British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Understanding the History of Ancient Israel

Abstract

The Northern Kingdom in the Late Tenth-Ninth Centuries BCE

Nadav Na'aman

The paper presents an attempt to reconstruct the growth and establishment of the Kingdom of Israel in the late tenth-ninth centuries. It begins with the problems of the sources available to the author of the Books of Kings and the point of departure for the historical reconstruction. It follows with outline of the kingdom's growth under the early Israelite kings, its consolidation under the Omrides, and concludes with the fall of the Omrides and the changed policy under the Jehuites. The paper discusses major issues such as the contribution of archaeology to the historical discussion, the expansion of the Kingdom of Shechem in the Amarna period as a model for the growth of the Northern Kingdom, and the contribution of various biblical texts for the historical study. Special emphasis is laid on the prophetic stories, in particular the story of Ahab's death in 1 Kings 22, as sources for the history of Israel in the ninth century.