History of Biblical Israel

The Fate of the Tribes and Kingdoms from Merenptah to Bar Kochba

by Ernst Axel Knauf and Philippe Guillaume

Book cover: History of Biblical Israel

Extent: 280 pages

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Biblical Studies

Series: Worlds of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(August 2016)

ISBN: 9781781791424

Price: $29.95

Out of stock

Hardback (Published)

(August 2016)

ISBN: 9781781791417

6.9 x 9.7 inches

Price: $100.00

Out of stock

Combines experience gained through decades of teaching biblical exegesis and courses on the history of ancient Israel, and of on-going involvement in biblical archaeology. The volume covers the history of ‘Biblical Israel’ through its fragmentation in the Hellenistic and Roman periods until 136 CE.


There was probably only one past, but there are many different histories. As mental representations of narrow segments of the past, ‘histories’ reflect different cultural contexts and different historians, although ‘history’ is a scientific enterprise whenever it processes representative data using rational and controllable methods to work out hypotheses that can be falsified by empirical evidence. A History of Biblical Israel combines experience gained through decades of teaching biblical exegesis and courses on the history of ancient Israel, and of on-going involvement in biblical archaeology. ‘Biblical Israel’ is understood as a narrative produced primarily in the province of Yehud to forge the collective memory of the elite that operated the temple of Jerusalem under the auspices of the Achaemenid imperial apparatus. The notion of ‘Biblical Israel’ provides the necessary hindsight to narrate the fate of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as the pre-history of ‘Biblical Israel’, since the archives of these kingdoms were only mined in the Persian era to produce the grand biblical narrative. The volume covers the history of ‘Biblical Israel’ through its fragmentation in the Hellenistic and Roman periods until 136 CE, when four Roman legions crushed the revolt of Simeon Bar-Kosiba.

  • By (author) Ernst Axel Knauf
  • By (author) Philippe Guillaume

"This is a mature work that takes account of archaeological research and ANE context as well as the development of the biblical tradition." --George Nicol, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41.5 "...This introduction that clearly sets itself apart from other recent histories of Israel may be expected to foster scholarly discussion -- which makes it somewhat less suitable as an introductory text-book for students, but by no means a less interesting read for scholars." --H. Debel, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 94/2 (2018)

"This is a mature work that takes account of archaeological research and ANE context as well as the development of the biblical tradition." --George Nicol, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41.5 "...This introduction that clearly sets itself apart from other recent histories of Israel may be expected to foster scholarly discussion -- which makes it somewhat less suitable as an introductory text-book for students, but by no means a less interesting read for scholars." --H. Debel, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 94/2 (2018)