1/13/11 Lecture 4

Last Thursday we worked through the Canaanite Jerusalem slides and started on David’s Jerusalem. We looked at Jerusalem in the earliest non-biblical texts as well as Jerusalem before David in the Bible.

Evidence of settlement in Jerusalem can be seen as far back as 1900 BCE in execration texts. Execration texts were basically clay figures that people would make to curse their enemies like voodoo dolls. They would write the names of their enemies on the figure and then break them to symbolically conquer their enemies. The particular execration text we discussed was found in Sakkara, Egypt and has “Rusalimum” or Jerusalem listed as one of Egypt’s enemies. This is really interesting because it proves that there were people in Jerusalem at this time and that they were powerful enough to warrant cursing. We also looked at the Amarna Letters from around 1350 BCE that shows further non- biblical evidence of settlement in Jerusalem. The Amarna Letters were proposed vassal treaties where the rulers of smaller states would write the pharaohs of Egypt and ask for shelter or help in battle in return for allegiance and support. 6 of the letters discovered were from the Jerusalem ruler Abdi- Kheba to the pharaoh.

We then discussed some of the textual problems with the “conquest” of Jerusalem. Several different places in the Bible give different accounts and different outcomes of how the Israelites got to Jerusalem. Prof. Cargill broke this down to three theories that should be known for the exam. The first is that you except that the conquest is true and that the Israelites were just suddenly there. The second is that the Israelites slowly immigrated to Jerusalem. The third and the most accepted theory today is that the Canaanite City was of mixed ethnic origins and the Israelites were always there. That they were actually Canaanites that staged an internal revolt.