Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History by Megan Bishop Moore;Brad E. Kelle

Author:Megan Bishop Moore;Brad E. Kelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-11-08T15:20:00+00:00

4.2. Israel, Samaria, and the North After 720 B.C.E.

In addition to the primary focus on the origins and development of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah, historical scholarship in the last two decades has offered new reconstructions of some other aspects of the separate kingdoms era. These aspects have received less consideration in the field, but are presently attracting an increasing amount of scholarly attention. Overall, each one represents a broadening of traditional perspectives in some way.

The first additional aspect receiving new interpretations constitutes a broadening of the chronological focus of traditional reconstructions. As noted above, in the majority of historical works before the 199os, scholars effectively ended their consideration of northern Israel with the destruction of Samaria around 72o and devoted the remainder of their historical work for the separate kingdoms era to Judah alone. This trend followed the presentation in the HB/OT's historical books, which completely moves away from the northern territory to a singular focus on the south (2 Kings 18-21) after the account of the fall of Samaria (2 Kings 17:1-6). The biblical writers presented the former area of the northern kingdom as devoid of Israelites and consisting only of foreign immigrants settled into the region by the Assyrians. Following this lead, historical reconstructions throughout the twentieth century generally saw the inhabitants and activities of the area in the northern part of the central hill country after 72o as no longer important for the study of Israel's past. For many interpreters, the Assyrian capture of Samaria had a drastic effect upon the entire population of the north that resulted in a radical break in continuity with the previous social, political, and ethnic constitution of the area and left in its wake only the Assyrian imperial province of "Samerina" attested in various extrabiblical texts. Even those who allowed for some continued Israelite presence in the northern kingdom's old territory typically understood Assyria's actions to involve an extensive population shift that functionally ended the north's significance as a historical subject within the study of Israelite history. One finds such a perspective not only among the standard histories of earlier generations, but even in the layout and coverage of many comprehensive histories from the mid-i98os and early 1990s.76

In recent years, however, several key pieces of evidence have come in for closer analysis, and these have given rise to new reconstructions. Major archaeological studies by Adam Zertal and Ron Tappy, for instance, conclude that the city of Samaria shows very little evidence of a significant burn layer or the destruction of major fortifications from the time around 720.77 This evidence for limited destruction connects with the indications in the Assyrian inscriptions of Sargon II concerning the capture of Samaria. When examined carefully, Sargon's inscriptions report not only that he repopulated Samaria after its capture but that the Assyrians carried out only a limited deportation in the first place, consisting primarily of the aristocracy, soldiers, and artisans. Even if the number of exiled Israelites listed in the Assyrian texts is accurate (ca.

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