Compositional Phases, Geography and Historical Setting behind Judges 4-5 and the Location of Harosheth-ha-goiim. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Compositional Phases, Geography and Historical Setting behind Judges 4-5 and the Location of Harosheth-ha-goiim. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)
- Main Title:
- Compositional Phases, Geography and Historical Setting behind Judges 4-5 and the Location of Harosheth-ha-goiim
- Authors:
- Finkelstein, Israel
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: In this article I deal with the compositional history, geographical background and possible historical setting of Judges 4-5. I propose that the original heroic, oral material behind these chapters represents two different traditions: One (embedded in Chapter 4) originated in the area of Mount Tabor and the hills to its east and northeast and had the city of Anaharath (the name behind the pun or polemic twist of "Harosheth-ha-goiim") at its core. The other (part of Chapter 5, 19-22) came from the southwestern Jezreel Valley. These traditions represent memories of turbulent 10 th century BCE events—the fall of the last of the late-Canaanite city-states and the take-over of the region by highlanders (Israelites) just before, or in very early days of, the rise of the Northern Kingdom. They were put in writing for the first time by a North Israelite author in the first half of the 8 th century. This author had only vague knowledge of the western valley tradition (Chapter 5); hence while composing the early song, he "imported" details from Chapter 4, merged the two tales into one account, and "expanded" both to portray a broad (North) Israelite scene. A Deuteronomistic author of the late 7 th century BCE inserted the frames characteristic of the Book of Judges, harmonized Chapter 4 with the Jabin story in Joshua 11, included other "explanatory" notes and entered the divine intervention in Chapter 4. A Deuteronomistic author also introduced the adoration of YHWH segmentsABSTRACT: In this article I deal with the compositional history, geographical background and possible historical setting of Judges 4-5. I propose that the original heroic, oral material behind these chapters represents two different traditions: One (embedded in Chapter 4) originated in the area of Mount Tabor and the hills to its east and northeast and had the city of Anaharath (the name behind the pun or polemic twist of "Harosheth-ha-goiim") at its core. The other (part of Chapter 5, 19-22) came from the southwestern Jezreel Valley. These traditions represent memories of turbulent 10 th century BCE events—the fall of the last of the late-Canaanite city-states and the take-over of the region by highlanders (Israelites) just before, or in very early days of, the rise of the Northern Kingdom. They were put in writing for the first time by a North Israelite author in the first half of the 8 th century. This author had only vague knowledge of the western valley tradition (Chapter 5); hence while composing the early song, he "imported" details from Chapter 4, merged the two tales into one account, and "expanded" both to portray a broad (North) Israelite scene. A Deuteronomistic author of the late 7 th century BCE inserted the frames characteristic of the Book of Judges, harmonized Chapter 4 with the Jabin story in Joshua 11, included other "explanatory" notes and entered the divine intervention in Chapter 4. A Deuteronomistic author also introduced the adoration of YHWH segments in Chapter 5. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament. Volume 31:Issue 1(2017)
- Journal:
- Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament
- Issue:
- Volume 31:Issue 1(2017)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 31, Issue 1 (2017)
- Year:
- 2017
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2017-0031-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 26
- Page End:
- 43
- Publication Date:
- 2017-01-02
- Subjects:
- Book of Judges -- Book of Saviors -- Barak -- Deborah -- Song of Deborah -- Sisera -- Jael -- Harosheth-ha-goiim -- Kedesh in Naphtali -- Kishon -- Tabor -- Ta'anach -- Waters of Megiddo -- Meroz
221 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/sold20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/09018328.2017.1301635 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0901-8328
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 8087.517700
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 799.xml