The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel by Israel Finkelstein

The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel Reviews

• 
  Jonathan

  According to the archaeological evidence, there never was a 'united monarchy' of Israel. Rather 2 highland polities evolved separately in the hill country of Canaan, and the larger and richer one was the northern kingdom of Israel, which was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. Like his book on the Bible, Finkelstein combines the latest Biblical textual exegesis with the best archaeological techniques - and a dose of common sense - to try and get to the bottom of what really happened in the Iron Age Southern Levant, and how it was that the smaller and weaker kingdom of Judah has had the last word over the history of the Israelites and how her narrative became the basis for Judaism and the other monotheistic religions. Fascinating stuff.
• 
  Dan

  A solid guide to the view that there never was a United Monarchy, that the northern and southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah, developed at very different rates, and that not only are the biblical tales of the early Iron Age distorted by time and Judahite ideology -- they could not even have been written down before the advent of a scribal culture in either kingdom centuries later.
  
  Using the archaeological evidence, Finkelstein divides the northern kingdom's history into stages. First came the "Gibeon/Gibeah polity" of Saul in the 10th century, ruled from Shechem, moving aggressively to conquer territory outside the hill country and defeated by the pharaoh Sheshonq I (possibly with the aid of the Philistines). It was followed by the Samaria-based kingdom of Omri and his successors, a major regional power in its time that gets much less attention from the OT's historical books than it merited. Its destruction by Assyria in 721 BCE sent a wave of refugees south to Judah, helping that backwater state advance culturally and politically -- and ensuring that northern traditions such as the Jacob, Exodus and Saul stories made their way into the developing Hebrew Bible, whose historical books, however, kept a Judean focus and Judean prejudices.
  
  If you're a non-archaeologist, you may wish the illustrations did more to clarify the fairly technical account of findings at Samaria and Meggido. The discussion of the Exodus story's northern roots also frustrated me. Unless you simply believe it's a true story, or that it holds some memory of the Hyksos' rise and expulsion from Egypt c. 1650-1550, it's hard to see how it originated. The explanation offered here is that Egypt's control of Canaan in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages, its suppression of the Saulide kingdon and eventual retreat were somehow transmuted into a tale set in Egypt itself. I've seen that argument before, in "Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective," and it feels like an attempt to handwave the problem away.
  
  Unrelated point of interest: Finkelstein notes that an absence of pig bones has been widely seen as a marker of Israelite settlement in the early Iron Age highlands -- but he says digs have found that "pig bones are also rare at non-Israelite inland Iron I sites in the lowlands and even at rural sites in the heartland of Philistia." Israel's emergence as an ethnic group still holds mysteries.
• 
  TT

  還以為這是一本充滿考古術語很難讀的書，想不到其實蠻有趣的。以色列首席考古學家，特拉維夫大學的榮譽退休考古教授 Israel Finkelstein 撇開聖經裡對北國以色利的偏見，以考古證據和出土文物為北國以色列翻案。聖經裡的許多文字敘述都是以南國猶大的傳統為根據，南國文人對曾經壓迫過他們的北國以色列極之詆毀，對北國以色列曾經有過的輝煌草草六段文字帶過。Finkelstein 在這本書裡，讓考古證據來為北國說話。有幾點是值得注意：
  a. 根據出土資料，客納罕(迦南)這個地區要在鐵器時代中晚期才出現比較有系統的建設。如果對應聖經的諸位君主在位紀年，那就是大約在雅羅貝罕1世在位的時候 927-907BC。從雅羅貝罕1世到接下來的5位統治者(927-882BC)，這些充其量只是高原上的勢力教大的幾幫人。從出土的證據顯示，這地方沒有規模性的建築，尤其是公共建築，所以Finkelstein 把這段時間它稱為高原上的強人政治。正式的君主制度要到882BC，敖默黎王朝才算正式開始。這樣看來，聖經上所謂雅羅貝罕1世以前，由撒烏耳和達味所建立的‘聯合王國’其實根本不存在。 這'聯合王國'很可能是後期再添加的故事。
  b. 聖經裡「雅各伯」與「出谷紀」的敘述一直是流傳在北方的口述傳統。這些敘述隨著北國亡國被逃難者帶到了南國，被南國的文人吸納入南國的傳統。但在編寫故事時，南國的文人在文中不斷添加南國的合法性。比如，雅各伯(北方傳統)是阿伯拉罕(南方傳統)的孫子；撒烏耳(北方傳統)行了上主不喜歡的事，上主把王位交給了達味(南方傳統)並答應他，他的子孫世世代代都是雅威揀選的合法君主；耶路撒冷才是唯一合法的聖殿(其實在早期，北國首都撒瑪利亞，Bethel 等地都有神殿)。撒烏耳和達味或真有其人，可能是他們對王朝出現前的先祖的某種記憶，Tel Dan 石碑就曾經提到‘達味家族’一詞。但他們兩人統治的時間應該是平行的，而不是像聖經訴說那樣一前一後。
  c. 北國最輝煌的時期，領地曾經去到北部的Dan，外約旦的Jabbok河及沿海地區如Dor。北國出產橄欖和葡萄，還有豐富的銅礦，他們販賣來自埃及的上好戰馬。在對抗亞述的卡卡之役，以色列曾經派出2千輛戰車，1萬民軍人，在鐵器時代這可是非常強大的軍隊。這場戰爭中，以色列軍隊是盟軍中最強大的一支。這事蹟還被紀錄的亞述的石碑上，但聖經對這些隻字不提。南國猶大這時候跟北國的輝煌相比，南國比較像酋長國。南國的人口等到北國衰弱之後，因北方難民的湧入才壯大起來。南國即使在公元前8世紀晚期壯大起來，即北國滅亡後，但無論在經濟，人口，公共建築的建設，規模都一直沒有北國以色列那麼大��因為南國人口沒有北國多元，經濟也沒有北國的強盛。
  d. 北國以色列國運雖然輝煌，但遺留下來書寫文字卻不多見。公元前9世紀早期的出土文物簡直沒有任何帶有文字的東西。官方的皇家紀錄，就建築上的銘文要到公元前9世紀的後半段才出現。隨著北國滅亡，以色列難民的湧入猶大，他們帶來了北國的技術和文學傳統。從考古的跡象顯示，耶路撒冷城的擴張和發展過程很短，根本不可能是自然發生的現象，而且時間點上是跟北國的衰弱有關聯。
  所以這本書推翻了我們讀聖經時對北國以色列的許多刻板印象和偏見，非常有趣。
• 
  Benjamin

  My feelings a a little conflicted about this book. It contains well presented archeological and historical information and is surprisingly readable, however it does assume the reader has a pretty strong grounding in the subject and occasionally I felt out of my depth. At some points it can read more like a reference book, and I'm not sure if it's really intended to be fully accessible to the general public. I did find the author's deep skepticism of the Biblical narrative difficult to accept, although he does present a scientific foundation for his assessment, so that in itself did not . What I found more disappointing is that while the book debates and disputes many aspects of a notional "generally accepted" history of Israel, the author declines to present an alternative "unified theory" to replace what he seeks to demolish or even really the outline of such. Perhaps this is more roundly addressed in his other works.
• 
  eClaghorn

  Excellent archeology, some assumptions made, however, I can't necessarily get behind. Also, this is not a beginning level text so I am looking for more background texts to prepare for a revisited review later.
• 
  Kevin

  A welcome addition to research that attempts to focus more on the neglected archaeological and historical study of the northern kingdom. Definitely worth your time, check it out if you can!