Week 9, Lecture Amihai Mazar: The Patriarchs

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1 OT Lectures, Week 9, Page 1 of 5 Week 9, Lecture Amihai Mazar: The Patriarchs Source. "The Patriarchs, Exodus, and Conquest Narratives in Light of Archaeology." 2 Cuneiform Documents Name Location Date of Documents Archaeological Excavation Mari Tablets Middle Euphrates, Syria 18 th -17 th ( ) Nuzi Tablets Near Tigris River, Iraq 15 th ( ) Emar Tablets Near Aleppo, Syria 13 th ( ) My Remarks. Archaeology is a fairly young science. It began to be distinguished from treasure-hunting only at the end of the 19 th century. Wealth of relatively recent data. Entire libraries have been discovered. Shed light on ancient civilizations unknown to: Church Fathers, medieval theologians, Reformers / Counter Reformation. Brief history of Scholarship. First part of 20 th century scholars thought the patriarchal narratives were fairly historical. This view was strongly challenged in the 1960's and 1970s (John Van Seters and Thomas Thompson) Their views became influential, and today most scholars indeed define the Patriarchal tradition as a late invention with no historical validity. 6 Mazar's Position. Even though the final form of the stories is late, we can still ask about their origins. The parallels with the 2 nd millennium ( BC) culture of the area are too close to be ignored. Oral Tradition. Perhaps certain components of the stories contain memories rooted in the 2 nd millennium Such stories and traditions could have been transmitted orally over many generations until they were inserted into the biblical narrative sometime in the first millennium (999-1) B.C.E. Limitations of Oral Tradition To be sure, in the process of oral transmission, many features have been lost, expanded upon, distorted, or changed over the ages, and still others, reflecting much later historical situations, added. Modest Claims This does not mean that the stories should be taken at face value as reflecting the deeds of actual people, nor should they be taken literally as reflecting actual Israelite history.... I merely wish to claim that some elements... such as private names, place names, and the status of a Semitic prince in the Egyptian court, may suggest that the stories contain kernels of old traditions and stories rooted in second-millennium B.C.E. realia. 7 Salutary Cautions. Although the narratives are not historical, they may contain historical information. There may be "kernels" of historical information in ancient personal names, place names that go back to 2nd millennium. Historians would be foolish to completely ignore these possibilities. 1 For "filing purposes" I am numbering the lectures consecutively throughout the course. So, although this is the first lecture this week, its number reflects its overall place in the total sequence of lectures. 2 Amihai Mazar, pp of: Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel, Invited lectures Delivered at the Sixth Biennial Colloquium of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, Detroit, October 2005, edited by Brian B. Schmidt, Archaeology and Biblical Studies, Number 17 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). 3 Mazar, 58. Excavation date from Wiki, 4 Ibid. Location & excavation date from Wiki, 5 Ibid. Location & excavation date from Wiki, 6 Mazar, Ibid., 59.

2 OT Lectures, Week 9, Page 2 of 5 Reflections. Mazar is a moderately conservative archaeologist. There are ultra-conservatives further to the right. I think they are burying their heads in the sand. I think of Churchmen who denied that there could be mountains on the moon or spots on the sun. Theological ideas that heavenly bodies must be "perfect" eventually had to change before the evidence. Ultimately the Church & Synagogue have to be in dialogue with the best of science. This means that we will probably have to re-think our ideas about how much of the patriarchal narrative his historical. The primary value of the traditions is probably something other than their historicity. Catholic Church & Critical Scripture Scholarship: 3 Stages 1st part of 20th century: hostility ( ) 2nd part of 20th century: cautious acceptance (Divino Afflante Spiritu - Dei Verbum of Vatican II) 3rd part of 20th century: other branches of theology begin to be influenced by scripture (post-vatican II) Week 9, Lecture 24. Amihai Mazar: The Exodus 8 We have No Direct Evidence for the Israelite sojourn in Egypt; no direct evidence for the Exodus. Circumstantial Evidence. Many Western Semites dwelt in Egypt in 2nd millennium ( ) B.C. The Hyksos founded the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and ruled over the native Egyptians. Thus the idea of a Semite (Joseph story) holding a high position is not far fetched. Eventually the Egyptians overthrew Hyksos overlords. The memory of a "pharaoh who did not know Joseph" is plausible. Geography: Land of Goshen, eastern part of the Nile Delta. An area where many of the western Semites lived in Egypt. Building Program of Ramesses II. New city, Pi-Ramesse built of mud bricks, very near the ancient Hyksos capital Plausible that this is related to the cities of Pithom & Rameses mentioned in Exod 1:11 Escape to the Sinai Desert. We have no record of the escape of the Hebrews. We do have papyri which describe slaves escaping into the Sinai desert from time to time. The Road of the "Philistines." There were no Philistines in the area at the time of the Exodus. However, the ancient Egyptian name for the road along the sea was "The Road of Horus." It was indeed highly fortified with many forts, each with a water supply. Archaeology confirms this. Escaping slaves would have been well advised to avoid this route. Biblical authors call the road "the Road of the Philistines" because that was its name when they wrote the story down. Historical Problems... the Exodus story... cannot be accepted as an historical event and must be defined as a national saga. We cannot perceive a whole nation wondering [sic = "wandering"] through the desert for forty years under the leadership of Moses, as presented in the biblical tradition. Don't Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water And yet it may be conjectured that the tradition is rooted in the experience of a certain group of West Semitic slaves who fled from the northeastern Delta region into the Sinai during the late-thirteenth century [after 1250 B.C.], as paralleled by events recorded on papyri... Such a group might have joined what would have become the Israelite confederacy and have brought with them both the Exodus story as well as new religious ideas. 9 8 Mazar, "The Patriarchs, Exodus, and Conquest Narrative in Light of Archaeology," pages Ibid., 60.

