John Bright's History of Israel

An authoritative history of the Old Testament such as John Bright's "A History of Israel" must, ironically, proceed on a degree of faith. This naturally undermines the intent of the work from the outset, which is ostensibly to authenticate patriarchal traditions by providing them with a historical basis. Bright, in accepting most Biblical accounts as realities including the covenant at Sinai, ancient Old Testament claims to monotheism, and the Genesis rendering of a personal relation between the individual and his God ultimately masquerades religious dogma as serious history. Bright's thick, maximalist approach to the history of Israel is rich and enthralling, but theoretically flawed and a great deal more hypothetical than the author would have us believe.

The storyline of the Bible is not, in all likelihood, historical, but rather an accumulation of myths, fables, and revisionist stratagems designed to legitimize the past, present and future claims of an ancient people. The fact of the matter is, archaeology continues to contradict biblical postulates, and little hard evidence has been unearthed that can corroborate even the most basic assumptions of the Old Testament; as modern critics have pointed out, "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon none of these biblical characters turns up in any written sources outside the Bible." In this, it likely true that arguably the most cherished component of Israeli religious lore the l

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wed." Indeed, Bright's conclusion that the patriarchal narratives have a "most authentic flavor" and that "we can assert with full confidence that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were actual historical individuals" is puzzling given the dearth of archaeological evidence that is able verify this claim. In other parts, Bright discusses the Formative Period, or that period concerning the Exodus, the Conquest, and the Judges. He also covers the periods of exile and post-exile, bringing Judaism all the way into the Fifth Century BC, following the restoration of the Jewish community in Palestine, the fall of Babylon, and the completion of the Temple. Throughout these parts, Bright speaks to virtually every facet of the Jewish tradition in the process explicating the monotheistic origins of the Israeli faith. On Moses and the origins of Yahwism, Bright offers that "though the location of Sinai is uncertain, there is no reason to doubt that it was there that Israel received that law and covenant which made her a people." The Philistine crisis is detailed, during which Samuel, "more than any other labored to keep the amphictyonic tradition alive" ; subsequent to this the first king, Saul ascended and eventually fell, to be replaced

Category: History - J