Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 152:606 (Apr 1995)
Article: The Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Transition and the Emergence of Israel
Author: Eugene H. Merrill

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BSac 152:606 (Apr 95) p. 145

The Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Transition and the Emergence of Israel

Eugene H. Merrill

[Eugene H. Merrill is Professor of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.]

Modern scholars are in general agreement that biblical texts, on the one hand, and archaeology and other extrabiblical data, on the other, must be employed in a symbiotic, integrative way if a proper understanding of Israel’s ancient past is to be achieved.1 This is particularly true of the premonarchic era in which Israel emerged as an identifiable ethnic and political entity, for it is precisely in that era that traditional and more modern, “progressive” views of historical reality collide.2 The

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purpose of this article is to show not only that the canonical tradition about Israel’s emergence rests on unassailable documentary evidence but also that it finds support in properly interpreted extrabiblical data as well. The integration of Egyptian and Amarna texts with contemporary sociological, ethnographic, and ecological-economic studies yields a satisfying framework within which the traditional understanding of the Old Testament narrative account of the Exodus, the conquest, and the emergence of Israel can be embraced. More particularly, the thesis proposed here is that the arguments advanced lately that Israel’s emergence is in view in the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition are erroneous, and that the period and circumstances described by these studies best reflect the turbulent times of the judges of Israel, particularly those of Deborah, Gideon, and Abimelech (Judg 4–9). Consequently “emergence” is not the appropriate term for referring to this period, but rather one should speak of disintegration and “re-emergence.”

The Problem

The major issues involved in addressing the matter of Israel’s emergence are (a) the historiographical nature and reliability of the Old Testament accounts which describe it, (b) the chronological setting in which it should be placed, and (c) the proper interpretation of both the biblical and extrabiblical data that bear on the matter. These will be considered briefly in that order.

The Historicity Of The Old Testament Accounts

Before the rise of 18th-century rationalism with its attendant historical pyrrhonism, there was little doubt that the events of

BSac 152:606 (Apr 95) p. 147

biblical history took place exactly as they are recounted in the sacred text.3 ...

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