In Search of Ancient Israel: A Study in Biblical Origins (Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) Review

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(More customer reviews)Many readers will remember the great impact that this book had on the question of the relationship of the history of ancient Israel to the biblical text. Though Davies had been preceded by others, it was this book more than any other that sparked the Minimalist-Maximalist debate (see Ziony Zevit in Biblica 83).
Immediately Davies says that the genre of literature of "history of Israel" is obselete. Instead there are three ancient Israels: one is the narrative found in the Bible; one is the history of the inhabitants of Palestine during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age; and the third is the amalgamation of these former two. For Davies the "ideo-logical structure" of the Bible is the Persian period although a certain amount of material must have survived from earlier times (see page 91).
It is unfortunate that this debate became as volatile as it did. For example, five years before Davies' book came out, Norman Whybray argued that the Pentateuch was a post-exilic document. One might expect Whybray and Davies to be allies in this matter. Yet he and Davies find themselves at odds in V Philips Long's _Israel's Past in Present Research_ which was published seven years after Davies' book.
Davies has a fascinating book. However I hope that any readers will read some more and not think that Davies has settled the matter.

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The appearance in 1992 of 'In Search of Ancient Israel' generated a still raging controversy about the historical reality of what biblical scholars call 'Ancient Israel'. But its argument not only takes in the problematic relationship between Iron Age Palestinian archaeology and the biblical 'Israel' but also outlines the processes that created the literature of the Hebrew bible-the ideological matrix, the scribal milieu, and the cultural adoption of a national literary archive as religious scripture as part of the process of creating 'Judaisms'. While challenging the whole spectrum of scholarly consensus about the origins of 'Israel' and its scriptures, it is written more in the style of a textbook for students than a monograph for scholars because, its author believes, it offers an agenda for the next generation of biblical scholars. 'In this reader-friendly polemic, Davies brilliantly addresses an essential issue and at numerous points represents a vanguard in biblical studies' (Robert B. Coote, Interpretation). 'A rich mine of provocative quotations, will provoke considerable opposition and debate, and deserves to be read and reflected on by all biblical scholars' (Keith Whitelam, SOTS Book List).