3 OT Lectures, Week 9, Page 3 of 5 Recall remarks last week on the Thanksgiving Story. Originally the story of a small group; now the story of "all America." Geographical Problems. We cannot identify Mount Sinai. Various proposals have been made "since the Byzantine era". There are at least 5 candidates in: various parts of the Sinai, the Negev, northwestern Arabia. None is convincing. No archaeological remains were found anywhere in the Sinai. The Israeli archaeologists looked carefully when they were in control, after the 6-day war. This includes Kadesh-barnea, which plays an important role in the story. All of Israel was supposed to have settled there for a long time. The Good News, Geographically The story reflects a good geographical knowledge of the Eastern Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, the Negev, and Transjordan. More Historical Problems. The Israelites avoid going through the kingdom of Edom (Numbers 20) This did not exist before the time of the Israelite monarchy (ca B.C.) The defeat of Sihon King of the Amorites (commemorated in the Psalms) An Amorite kingdom at this time is entirely unknown to archaeology. Red Sea. More correctly translated "Sea of Reeds" Proposal: one of the fresh-water lakes in the area of the modern Suez Canal. Yet, even if this identification is correct, it would only corroborate the geographical and environmental background of the story, but it cannot verify its historicity as a major founding evening in Israel's history. All that can be said is that the Exodus story is based on some remote memories rooted in the reality of the thirteenth century B.C.E. and on a rather good knowledge of the geographical and environmental conditions of the territories included in the narrative. 10 Summary Reflections. Mazar's positions are similar to what we saw in the PBS NOVA video The Bible's Buried Secrets. They are also similar to what I have read in The Oxford History of the Biblical World. In fact, questions about the size of the Exodus group were raised even back in my seminary class in the early 70s. Passover Haggadah. Why do we say "The Lord brought me" out of Egypt? Because if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not rescued our ancestors, than all of us to this day, along with our children, would still be slaves of Pharaoh and his servants [quoted from memory]. The Exodus narrative has been shaped to make such theological points. The Exodus has inspired American slaves to hope & struggle for freedom. It continues to inspire "Liberation Theology" in Central & South America. The Truth of the Exodus narrative is larger than "historical truth." Week 9, Lecture 25. Amihai Mazar: The Conquest 11 History of Archaeology. Early archeologists thought that the ruins they were finding confirmed Joshua's victories. More finds, and more accurate dating methods have called this into question. Yigael Yadin was perhaps the last to present Joshua as a real military hero who conquered city after city in Canaan in line with the biblical narrative. Since the 1960s, however it has become obvious that this was not the historical reality Ibid Mazar, "The Patriarchs, Exodus, and Conquest Narrative in Light of Archaeology," pages Ibid., 61.

