabbe (Ancient Israel 35), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (119, point 3).
27Williamson (144, 146–148), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (118–119).
28Kofoed (4, 25–27), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (123–124); R. D. Miller (154), mentions “British Marxists such as E. P. Thompson … rejecting … the submergence of the individual in its [Annales'] structuralism” (referring to E. P. Thompson Making 9); Provan, Long, and Longman (77–79).
29Grabbe (Ancient Israel 36), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (119, point 6); Kitchen (On the Reliability 3) is quoted in Bartholomew (404), which in turn is quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120).
30Moore (Philosophy 160–161), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (117).
31Barr (79), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (120–121); similar but only implicit regarding extrabiblical verification is Barstad (Bibliophobia, in its version as chapter 3 of History and the Hebrew Bible, 39, 45), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (124–125).
32R. D. Miller (159–160), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (118).
33Grabbe (Are Historians 35; The Exile 97; Ancient Israel 36), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (118, 118–119, 119; the second point 4 plus point 6, respectively). A. Mazar (The Spade and the Text, a chapter in Williamson Understanding, 144) and M. S. Smith (Memoirs of God 13), both quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (123, 127, respectively). Williamson (145), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (118), finds that the evidence will not support any “blanket” view, whether dismissal or acceptance “at face value” but still accepts that the Bible has “an historical bedrock.”
34Averbeck (109).
35Athas (14), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (106).
36Grabbe (Are Historians 35), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (118, point 3).
37Grabbe (The Exile 97) and Barr (82), both of which are quoted or described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (118–119, point 3, and 120, respectively).
38Barr (83–84), described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (120). Kofoed (29) and Millard (37–64), described in Kofoed (29, 29 n. 82), both of which are quoted in or cited by Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (125, 146 n. 24, respectively).
39Goldingay (405), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120).
40Grabbe (Ancient Israel 36), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (119, point 6). Kitchen (On the Reliability 3), quoted in Bartholomew (405), in turn quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (120).
41Halpern (546–565), described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (117).
42Barr (82, 83–84) and Barstad (History and the Hebrew Bible, in its version as chapter 1 in History and the Hebrew Bible, 20, 21, 23), both of which are quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (120, 124, respectively). Provan (Ideologies 588, 605), Long (Biblical History 75, 76, 81), and Frendo (102), all three quoted or described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (132, 137, 142 n. 2, respectively).
43Provan (Ideologies 601–602; In the Stable 301) and Provan, Long, and Longman (Biblical History 54, 55, 56, 73, 74) are all three quoted or described in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (132, 134, 135, respectively).
44Zevit (23 n. 19, 24–27).
45For example, “Our sole aim has been a summary phenomenological analysis of these periodic purification rites…” (Eliade Myth 73); see also his Phenomenology.
46Hoffmeier (32–33), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (141).
47Blenkinsopp (77–78), quoted in Kofoed (78), which in turn is quoted without any direct quotation from Blenkinsopp in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (127).
48Kofoed (77, 88), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (126, 128, respectively).
49See note 47.
50Kofoed (29), emphasis his, quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (125). Provan, Long, and Longman (81).
51Barstad (History and the Hebrew Bible, in its version as chapter 1 in his History and the Hebrew Bible, 12), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (124).
52Hendel (58), quoting Assmann (8–9), in turn quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (126).
53M. S. Smith (Early History of God xxviii), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (127).
54Barstad Issues in the Narrative Truth Debate, in its version as chapter 2 in his History and the Hebrew Bible, 37), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (124).
55Barstad (History and the Hebrew Bible, in its version as chapter 1 in his History and the Hebrew Bible, 20), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (124).
56Averbeck (109), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (131).
57Barstad (History and the Hebrew Bible, in its version as chapter 1 in his History and the Hebrew Bible, 20), quoted in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.1 (124).
58For example Grabbe (Are Historians), to which Long responded in his How Reliable, both treated in Mykytiuk Strengthening Part 2.2 (137–138).
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