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Israelites Research Paper

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It does not take a Bible scholar to understand that one of the most significant people groups throughout history has been the Israelites. According to Biblical narrative, Israel is significant. An understanding of who the Israelites are and where they came from is necessary to understand the Bibles redemptive narrative. This paper will seek to provide insight as to how the Israelites came about and who they are.
Trying to answer the question of the Israelites origin is not without it’s difficulty. Niels Lemche notes, “it is important to note the simple fact that the ANE sources from the 3d and 2d millennia B.C. do not contain a single direct reference to any of the features mentioned in the OT narrative.” Therefore, scholars have used various …show more content…

The “conquest” model suggests that the Israelites infiltrated Canaan’s urban centers by military force. The “peaceful infiltration” model suggests that the Israelites gradually amalgamated with the Canaanites. Finally, the “peasant revolt” model, which holds to the idea that the early Israelites were peasant farmers. These farmers banned together and left their Palestinian home, traveling to Canaan, “who colonized new areas in the hinterland and thereby adopted a less stratified social order better suited to an agrarian society.” Dever notes, “some aspects of the “peasants’ revolt” formulation are now well attested archaeologically – a measure of support (if not confirmation) that no other model can boast.” Archaeological evidence best supports the idea that peasant farmers make up the nucleus of what came to be known as the Israelites. The other two models presented do not line up with current archaeological data. It should be emphasized again that all models are …show more content…

There are ancient historians who mention Israel. Flavius Josephus is one who retells the Israelite’s history in his writing, Antiquities of the Jews. He uses material and various sources from others: Menander of Ephesus, and Nicolas of Damascus. C. F. Pfeiffer notes, “These quotations, more than the work of Josephus himself, make his work a valuable source for the history of the Jews during the centuries immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70).” Though they are not as old as some ancient near eastern evidence, they serve to show that the Israelites definitely had historical

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