The United Monarchy: Rereading the Bible and the Archaeological Evidence
This lecture was presented at the Center for Jewish History’s event entitled “In the Valley of David and Goliath: Digging Up Evidence on the United Monarchy,” sponsored by Yeshiva University Museum, American Friends of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU.
My task this evening, in light of the momentous discoveries discussed by Prof. Garfinkel and the extremely significant inscription in biblical Hebrew discussed by Professor Holtz, is to try to reevaluate the historical questions surrounding the period of the United Monarchy–the period of Saul, David and Solomon–as this period is presented in the biblical account. Recent years have seen a tremendous amount of controversy about the historicity of the accounts in Samuel and Kings and even a dispute as to whether the period actually existed. In many academic circles, previous to the excavation of Khirbet Qeiyafa and its publication, scholars denied the entire notion of a centralized Jewish polity in the late 11th-early 9th centuries BCE. Khirbet Qeiyafa as well as some of the discoveries in ancient Jerusalem have shown that this view should be rejected. The House of David inscription seems to have convinced many… Continue reading
Does God Need Your Mitzvot?
Interview with Rabbi Manis Friedman on the unchangeable essence of God and whether our actions can affect Him.
Sign of Great Hope
Positive steps in Jewish-Catholic relations
The year 2015 came to a close with three important steps in Jewish-Christian relations, two relating specifically to the Jewish people and the Catholic church. Historically, it has been the Catholic church which has led the way in the post-Holocaust era to eradicate anti-Semitism and to make amends for 2,000 years of religious persecution at the hands of Catholics and other Christians. Their efforts in this direction have been both sincere and unremitting so that today relations between the Jewish people and the Vatican are both friendly and regular.
