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Product Description

There has been an explosion of recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. These finds have shed powerful light on figures and stories from the Bible -- and completely changed what we know about some of its most famous characters. The reputations of the first great kings, David and Solomon, evolved over hundreds of years. In David and Solomon, leading archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman focus on the two great leaders as a window into the entire biblical era. David and Solomon covers one thousand years of ancient civilization, separating fact from legend and proving that the roots of the western tradition lie very deep.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191915 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Lacking clear archeological evidence or extrabiblical testimony, biblical scholars are often challenged in persuading a skeptical world that the Bible's characters really existed and that their stories are actual historical records. The task of separating myth from history can be a daunting one. Finkelstein and Silberman, both renowned archaeologists (Finkelstein chairs the archaeology department [at Tel Aviv University; Silberman is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine), take a different approach: integrating ancient heroic and warrior archetypes into the lives of the kings of Israel, thus synthesizing history and myth in support of the religious endeavor. The authors are careful to note that the absence of contemporary confirmation outside the Bible is no reason to believe that the characters did not actually exist. Rather, the biblical stories form the basis for a legend tradition in which the Davidic legacy gradually transforms "from a down-to-earth political program into the symbols of a transcendent religious faith that would spread throughout the world." Finkelstein and Silberman, who also had a winner with The Bible Unearthed, tell their story in a clear and easily understood manner, never boring but always challenging. Discovery Club main selection, BOMC, QPB and History book clubs alternate selection. (Feb. 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
As Finkelstein and Silberman cite, the figure of David (shepherd, warrior, and divinely protected king) and of his son, Solomon (a great builder, wise judge, and serene ruler of a vast empire) have become timeless models of righteous leadership and God's sanction. They contend that the archaeological discoveries of recent decades have shown "how far from the glamorous scriptural portraits the actual world of David and Solomon was." They also posit that many of the famous episodes in the biblical story are highly exaggerated. Although it seems possible that David and Solomon were actual historical characters, they were very different from their scriptural portraits. Finkelstein and Silberman offer evidence that it is unlikely that David ever conquered land more than two days' march from the heartland of Judah and that Solomon's Jerusalem was "neither extensive nor impressive." Their point is to show how the legends of David and Solomon developed and how they came to guide Western thinking and shape Western religious and political traditions in important ways. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A bold and provocative book, well researched, well written, and powerfully argued. It challenges many of the assumptions developed by the literal religious minds of the ages, opening traditional possibilities to new conclusions."-- John Shelby Spong, author of Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality

"A brutally honest assessment of what archaeology can and cannot tell us about the historical accuracy of the Bible, presented with both authority and panache."-- Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

" . . . an intellectual high-wire act. Their audacity and skill is admirable . . . The book's most stunning accomplishment is its skillful reconciliation of competing perspectives within the biblical text."-- Archaeology Magazine

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Customer Reviews

Unearthing I & II Samuel and I Kings
In a thought provoking application of archaeological findings to the Biblical texts, Finkelstein & Silberman arrive at striking conclusions, some better-reasoned than others. The bottom line of "David & Solomon" is that the two were rather insignificant tribal chieftans ruling from a backwater hilltop village called Jerusalem, and that Saul was a somewhat more significant chieftan in the north country who became a big enough nuisance to Egypt that, with the help of Philistine mercenaries, they devastated his kingdom. David either helped in this devastation, or stood idly by while Saul was destroyed, but he definitely profited by Saul's misfortune.

Finklestein & Silberman credit the broad outline of David's and Saul's careers, but not the detail. They demonstrate that the political, economic, and social conditions of David's times correspond perfectly with the conditions described in the story of David's outlaw youth, and that Northern Israel was devastated about the time Saul and Jonathan would have been killed on Mount Gilboa. If the background of the Saul and David stories therefore correspond quite closely to archaeological findings, why should the detail be rejected out of hand? Given allowance for the "good old days" effect and the political need to cast David in the best light possible while casting Saul in the worst light possible, why can't the stories be considered at least as accurate as Herodotus, the "Father of History"? The scholarship of the 1960's posited that the story of David in Samuel consisted of an "early source" which was quite accurate overwritten by a "late source" which was concerned with polemic and apologetic. Current scholarship posits a multi-layered text similar to that described by Finkelstein & Silberman. As to the story of Solomon: They make an excellent case for the accomplishments of the Omrid dynasty and of Hezekiah and Mannassah being retrojected to the reign of Solomon.

