Ancient Israel did not emerge within a vacuum but rather came to exist alongside various peoples, including Canaanites, Egyptians, and Philistines. Indeed, Israel's very proximity to these groups has made it difficult - until now - to distinguish the archaeological traces of early Israel and other contemporary groups. Through an analysis of the results from recent excavations in light of relevant historical and later biblical texts, this book proposes that it is possible to identify these peoples and trace culturally or ethnically defined boundaries in the archaeological record. Features of late second-millennium B.C.E. culture are critically examined in their historical and biblical contexts in order to define the complex social boundaries of the early Iron Age and reconstruct the diverse material world of these four peoples. Of particular value to scholars, archaeologists, and historians, this volume will also be a standard reference and resource for students and other readers interested in the emergence of early Israel.

Genesis' refrain "fructify and multiply" is read in parallel with the ban on sowing of the seventh year, and placed in the context of the Egyptian campaigns of the first Achaemenid rulers.

Death is one of the major themes of ‘First Isaiah,’ although it has not generally been recognized as such. Images of death are repeatedly used by the prophet and his earliest tradents. The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields. Focusing on the text’s meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the ‘rhetoric of death’ functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5–38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground. This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.

Evidence from the life of the Queen of Sheba supporting the hypothesis that the Hebrew originated in West Arabia and possibly Ethiopia and formed the early Israelite states between Taima and Yemen as well as the D'MT kingdom in Ethiopia/Eritrea which lasted till about 970 AD. The Israelites/Jews only settled in what is now modern Palestine/Israel after 586 BC. The Ethiopians have the original Torah, which was subsequently altered on a massive scale by Ezra's circle...

Levantine archaeology of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods exposes destruction remains of the Iron Age territorial states under Assyrian domination. Recent research suggests that during Neo-Assyrian domination of the region, the populous enjoyed relative prosperity. However, following the violent expansion of the Babylonian Empire by Nebuchadnezzar II into the Levant, much of the region plummeted into a post-collapse society that did not fully recover until the late Hellenistic period of the Seleucids. The full text of this publication is available from Baker Academics.

This Survey Chart was created for Dr. Andreas Köstenberger and the biblical backgrounds Ph.D. seminar at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for Second Temple Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. This chart surveys the key literature, historical timeline, and information surrounding the Second Temple period as well as offers a select bibliography for each section for further research. This 234 page survey chart is divided into nine major sections: Second Temple History, Greek OT (LXX), OT Apocrypha, OT Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo and Josephus, Targums and Rabbinical Literature, NT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and Greco-Roman literature.