The Concept of Palestine: The Conception Of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
The Bible ◽  
School History

The Concept of Palestine is deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the indigenous people of Palestine and the multicultural ancient past. The name Palestine is the most commonly used from the Late Bronze Age (from 1300 BCE) onwards. The name Palestine is evident in countless histories, inscriptions, maps and coins from antiquity, medieval and modern Palestine. From the Late Bronze Age onwards the names used for the region, such as Djahi, Retenu and Cana'an, all gave way to the name Palestine. Throughout Classical Antiquity the name Palestine remained the most common and during the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods the concept and political geography of Palestine acquired official administrative status. This article sets out to explain the historical origins of the concept of Palestine and the evolving political geography of the country. It will seek to demonstrate how the name ‘Palestine’ (rather than the term ‘Cana'an’) was most commonly and formally used in ancient history. It argues that the legend of the ‘Israelites’ conquest of Cana'an’ and other master narratives of the Bible evolved across many centuries; they are myth-narratives, not evidence-based accurate history. It further argues that academic and school history curricula should be based on historical facts/empirical evidence/archaeological discoveries – not on master narratives or Old Testament sacred-history and religio-ideological constructs.

Biblical Archaeology

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avraham Faust
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Persian Period ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Biblical Archaeology

The term “biblical archaeology” has meant different things to different people at different times. During most of its history, the term was used broadly and included archaeological (and archaeology-related) activities in the biblical lands, mainly the Near East but even beyond it, from prehistory to the medieval period. Later, the term was seen as parochial, narrow, and religiously loaded, and many felt uncomfortable using it, sometimes calling for a “secular archaeology” (e.g., William Dever), and preferring instead terms such as “Syria-Palestinian archaeology,” “Near Eastern archaeology,” or “archaeology of the Levant.” The change has also been connected with the decrease in the historical value attributed to the biblical narratives, and to political correctness. The term, nevertheless, is still widely used, and many scholars speak today about “new biblical archaeology.” Geographically, the new term is narrower, covering mainly the Land of Israel (also known as the southern Levant, Palestine, or the Holy Land; roughly covering the area of modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority). Chronologically, it still covers a long period, but a difference exists between Israeli usage and American/European usage. Both “groups” begin the era with the start of the Bronze Age (although all agree that there was nothing “biblical” in those periods). For Israeli scholars, however, the biblical period refers to the time covered in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and it ends by the Late Iron Age, or the Persian period. For most American and European scholars, especially in the past, the term embraced the Hellenistic period, the Roman period, and perhaps even the Byzantine period. Today, however, scholars specialize either in the early periods (Bronze and Iron Ages) or in the later (Hellenistic-Byzantine) periods, and the term “biblical archaeology” is becoming synonymous with the Bronze and Iron Ages (including the Persian period). Indeed, these are the periods that will receive most attention here. Although originally the “child” of biblical studies and archaeology, in its current usage the term is not necessarily connected with the Bible; rather, it relates to studies of a certain era in a certain region. Due to the wide definitions of biblical archaeology, and in light of the differences in meanings associated with it, the boundaries between biblical archaeology and other disciplines are not always clear cut, and they have changed over the course of the discipline’s history. Therefore, the following sections will address some works that are not archaeological in nature. Notably, this article will usually not refer to excavation reports or technical ceramic studies.

Cultural Hemorrhage of Religion and Spirituality on Healthcare and Wellness

2020 ◽  
pp. 308-333
Author(s):  
F. Sigmund Topor
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Purpose In Life ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Regenerative Capacity ◽  
Pivotal Point ◽  
The One

As life approaches expectancy and senescence actualizes, the regenerative capacity of the vital organs and their functionality is reduced. Such a reality gives rise the need to identify with a better purpose in life. Religion and spirituality assume a central role in the wellness and healthcare in such circumstances. Although societies and civilizations differ in their religious and spiritual orientations, all peoples everywhere ascribe to some God or gods. The globalization of religion was initiated sometime between the late Bronze Age and late classical antiquity. The pivotal point was characterized by a conversion from polytheism, or primary religions as practiced by the Ancient Egyptians; Phoenicians; Babylonians; Greek; and Romans on the one hand, to monotheism—secondary religions characterized by the worship of one supreme God. Religion and spirituality has now become the one and remaining source of solace for the terminally ill.

