The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries.

• Author: Whisenant, Jessica
• Position: Book review

The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.E. By VOLKMAR FRITZ, translated by JAMES W. BARKER. Biblical encyclopedia, vol. 2. Atlanta: Society of biblical literature, 2011. Pp. xviii + 268. $32.95 (paper).

This volume represents a massive undertaking: an assessment of the historical value of the biblical narrative of the Israelite settlement (found in Deuteronomy through Judges) in light of 1) the literary critical analyses of these texts, 2) the archaeological data relating to the emergence of Israel in the twelfth and eleventh centuries b.c.e., and 3) the extra-biblical sources for the era. Volkmar Fritz's particular contribution in this work lies in applying the German tradition of biblical analysis to the archaeological data. His ability to combine the two disciplines, unusual in German biblical scholarship during the latter part of the twentieth century, stems from his extensive experience excavating in Israel during the 1970s and 1980s, and from his role as the director of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem in the 1990s.

In the first major section of the book ("The Biblical Portrait of the Era"), Fritz maintains that the books of Deuteronomy through Judges do not belong to the genre of historical narrative, and cannot therefore be considered as sources for the events they purport to describe: namely, Israel's sojourn in the land east of the Jordan, its so-called conquest of the land of Canaan, and its subsequent settlement there. He cites numerous examples demonstrating the literary character of these books, such as the use of Joshua's commission (1:1-6) and death (24:29-31) as literary bookends holding the narrative in the book of Joshua together. Other indications for the conscious literary shaping of these books include the presence of pervasive theological motifs, including the themes of sin and punishment woven throughout the text of the book of Judges. The notion found in these books that God determines the course of history can never align, according to Fritz, with modern methods of interpreting and narrating historical events. Modern historical scholarship therefore dictates that we determine the composition of and Sitz im Leben for each literary unit that presents itself in these texts.

Unsurprisingly, Fritz aligns himself solidly with the German school of redaction criticism pertaining to the Deuteronomistic History (henceforth the DtrH). He maintains that the first version of...