The authors' greatest misstep comes in the chapter entitled "Challenging Goliath." They characterize the Philistine giant's armor as that of a 7th Century Greek hoplite. The giant's panoply might well correspond to the panoply of a Greek warrior from the Heroic Age, but not a hoplite. Hoplites were not individual warriors, but soldiers who fought in rank and in unison. Heroic Age Greek warriors engaged in single combat. Hoplites wore solid cuirasses, not mail. They carried only one thrusting spear, not two javelins. A hoplite's helmet was so constructed as to withstand a sling bullet to the forehead. On the other hand, the boar's tooth helmet of the Heroic Age would not. The hoplon (shield), from which the hoplite derived his name, was not carried by a shield bearer, but by the individual soldier. Hoplite warfare was in its infancy in the 7th Century, and hoplites weren't exported as mercenaries in any significant number until after the Peloponnesian War. Notice I didn't name the Philistine giant. "The Early Source," aka the earliest stratum of Samuel, didn't either, a datum overlooked or ignored by Finkelstein and Silberman. "The Late Source" aka later strata of Samuel, added in the detail of Goliath's name. There is absolutely no difficulty with the basic story of David gaining fame by killing a huge Philistine champion in single combat.

Finkelstein & Silberman's Classical Greek fixation does not end with hoplites. In Appendix 6, they try manfully to make David's Pelethites into Greek Peltasts. Peltasts didn't come onto the scene until the Peloponnesian War, long after David's time. There is a much simpler and more widely accepted explanation: they were Philistines.

Despite the missteps, the book was very good. The authors did an excellent job of comparing current archaeological findings with the Biblical text. I would like to have seen the authors spend a little more time comparing those findings to current textual criticism of the Biblical text.

A FOOTNOTE: Since writing this review, I have come across evidence suggesting that Greek mercenaries were exported to Egypt around the time of David & Goliath. Barry Strauss, in his new book "The Trojan War, A New History," reports the finding of an Egyptian painting from the 1300-1200's BCE which depicts a battle scene that includes two Greek warriors wearing boar's tooth helmets. This tends to confirm my argument that Goliath was more likely to have been a Heroic Age Greek warrior than he was to have been a Classical Age Greek hoplite.

Long live the Kings
Authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman first caught my attention with their book 'The Bible Unearthed'. That book presented new discoveries and ways of looking at previous discoveries in the area of archaeological research and the origins of the Bible. This is one of the latest contributions of major scholars to the continuing quest for clarity and understanding of the development and meaning of the biblical texts. 'We believe that a reassessment of finds from earlier excavations and the continuing discoveries by new digs have made it clear that scholars must now approach the problems of biblical origins and ancient Israelite society from a completely new perspective.

This book follows some of their speculations and continues their methods of treading between the more fundamentalist 'the Bible is history and the only history' camp and the minimalist 'the Bible has nothing to do with history' camp. There is historical content and influence on the text of the Bible, according to Finkelstein and Silberman, but the Bible is not nor was ever intended to be a historical textbook of the sort we have today. This is particularly important when dealing with the greatest of Biblical kings, David and Solomon.

'Our challenge will be to provide a new perspective on the David and Solomon story by presenting the flood of new archaeological information about the rise and development of the ancient society in which the biblical tale was formed. We will attempt to separate history from myth; old memories from later elaboration; facts from royal propaganda to trace the evolution of the David and Solomon narrative from its ancient origins to the final compilation of the biblical accounts.'

In this vein, the authors trace the biblical narrative of David and Solomon, and then combine it with what is known from archaeological and extra-biblical textual evidence. They look at issues of psychology and politics, institutional and cultural development, and later influences and growths from the earlier narrative strands.

I found the appendices to be particularly valuable in this volume. Finkelstein and Silberman discuss the recent Tel Dan discovery, a controversial rendering of an inscription that is the earliest mention of David outside of the Bible (the inscription refers to a king of the House of David who dies with the king of Israel, most likely the kings Jeroram and Ahaziah) - the authors state that this discovery deals a serious blow to the minimalist idea. Other appendices look at Jerusalem more specifically, other cities that would have been part of Solomon's kingdom, and more.

This is a text written in a popular, accessible style - thus, footnotes/endnotes are scarce. However, there is a good index, and an excellent bibliography/selected readings section that is categorised by chapter and topic.

