Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
Israel
See Main Page for a guide to
all contents of all sections.
Contents
People of Israel
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Pre-Israelite
Canaan/Palestine/Syria
-
Danel's Need for a Son [Was At Piney.com, now Internet Archive]
Danel was a pre-Israelit culture here whose story may have been confused with that of Daniel.
-
The Baal Epic [Was At Theology Website, now Internet Archive]
- Myth of Baal [Was At
Geocities-Qadash Kinahu Site, now Internet Archive]
-
The Descent of Anath into the Underworld [Was At Theology Website, now Internet Archive]
-
WEB Ancient Near East Texts
Related to the Bible [At Internet Archive, from Brandeis]
- WEB Qadash Kinahnu [Was At
Geocities-Qadash Kinahu Site, now Internet Archive]
An attempt to "reconstruct" a Canaanite Temple of Baal, by a current believer.
-
WEB The Middle Bronze Age 2220-1570 BCE [Was At BU, now Internet Archive]
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WEB The Late Bronze Age 1570-1200 BCE [Was At BU, now Internet Archive]
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WEB The Iron Age 1200-550 BCE [Was At BU, now Internet Archive]
All three are outstanding webpages by John R. Abercrombie which contain modern
accounts of the periods' material cultures, and very extensive image files connected to
the ANEP by Pritchard.
-
WEB Archeology of Syria-Palestine [Was At Creighton, now Internet Archive][Online Course]
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The Bible as a Source
-
WEB Resources for Biblical Studies [Website]
-
WEB Bible GateWay
An amazing site that has the Bible available in the original languages, and in many English translations, and in other languages. The site lets you look at any chapter or verse and compare
texts between multiple examples. In this example you can see Genesis Chapter 1 in two English versions, Hebrew, and Latin. This is very handy if you are trying to see what different translators have though a word means.
- WEB
Bible Hub
Similar to Bible Gateway, but with more emphasis on access to comments and dictionaries.
- WEB Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft/German Bible Society: Septuagint
A German website (with English Interface) giving access to various translations. Here it is set to go to the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Bible) which is not available at Bible Gateway. The Septuagint is sometimes considered as not just a translation, but a different witness to the earliest texts of the Hebrew Bible.
WEB The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are by far the earliest
Hebrew manuscripts with the text of the Bible (and other religious literature).
- WEB Early Jewish Writings [Internet Archive back up here]
Biblical and non-biblical texts, Josephus, Philo, Talmud.
- 2ND Gerald A. Larue: Old Testament Life and
Literature [Modern Text]
The entire book is online at infidels.com. This is a "secularist" website, which
attitude can be just as distorting as Biblical literalism. In this case the text is
useful.
-
2ND Ronald A. Simkins: Composition of the
Pentateuch [Was At Creighton, now Internet Archive]
-
Genesis 6-9:
Flood Story J and P [Was At Creighton, now Internet Archive]
-
Exodus 14: The
Exodus According to J and P [Was At Creighton, now Internet Archive]
- The Documentary Hypothesis
- 2ND Hidden Messages and Bible Codes? [Now at Internet Archive]
From the Skeptical Inquirer. Discusses whether the Bible contains codes from God. See also Wikipedia: Bible Code.
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Ethnogenesis
- 2ND Who Where the
Hebrews? [At Infidels.org][Modern Account] [Internet Archive version here]
Has useful maps
- 2ND The Hebrews [Modern Account][Was At
WSU, now Internet Archive]
- The "Children of Israel"
- The "Hebrews"/'Apiru/Habiru
- Later Stories
- The Gezer Calendar c.925
BCE [At K.C. Hanson's website] [Internet Archive version here]
The oldest example of written Hebrew.
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Moses and Monotheism
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Conquest of the Land (1250-1000
BCE?)
- Stele of
Merneptah [At Internet Archive, from ANET]
This Egyptian stele is the first mention of "Israel" in any historical sources.
- Stele of Merneptah c.
1220 BCE [At Christian Answers][Image and Discussion] [Internet Archive version here]
- Joshua 1-12 - aggressive account [At Bible Gateway]
- Judges 1-2 - peaceful account [At Bible Gateway]
- Wikipedia: Biblical Archeology
The discipline known as Biblical archaeology sought to prove the text of the Bible was correct in terms of history. That is not how many current scholars see it. Quoted in the Wiki article: "This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many that the God of Israel, YHWH, had a female consort and that the early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai." This is not to deny that some kernels of history might be contained the "history books" that cover from Genesis until the mid 8th cenury BCE, but its only from the Omrid dynasty on that sources other the Bible can be used to confirm events depicted there.
- WEB PBS Nova: Archeology of the Hebrew Bible [Internet |Archive version here]
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The National Monarchy (c.1020-586
BCE)
- Problems with Philistines
- Saul (c.1020-1000 BCE), 1 Samuel 8 [At Bible Gateway]
The first king of Israel.
- David (c.1000-961 BCE)
- Solomon (961-922 BCE)
- Israel and Judah (922-586 BCE)
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The Exile (587-538 BCE)
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The Prophets (750-550 BCE)
- Amos (8th Cent. BCE): Book of Amos [At this Site]
The first of the prophets to write.
- Jeremiah (526-586 BCE), Jeremiah 7-8, 23, 31 .[At Bible Gateway]
The notion of a "new covenant".
