- A revolution is happening in Biblical Archeology.
Archeology is critically examining the Bible against the archeological
record and is turning everything we thought we knew upside down. It may
disturb many that hold strong political or highly conservative religious
beliefs. This will be true of Christians, Muslims and Jews who interpret
the Bible literally.
- It will disturb many secular Zionists who justify modern
Israel's existence and the proposed annexation of "Judah and
based on the Biblical Texts. You can choose to believe this research or
not. But it has profound implications for the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
This article will review the theories of one of the foremost of these
revolutionary Biblical archeologists -Israel Finkelstein.
- Professor Finklestein (Head of the Archeology Department,
Tel Aviv University), is an Israeli and has received a lot of criticism
in Israel for his work from conservative elements in the society that
are aware of what it means for the Biblical underpinnings of Zionism. To
read more about the research that lies behind this summary, I refer you
to the writings of Israel Finklestein. The most accessible book is
Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin
of Its Sacred Texts" written with Neil Asher Silberman and published
by The Free Press in 2001.
- Finkelstein is one of a group of radical archeologists
that is turning the field of biblical archeology on its' head.
- Archeologists live in a world of tells, strata, Carbon
14 dating, Jericho IV, The Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age, Iron Age
I and Iron Age II and of course pottery shards and architectural styles.
Slowly but surely as they excavate and date the significant Archeological
sites located in modern Israel and parts of Occupied Palestine the history
of the region as recorded in the Bible is being re-written from what the
Bible has told us. What follows is a very brief summary of that research
and an analysis of its' implications.
- Professor Finklestein has not attempted himself to
his research in the context of the contemporary political and diplomatic
complexities of the Middle East. He has simply presented the facts that
the archeological record has revealed. Some archeologists still disagree,
but his is a mainstream scientific view and not the work of a fringe
with a political or conspiracy ax to grind. And more and more prominent
scholars in the field are moving to something like his viewpoint, even
though they may disagree on the details.
- Israel, Judah and Samaria were simply Canaanite States
that arose out of indigenous Canaanite culture and not from the invasion
of a mythical people called the Hebrews.
- Israel was a small Canaanite State that briefly achieved
a golden age, reaching its' height of power and glory in the reign of
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The House of David never ruled in Israel
it ruled over the Canaanite State of Judah.
- Finklestein is convinced that the House of David did
exist. David and Solomon were probably tribal chiefs in the hill country
that became the Kingdom of Judah Jerusalem was the Capital of Judah not
of Israel. In the time of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was an unimportant
very small town with no great Temple. The major cult centers were farther
to the north in the cities of Israel. In fact the great cities of Canaan
that were previously attributed to the Solomon were built by Israeli Kings
- It was under King Josiah that the Bible was finally
and something resembling modern Judaism begins to take shape in the 7th
and 8th centuries BC. It is political document that is designed to glorify
the Josiah and to connect him falsely with the golden era when the state
of Israel briefly rose up as a powerful and advanced civilized
- The Bible is essentially a work of propaganda weaving,
historical fragments, and myths of various Canaanite peoples into a
justification for Josiah's rule and expansionist policies.
- I personally draw a positive conclusion from this
As an American-Jew, I have long struggled with the contradictions and
problems of Zionism and the unjust policies of the State of Israel towards
Palestinians. For those brave enough to seize this research in the right
spirit, there is a solution in it for the problems of the Middle East.
Simply stated, European Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, and Palestinians are
brothers and sisters and share a common Canaanite ancestry. There were
a small number of voices amongst the early Zionists who were against the
creation of a separate Jewish state in the region. They lost out to the
bigger faction lead David Ben-Gurion, who suffered from the disease of
European colonialism. Ben-Gurion and those in his camp saw the natives
of the region as an obstacle to be eliminated. I believe Jews around the
world need to take pride not in Israel as a modern colonialist State but
in the entire region Palestine as the homeland of Canaanite and Israelite
culture that we are descended from. European Jews are simply Europeanized
Canaanites, Palestinians, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish were simple
Arabacized Canaanites. Even modern genetic research is proving that we
come from the same ancestry.
- Think of Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans returning
to their ancestral homelands to experience the culture and the people.
They do not think they have the right to conquer the land and dispossess
those who stayed behind. Rather they go back to re-connect with their
cultural roots from those who are part of the living culture. Because
of Zionism, Jews lost the chance to return to Palestine and re-connect
with the Palestinians who are the people that have carried forward the
culture of ancient Canaan. Viewed in that light, I see the fight against
Zionism as being as much my fight as the Palestinians fight. It is the
Zionists who created a rift between family, where there should have been
friendship and cooperation. It is modern Zionism that disconnected me from
my roots not connected me.
- It is that movement that even stole the spiritual base
of Judaism and associated for the first time in two thousand years with
aggression, and oppression of others. Whatever flaws my European ancestors
had, they were not the ones starting wars and building colonial empires,
as was the Christian majority in Europe.
- It is the Zionists who through their acts of ethnic
and on-going violence have made enemies out of people who share a common
ancestry with me. The disease of European Colonialist thinking prevented
them from seeing how much the Palestinians had to share with us of the
ancient cultures and common heritage. Those who came from Europe may have
had the advantage of European technology, but the Palestinians had
far more valuable that the Zionists treated with contempt and
- My hope though, is that a new vision of the common
of Jews and Palestinians can be shared and spread and used to defeat the
discredited legacy of Zionism. The ancient Canaanites had a great culture.
From their culture springs Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Their culture
as expressed by the Canaanite civilizations of Judah and Israel exerts
more influence on great portions of humanity than does that of far greater
military powers and empires of the ancient world. Where the myths and
religions of other ancient civilizations of the Middle East are no longer
believed or practiced by many people, The religious heritage of Judah
is practiced in the form of Christianity, Islam and Judaism by something
approaching two billion people on every inhabited continent. When we can
recognize and accept our profound common heritage, perhaps we can begin
to overcome the suffering and warfare of the twentieth century and move
towards lasting peace and justice in the Middle East.
- Larry Saltzman is an American Jew who believes that the
meaning of the Holocaust is that "never again" means that no
people on the planet should be persecuted. He is deeply involved in organic
gardening and has an orchard of some 60 fruit trees. He had been opposed
to the Israeli occupation for some time, but when he learned of the wanton
destruction of orchards and farmland by Israeli troops in the Palestinian
Territories this past year, he decided to become active. He has a B.A.
in Anthropology from UCLA but works as a computer programmer.