Memories of Ancient Israel

That’s the title of a forthcoming book by Philip Davies to be published later this year by Westminster John Knox. The table of contents follows:

1. Bible, History and ‘Biblical History’
Biblical History?
The Biblical Historian
Bible
History
‘The Bible as History’
Summary

PART ONE: RESOURCES

2. Bible I: Chronology, Facts and Causality
Chronology
The monarchs of Israel and Judah
Before the monarchs, and after
Facts
Causality
Summary

3. Bible II: Israel
First and Second Histories
Fluctuating Biblical Israels
Which Israel belongs in a Modern History?
Summary and Implications

4. Archaeology: Use and Abuse
The Rise and Fall of ‘Biblical Archaeology’
Post-‘Biblical Archaeology’
Example: the Problem of the ‘United Monarchy’
Survey, Demography, Ecology
Judah and Jerusalem in the 8th-7th Centuries
The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Period: Jerusalem to
Mizpah and Back
Ethnicity
Summary

5. Epigraphic Sources
Inscriptions and chronology
Documentary texts
Monumental inscriptions
Inscriptions relating to Biblical History
The Merneptah Stele
Shalmaneser III and Sennacherib
Judah and the Neo-Babylonians
The Mesha Inscription
The Tel Dan Stele
The Siloam Inscription
Forgeries
Summary
Conclusion to Part One

PART TWO: STRATEGIES
6. Cultural Memory
On Remembering History
The Bible as Judean Cultural Memory
Cultural Memory in Practice: Ezra and Nehemiah
Summary

7. Knowledge, Judgment, Belief
Verification
Correlating literature and archaeology
Reliability
Probability
Belief
‘What Did the Biblical Writers Know’?
Summary

8. A Tale of Two Histories
The Minimalist Option
The Maximalist Option
Biblical History in Recent Debate
The Minimal Thesis
The Maximal Thesis
Jens Bruun Kofoed
Iain Provan, Tremper Longman and V.
Phillips Long
Kenneth Kitchen
Summary and Implications

PART THREE: REFLECTIONS
9. History, Memory and Theology

When WJK published further information on its website I’ll make mention of it. With thanks to Philip for sharing this great bit of news with me. It’s quite enjoyable and will doubtless be of wide interest.