The Philistines

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-169
Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Early Experience ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
New Nation ◽  
David And Goliath

In a political and military sense, none of Israel’s neighbors loom as large in the biblical imagination as the Philistines. Indeed, the Bible depicts the Philistines as inextricably involved with Israel’s early experience with the monarchy, threatening the existence of the new nation. Throughout 1 Samuel—most famously in the story of David and Goliath—the Philistines antagonize Israel. Decades of archaeological research have given us an independent view of the Philistines—as a cultured people who were a contingent of the so-called Sea Peoples who migrated east after the collapse of the Late Bronze Age political system in the Mediterranean world. Though no substantial native Philistine literary culture or even a script to speak of survives, archaeological work at sites along the coastal plain has presented rich examples of a distinctive Philistine pottery tradition, iconography, and glimpses into their religious practice.

scholarly journals Antropologi og poetik i Verdenskrøniken 1814

1982 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-62
Author(s):  
William Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Trinity

Anthropology and Poetics in World Chronicle 1814By Knud SølvbjergAn exposition by William MichelsenThis article is a brief account of the contents of a thesis written in 1976 at the Institute for Scandinavian Studies at Århus University under the title N .F .S . Grundtvig's Thoughts on Anthropology and Poetics between 1814 and 1828. It contains excerpts of a chapter with the same title as this article. The choice of material and the commentary on it has been made by William Michelsen, under whose supervision the thesis was written.The article deals with the considerations concerning mankind and the art of poetry that Grundtvig expresses in his interpretation of mankind’s fate and of the relationship between prophecy and poetry according to the Old Testament. At first these thoughts are set against the idea of all the visible world as an organism with a universal consciousness, as expressed in Henrich Steffens’ introduction to Philosophical Lectures 1803 amongst others. According to Grundtvig, mankind’s development is due not to human reason but to a divine power. And even though Grundtvig’s division of history into three is reminiscent of the division to be found in the concept of the world as an organism, there is no basis for any prediction of history’s development. The pattern which the ancient history of Israel passes on shows how mankind would have developed without the Fall. The divine image is still to be found in mankind and reflects the trinity in God. But the Fall has so confused the inner vision, the emotions and reason that “false images mingled with true images so that the emotions became unclean and reason became ready to judge what it did not understand” (WC 1814 p. 18ff).The Fall in the Garden of Eden, the Flood and the building of the Tower of Babel mark mankind’s step-by-step defection from God. Not until Jesus’ death on the cross did mankind’s relationship with God change for the better. The development in the individual through three stages in which the life of the soul is dominated in turn by the imagination, the emotions and reason also takes place in the individual nation and in the human race as a whole. It is true not merely of the individual but also of the nation and mankind in general that reason is the last faculty to develop. The epistemological consequence is that reason must believe, in the sense that it must believe in the concept of the truthit is to acknowledge. Grundtvig’s idea is that that which at some stage in the future will be recognized, is present beforehand as an imaginative concept. For the nation this means that in the final age it will be able to explain its poetry and its historical achievements on the basis of the previous two. What was once present as a concept returns at the level of reason. History becomes an epistemological process. But without the Bible mankind cannot acknowledge this, according to World Chronicle 1814, inasmuch as Israel’s history is a pattern of the path of history. That is, God does not reveal Himself only in the hearts and consciences of mankind but also in history. But God also reveals Himself in the imagination of the poets - not just amongst the Israelite prophets but also amongst other poets and prophets. For a particularly clear Biblical example of this Grundtvig goes to the story of the prophet Bileam (Numbers 22). Grundtvig does not equate Israel’s prophets with present-day poets, but settles for claiming a likeness between them. He justifies this by pointing to the more powerful imaginations of the ancient prophets, as well as the fact that the Hebrew language had particular qualities because it was closer to the original parent language. Poets should be the people’s guide. After the Fall it is the task of the poet in particular to distinguish between the false and true images that appear to his imagination. According to Grundtvig this cannot be done without the Bible, “unless the poet was inspired in some strange way and became what we call a seer or a prophet”. (WC 1814 p. 167).Bearing recent Grundtvig research in mind it seems surprising how little the passages cited in World Chronicle 1814 have been commented on and utilised to  characterise Grundtvig’s poetics. One major reason could be that that they can only be understood in conjunction with Grundtvig’s epistemology and anthropology, which has only recently received a closer examination. It is not enough to see Grundtvig’s poetics as the product of romantic inspiration in a Christian direction. The question is, how was Grundtvig able to combine his experiences as a poet with the Christian faith that he recognised in 1810 to be the only true one. That is the question which this article attempts to answer.