- Second Isaiah (c.550 )[from Isaiah 40 on]
[At Bible Gateway]
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Mythological Foundations
- Creation
- The Origin of Language
- The Problem of Evil
- The Problem of Life
- Sex, The Song of Songs
- WEB Lilith Stories [At Jewish and Christian Lit] [Internet Archive version here]
But see 2ND Eliezar Segal: Looking for Lilith [At U Alberta] [Internet Archive version here]
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Hellenistic Judaisms:
Diasporas and States
- The Macabbees and After
- Jews in the Diaspora
- Petition to Authorize
Elephantine Temple Reconstruction, 410 BCE [At K. C. Hanson's Website] [Internet Archive version here]
A remarkable (Aramaic) document in which Jews living in Egypt petition to build a Temple
to Yahweh at Elephantine in Egypt.
- III Macabbees
, written. c. 25BCE [At Bible Gateway]
This book, in the Eastern Orthodox but not in the Jewish, RC or Protestant canon, tells the story of persecution of the Jews under Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator (222–205 BC) in Ptolemaic Egypt, some decades before the Maccabee uprising in Judea. It's not very widely read, nor historically reliable. It is, however, evidence for Antisemitism in the diaspora.
-
WEB The Jews of Ptolemaic &
Greco-Roman Egypt [Website] [Internet Archive version here]
- Documents on Jews and Judaism in the Greco-Roman Diaspora [Was At UPenn, now Internet Archive]
- Conflict with Rome
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Hellenistic
Judaism: Religious Development
-
WEB Old Testament Pseudepigrapha [Internet Archive back up here]
Full texts.
- The Emergence of Judaism
- Reforms By Hezekiah (r. 715-687 BCE): 2 Chronicles 30-31 [At Bible Gateway]
The enforcement of Monotheism.
See 2ND Oded Borowksi: Hezekiah's Reforms and
the Revolt against Assyria [At FBA][Modern Account]
- Discovery of Deuteronomy (c.621 BCE): 2 Kings 18:4, 22 [At Bible Gateway]
- The Restoration of the Temple (c 520-515 BCE): Ezra 1-2, 6:3-5, Haggai 1-2 [At Bible Gateway]
- Worship Restored in the Temple: Ezra 3 [At Bible Gateway]
- Nehemiah (gov. c.445-c.433) and Ezra (mid-5th Cent. BCE) define the Jewish community. [At Bible Gateway]
- Ezra 9-10: Denunciation of mixed marriages [At Bible Gateway]
- Nehemiah 8. Ezra reads the Law to the People. Vs. 8 indicates that the Hebrew had to be translated (to Aramaic) for the people.
- Conflict: Nehemiah 13:1-3 separates Israelites from others, inc. Moabites. Ruth 4:13-22, written the same time, makes point to note that King David was decended from Ruth, a Moabite woman. [At Bible Gateway]
- Book of Judith [At Bible Gateway]
The Book of Judith is a kind of novel, and is in the RC and Orthodox Bible, bit not the Jewish
or Protestant canons. The book contains an account of conversion to Judaism (Judith 14: 6-10)
- The Invention of the Synagogue
- Samaritans
-
Editing/Redaction of the Bible
- Josephus (37 CE - after 93 CE): Against Apion See 1:8 [Project Gutenberg]
First mention of a five-book Torah.
- The Septuagint (?made under Ptolemy II r. 283-246 BCE)
-
The Letter of Aristeas 3rd Cent BCE [At CCEL]
The main source of the story of the composition of the Septuagint. The authorship is
disputed.
- 2ND The Septuagint [At Catholic
Encyclopedia]
- Philo Judaeus (c.30 BCE-45 CE):
- Competing Jewish Groups
- Jews in the Land of Israel in Second Temple Period
-
WEB Palestine in the Time of Jesus [Website/Course - K. C. Hanson] [Internet Archive version here]
- Josephus (37- after 93 CE): Complete
Works [At CCEL]
Josephus is the by far the most important written source about the history of Jews in the Land of Israel
- 2ND A Jewish Annotated New Testament with Marc Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine [At Jewish History Matters] [Internet Archive version here]
The New Testament is the other major textual source for Jewish life, belief, and customs.
The first textual references to any person as "rabbi" are to Jesus; and Luke 24:43-45 seems to be the first reference to a tripartite division of Jewish scriptures. Brettler and Levine, both Jewish scholars, here discuss their edition of a New Testament in light of Jewish scholarship and concerns.
- Proselytism
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Rabbinic Judaism
- WEB Post Biblical Judaism [At Calgary] [Internet Archive backup here]
Eliezer Segal's course page, with extensive notes on E. P. Sanders, Judaism:
Practice & Belief, 63 BCE-66 CE (London and Philadelphia, 1992)
- WEB Judaism of the Talmud and Midrash [At Calgary] [Internet Archive backup here]
Prof. Segal's class notes and more. See texts:
- WEB Sefaria
Sefaria is home to 3,000 years of Jewish texts.A non-profit organization offering free access to texts, translations, and commentaries.
- The Talmud
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Gender and Judaism
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Modern Perspectives
on Ancient Israel
- 2ND Eliazear Segal: Abraham, Our Father
and Theirs [At U Alberta] [Internet Archive version here]
- 2ND Eliazear Segal: The Monks and the
Mishnah [At U Alberta] [Internet Archive version here]
On modern Buddhist monks studying Mishnah.
- 2ND From Hebrew to...Hebrew, The Forward, 20 Dec 2011 [Internet Archive version here]
Article in The Forward on the publication of a "translation" of the Hebrew Bible into Modern Hebrew. This has been quite a controversial publication effort.
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NOTES:
The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. The date of inception was
4/8/1998. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site
name or location]. WEB indicates a link to one of small
number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable
overview.
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in
providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University. Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.
© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall, created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 20 Oct 2025[CV]
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