Ancient Israel

In Ancient Israel, Lester Grabbe’s purpose is to provide a “prolegomena to a history of Israel” (p. 1) and, more specifically, to identify the key material and textual sources available for each period of Israel’s history and supply some preliminary thoughts on the issues involved in using these sources to make judgements about the chronology and historicity of the events described in the OT. This revised edition updates the original version of this work, which is now 10 years old. A comparison of the tables of contents of the two versions reveals only a handful of places where new headings for additional discussion have been added, but this itself does not tell the full story. That Grabbe has diligently incorporated the relevant scholarship of the last decade is apparent from the 70-page bibliography, in which I counted 128 sources from 2008 forward. A concise preface to this revised edition notes that “the additions to the text put it on the road to a comprehensive history” (p. xix) and also lists the particular sections in all the main body chapters that have received the most new material.The first chapter identifies some of the key issues in the study of history and articulates Grabbe’s own method. These issues include the place of socio-scientific frameworks and the difficulty of determining (and even defining) “ethnicity.” Perhaps most important for Grabbe in this section is the extent to which archaeology is an interpretive exercise, a point he drives home with several examples. After a short review of the last half century of approaches to writing Israel’s history, Grabbe lists his “principles of historical method” (p. 37): (1) No source should be hastily rejected; (2) primary sources (archaeology and inscriptions) should be granted more weight than secondary sources (including the biblical text); (3) the configurations of and long-term shifts in landscape, geology, and climate must be allowed to set the stage; (4) all events require fresh critical appraisals of available witnesses; (5) new interpretations of the data are always possible; and (6) no position can be given the “benefit of the doubt” without sound historical argumentation.The core of the text comprises chs. 2 through 5, which, respectively, cover the historical periods of the “Middle and Late Bronze Ages (2000–1300 BCE),” “Late Bronze to Iron IIA (ca. 1300–900 BCE),” “Iron IIB (900–720),” and “Iron IIC (720–539 BCE).” Chapter 3 (subtitled “From Settlement to Statehood”) is by far the longest of these four chapters, as here Grabbe covers the hotly contested issues of the exodus, the “conquest,” and the early monarchy. Each of these chapters follows a consistent three-part structure of “Sources,” “Analysis” (including relevant debates and theories), and “Synthesis.”A conclusion chapter helpfully outlines (in four pages) Grabbe’s major results in terms of what took place in Palestine during each time period, and his overall appraisal of the consequent reliability of the biblical witness. He ends the book by drawing five major conclusions (which appear to be unchanged from the first edition): (1) Shaping and narrating a history of Israel is no different than doing this for any other time period or people group; (2) minimalism’s general rejection of the Bible’s accuracy cannot be incorporated methodologically, even when the evidence usually bears this out; (3) within the biblical text, later material tends to be more accurate than earlier accounts, and court and temple records are more useful than other literary categories; (4) all possible sources should be critiqued for potential error and bias in isolation before they are compared and synthesized; and (5) socio-scientific theories can be helpful as long as they are placed in conversation with the text and not simply superimposed over it.With the above purpose and framework of the book in mind, some thoughts regarding appraisal are appropriate. Given the subject matter of Ancient Israel, the complete absence of maps throughout is notable, as many readers inclined to consult such a “big-picture” guide to the sources underlying the time period of the OT would likely appreciate some visual aids to help them situate various archaeological sites and locations of different people groups at different time periods. Some may likewise find the author-date citations throughout the text less preferable than conventional footnotes, although this does have the benefit of allowing the reader to proceed through the chapters free of this often-cumbersome apparatus.In terms of Grabbe’s own assertions about the history of Israel, the chapter layout itself testifies to one of his major conclusions: the higher accuracy of “later” biblical accounts as opposed to earlier accounts. Chapters 4 and 5 (which cover the divided kingdom through the exile) each end with a short section summarizing areas in which the biblical record is “confirmed,” “not confirmed” though possibly “correct,” “incorrect,” or “omits/has gaps,” a device omitted in the previous two chapters. While this is understandable for the patriarchal period given the modest conclusions one could hope to draw from the evidence, for the united monarchy Grabbe simply allows (following Finkelstein and Mazor) that Saul, David, and Solomon existed, but ruled over much smaller areas of land than the (apparently folkloric) biblical accounts describe. This bears witness to a notable tendency of the “analysis” sections throughout: a heavy reliance on overly critical works within biblical studies proper. Despite Grabbe’s well-defined methodology, certain source-critical models and generic descriptions (themselves certainly not based on archaeology or material evidence) are repeatedly privileged in the evaluation of the OT, with predictable results.While some evangelicals will doubtless disagree with Grabbe’s interpretation of the available sources, this book nevertheless remains an essential resource for its comprehensive cataloging of the available evidence, its bibliography, and its concise exposition of the major discussions. Particularly for OT students who may feel intimidated by the imposing field of archaeology, this volume is indispensable

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