Cultural Hemorrhage of Religion and Spirituality on Healthcare and Wellness

2017 ◽  
pp. 333-358
Author(s):  
F. Sigmund Topor
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Purpose In Life ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Regenerative Capacity ◽  
Pivotal Point ◽  
The One

As life approaches expectancy and senescence actualizes, the regenerative capacity of the vital organs and their functionality is reduced. Such a reality gives rise the need to identify with a better purpose in life. Religion and spirituality assume a central role in the wellness and healthcare in such circumstances. Although societies and civilizations differ in their religious and spiritual orientations, all peoples everywhere ascribe to some God or gods. The globalization of religion was initiated sometime between the late Bronze Age and late classical antiquity. The pivotal point was characterized by a conversion from polytheism, or primary religions as practiced by the Ancient Egyptians; Phoenicians; Babylonians; Greek; and Romans on the one hand, to monotheism—secondary religions characterized by the worship of one supreme God. Religion and spirituality has now become the one and remaining source of solace for the terminally ill.

Anatolian Trade with Europe and Anatolian Geography and Culture Provinces in the Late Bronze Age

1968 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Foreign Occupation ◽  
Initial Knowledge

In another article in this volume, James Macqueen has re-examined the political geography of Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age on the basis of the Hittite texts. As long ago as 1957 we discussed these problems together at Beycesultan and the results that he has reached independently agree in all major points with mine, which are shown in Fig. 1. For the last fifteen years travel and exploration has carried me through most of the territory here discussed, and with this advantage the archaeologist is able to make a contribution towards the problems raised by the inadequacy of the texts which are not concerned with geographical details, but with politics. In a study of this kind an initial knowledge of the terrain and its archaeological remains is essential. In my opinion a thorough knowledge of classical, i.e. mainly Roman and Byzantine conditions in Anatolia is a definite disadvantage, for the conditions imposed by this essentially foreign occupation bear no relation to earlier patterns of settlement and the possibility of chance survivals of place names tends to distract the student of Second Millennium geography. Many of our troubles stem from rash identifications of place names of which one may single out those of Millawanda-Miletus, Lukka-Lycia and Ahhiyawa-Mycenaean Greece (or Rhodes) as key points in any geographical reconstruction.

Lyre Gods of the Bronze Age Musical Koine

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Curtis Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Derivatives Of ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Relevant Material

AbstractThat the Late Bronze Age cultural koine included a musical dimension is suggested by the Mesopotamian and Hurrian/Ugaritic musical tablets. This paper presents a selective survey and analysis of evidence for a parallel phenomenon, the deification of lyres/harps, which seemingly originated in late third millennium Mesopotamia and spread abroad in the second. Deified lyres are considered as both a ritual reality and an inducement to poetic elaboration by the same poetpriests who used them; much of the textual evidence thus represents remnants of a professional repertoire. At the same time, the motif also commonly centers on kingship, which is explained in terms of the dual office of priest-kingship; as such, there is some involvement of the deified lyre with the ritual of sacred marriage (hieros gamos). Relevant material comes from Ugarit and Cyprus, especially in the figure of Kinyras. In Greek evidence, 'lyre heroes' like Orpheus, Amphion, Cadmus and Linus are seen as late mythological derivatives of the pattern, Archaic survivals of Mycenaean ritual-poetics. Finally, Old Testament evidence for musical prophecy is considered in light of the foregoing.

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