Back to basics : a holistic approach to the problem of the emergence of ancient Israel

Abstract

In 1971, Roland de Vaux had claimed that 'Le probleme de 1'installation des Israelites en Canaan et de la formation du systeme des douze tribus est le plus difficile de toute 1'histoire d'lsrael' (de Vaux 1971: I, 443).1 Notwithstanding all the research that has been undertaken since de Vaux had made this statement, the difficulties related to the problem of the emergence of ancient Israel in Canaan have not really been solved. Indeed, it is a commonplace that the overflow of publications regarding this problem are at times more confusing than ever, and that in the process many have opted to undervalue the biblical evidence. It is well known that nowadays in many circles it is virtually taken for granted that ancient Israel never really came from outside Canaan, that it was basically made up of discontented Canaanites, and that the biblical narratives relative to Israel's entry into Canaan are in essence fictional and that they do not reflect pre-exilic historical traditions (see, e.g., Dever 1997; Davies 1992). Such a picture has been maintained not so much by the marshalling of evidence, as by virtue of what can be called the argument 'ad nauseam', which '... might serve, tongue in cheek, as a tag-name for a serious form of error, in which a thesis is sustained by repetition rather than by reasoned proof (Fischer 1971: 302).