4 OT Lectures, Week 9, Page 4 of 5 Uninhabited Cities at time of conquest, 1200 B.C.: Arad, ʽAi, Yarmuth Small, Unimportant Settlements: Jericho, perhaps Hebron Lachish and Hazor. These were destroyed at approximately the right times (Hazor ca. 1250, Lachish ca. 1150). However, since they were destroyed a century apart, this was not the military operation of one general. It is thus now accepted by all that archaeology in fact contradicts the biblical account of the Israelite Conquest as a discreet historical event led by one leader. 13 Accepted by all? He means, of course, all critical scholars, even conservative critical scholars. There will always be non-scholarly holdouts! A Mix of Materials. Concrete examples illustrate the complexity of the Problem. ʽAi, an Etiological Story There was a fortified city on this location at one time. It was destroyed about 1,000 years before Joshua. The ruins can be seen to this day, even without digging. In fact, the name ʽAi means "ruins." There was a small village in Iron I ( B.C.) 14 The inhabitants probably eventually assumed the city on which they built their village had been destroyed by Joshua. This story was then transmitted orally for hundreds of years before being put into writing. Hazor. Destroyed at about the right time. But by whom? The book of Joshua was probably put into writing in the seventh century ( ). At this time, Hazor was an unimportant village. Centuries earlier, it had been the most powerful city in Canaan. The story of Hazor as a great city, therefore, is an ancient memory. It could not have been "made up" out of nothing by seventh-century scribes. Archaeology confirms it was destroyed by a great fire. Yigael Yadin and Ammon ben Tor argue that the only ones who could have done this would be the Israelites. I would explain the biblical description as a reflection of historical memories about the traumatic event that put an end to Hazor The Canaanites would have retained these memories for centuries. Eventually these memories were incorporated into Israelite tradition. Later still they were written down. The antiquity of the memory itself is significant, though the identification of the thirteenth-century B.C.E. destroyers of Hazor remains enigmatic. 16 Arad. Numbers 21:1,3 17 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and gave over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; so the name of the place was called Hormah. (RSV) Many years of archaeological research has not found any settlement in this area. Some have proposed the "king" of Arad was really more like a Bedouin sheik. It is more feasible that the biblical stories were formulated as a much later literary creation of no historical value when the Israelites began settling this region.... Kadesh-barnea, the Negev highlands, and Arad were settled on a 13 Ibid Date for Iron I is from Wiki "Iron Age," 15 Mazar, Ibid. 17 The reference is from Mazar (63), but there is a typo. He refers to Josh 21:11 instead of 21:1.

5 OT Lectures, Week 9, Page 5 of 5 wide scale during the tenth century ( ) B.C. E. and the later monarchic periods, and so the Conquest story may have been created in relation to this later process of settlement. 18 Historical Memories Canaan as divided into many City States. This fits the time of the Conquest. It was no longer true at the time of the monarchy, when the book of Joshua was written down. The Unconquered Territories in Canaan (Judg 1:27-35; Josh 13:2-6). This also reflects pre-monarchic reality. Major Historical Problem At the same time, it must be noted that neither Joshua, nor any other Israelite tradition makes mention of a major historical reality of the second millennium B.C.E., namely that Canaan was under Egyptian domination for three hundred years. 19 Someone who reads the Bible does not imagine Canaan as controlled by Egypt. The last we heard of Egypt, its Pharaoh, along with all of its army, was totally destroyed. In fact, "escaping" from Egypt to the cities of Canaan in the 1200's would have been going from the frying pan to the fire! Concluding Summary In sum, archaeology negates the biblical "Israelite Conquest" as an historical event, yet it may shed some light on the various ways in which memories of actual situations and events rooted in the second millennium B.C.E., early aetiologies and invented stories all found their way into the later, "melting pot" we call today the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua. 20 Concluding Remarks on Joshua Many Christians would heave a sigh of relief to find out that much of Joshua is not historical, i.e. God did not really say: "Wipe out every one of these cities. Kill every many, every woman, every child; kill all the animals. Leave nothing alive!" On-going Effects of the Joshua Story However, just because the events "did not really happen," that does not leave us "off the hook," as it were. Many American pioneers saw America as the new "promised land." They found guidance in the Bible for treating the American Indians as Joshua had [supposedly] treated the Canaanites. Many right-wing politicians in Israel who want to treat the Palestinians as Joshua treated the Canaanites. In Europe & America there is increasing xenophobia, fear of foreigners. Often the imagery for this treatment comes from Joshua. Analogy of Slavery. Since there are laws about it in the Bible, previously many argued slavery is "God's will." My Main Point The relevance of the biblical stories for contemporary life is not based on whether or not they are historical. Stories that are historical can have either a good or a bad influence on us today. Stories that are unhistorical can have either a good or a bad influence on us today. Concluding Thoughts on the Bible in Catholic Life. Scripture is only one element of Catholic Theology. We have centuries of tradition: ecumenical councils, Church Fathers, mystics & saints, out liturgical tradition, etc. The Bible does not end the theological conversation for Catholics; it begins the conversation. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., Ibid., 65.

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