Finkelstein has a position at Tel Aviv University, as director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Archaeological Institute, and is currently working on excavations at Tel Meggido (better known to modern readers as Armageddon). Silberman is director of historical interpretation for the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation in Belgium. Both are frequent contributors to major scholarly and popular archaeology magazines and journals, and each has published a number of noted books in the field of Syro-Palestinian archaeology.

David and Solomon unearthed
I actually talked with Israel Finkelstein prior to his publication of this book and I remember being very concerned.

In order to do proper biblical analysis, I think the application of two skill sets is most preferable:

1) An appreciation of the curated material that the Bible gives...or text analysis and

2) An appreciation of the extra biblical material including not only archeologicial findings but other preserved historical writings and traditions.

The reason I was concerned about this book when I talked with Finkelstein was because he didn't then give me the feeling that he was familiar with, let alone, respectful of the process of text analysis.

Traditional text analysis tells us that the Old Testament of the Bible was composed by five basic authors:

1) A J author, so called because he (she, according to Harold Bloom) consistently refers to god as Yahweh (or Jahweh/Jehovah as rendered by the original German text critics) throughout his tale of creation and exodus;

2) An E author, so called because he supposedly hailed from Ephraim or Israel, the northern Yahweh worshiping Iron Age Canaanite community and called his god Elohim (at least until he revealed his name to Moses at the opening of Exodus);

3) A P author so called because his textual emandations focused on matters of concern to Priests;

4) A D author connected with Deuteronomy and Samuel 1 and 2 and Kings 1 and 2...the Bible's so called Deuteronomistic history; and

5) An R author so called because he made the final redactions necssary to bring these materials together as a complete account.

However, it is significant to point out that even these materials have been deemed to be predated under text analysis by other biblical materials most notably including:

1) Exodus 15...the Song of the Sea, dated by text analysis to around 13 to 12 hundred BCE;

2) Deuteronomy 33...the Blessing of Moses, dated by text analysis to around the time of the Song of the Sea;

3) Judges 5...the Song of Deborah, dated between the Song of the Sea and the Blessing of Moses and

4) The Blessing of Jacob...at the end of Genesis dated to around the time of King David.

As can be seen from the foregoing discussion, a text analysis, properly utilized could reveal much in terms of understanding the Bible's origins.

That's why I was very pleased to see that in his finished work, Finkelstein produced a product showing respect for not only the archeological field work he has been so connected with but also the text analysis that can be so helpful in rendering competent opinions on biblical origins.

Needless to say, what Finkelstein says about biblical origins does carry great evidentiary support. As a couple of for instances:

1) The David and Solomon monarchies were little more than country hill chiefdoms. This account, as he correctly points out, squares not only with the archeological evidence showing little growth in Jerusalem until some two hundred years following the time of David and Solomon, it also squares with other text evidence and text analysis he didn't even quote from. Again, citing the Song of Deborah, it is noteworthy to find that the tribe of Judah (David's tribe) is not even mentioned and when it is mentioned in older biblical text material (the Blessing of Moses) the notice is not very abbreviated...consistent with Finkelstein's claim of the humble origins of David and Solomon. This also squares with text analysis provided by Mark Smith in his The Early History of God wherein Smith makes the case that the early biblical representations of the miraculous origins of Yahweh worship were themselves later emandations from the times of Hezekiah and Josiah...again in accord with points made by Finkelstein in this book.

2) Judah and Israel were in reality two separate kingdoms for which a claim of mythic original unity was only made after the fall of Israel to Sargon II under King Hoshea in 721 BCE. Here again, a review of the Song of Deborah notably shows the absence of Judah as joining under the forces of Barak. And here again, Mark Smith's book would again easily harmonize with the Finkelstein thesis that a joint ancient Israel and Judah under David and Solomon was merely a later created myth of origins.

Admittedly, and particularly as to the second for instance just mentioned, there remains the notice in the Blessing of Moses which seemingly unites Judah with the Israelite tribes as part of a common entity. And admittedly there is also the scholarship of Richard Friedman (author of: Who wrote the Bible, The Hidden Book in the Bible, among others) whose text analysis fails to easily and fully harmonize with all the dating and all the suppositions made by Finkelstein.

However, these discrepancies serve like this book itself, not to hinder but to further one of the most fascinating of inquiries: the historical bonafides of the Bible itself.