Ingrid Hjelm is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Director of the Palestine History and Heritage Project. She is the author of The Samaritans and Early Judaism (2000) and Jerusalem’s Rise to Sovereignty (2004) in addition to a considerable number of articles within the field of Samaritan studies, the history of ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible. Her latest book, co-edited with Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is Myths of Exile (2015).Thomas L. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen and author of some 130 articles and ca. 20 books, including The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974), The Early History of the Israelite People (1992), The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past (1999) and Biblical Narrative and Palestine’s History (2013), currently working as Project Developer on the Palestine History and Heritage Project.

Thought-provoking and sometimes controversial, these essays review the pathway that brought biblical scholarship to its present location. Some of the essays suggest alternative future pathways, others advance new theories about familiar data, and a few offer profound personal reflections on the implications of the Copenhagen School’s approach to biblical research. Agree or disagree with each author as you choose, but it will be impossible to remain indifferent to the important issues each has chosen to discuss.- K. L. Noll, Brandon University, Canada

• ContentsList of figures List of contributors List of abbreviations AcknowledgementsIntroduction Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson PART IChanging Perspectives in Biblical Studies1 Old and New in Scandinavian Interpretation of the Hebrew BibleDouglas A. Knight 2 Myth and History: reflections on the relationship between biblical history and history of Israel Reinhard Kratz3 Out of the wilderness? Some suggestions for the future of Pentateuchal research Thomas M. Bolin4 The Contemporary Debate over Linguistic Dating of Biblical TextsMartin EhrensvärdPART IIArchaeology, History and Cult5 From Jerusalem with LoveMargreet L. Steiner6 Gender Marking, Overlapping and the Identity of the Bes-Like figures at Kuntillet ’AjrudBrian B. Schmidt7 Lost and Found? A non-Jewish Israel from the Merneptah Stele to the Byzantine periodIngrid Hjelm8 Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Jews: a reassessmentLukasz Niesiolowski- SpanòPART IIIIdeology and history9 From the Search for Ancient Israel to the History of Ancient PalestineEmanuel Pfoh10 Ethnicity and a Regional History of PalestineThomas L. Thompson11 "The Destruction that can be studied": Israeli archaeology and the deserted villagesRaz Kletter and Gideon Sulimani12 The Bible in the Service of Zionism: "We do not believe in God, but he nonetheless promised us Palestine"Ilan Pappe13 Arab Scholars’ Contribution

Ingrid Hjelm is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Director of the Palestine History and Heritage Project. She is the author of The Samaritans and Early Judaism (2000) and Jerusalem’s Rise to Sovereignty (2004) in addition to a considerable number of articles within the field of Samaritan studies, the history of ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible. Her latest book, co-edited with Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is Myths of Exile (2015).Thomas L. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen and author of some 130 articles and ca. 20 books, including The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974), The Early History of the Israelite People (1992), The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past (1999) and Biblical Narrative and Palestine’s History (2013), currently working as Project Developer on the Palestine History and Heritage Project.

Thought-provoking and sometimes controversial, these essays review the pathway that brought biblical scholarship to its present location. Some of the essays suggest alternative future pathways, others advance new theories about familiar data, and a few offer profound personal reflections on the implications of the Copenhagen School’s approach to biblical research. Agree or disagree with each author as you choose, but it will be impossible to remain indifferent to the important issues each has chosen to discuss.- K. L. Noll, Brandon University, Canada

• ContentsList of figures List of contributors List of abbreviations AcknowledgementsIntroduction Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson PART IChanging Perspectives in Biblical Studies1 Old and New in Scandinavian Interpretation of the Hebrew BibleDouglas A. Knight 2 Myth and History: reflections on the relationship between biblical history and history of Israel Reinhard Kratz3 Out of the wilderness? Some suggestions for the future of Pentateuchal research Thomas M. Bolin4 The Contemporary Debate over Linguistic Dating of Biblical TextsMartin EhrensvärdPART IIArchaeology, History and Cult5 From Jerusalem with LoveMargreet L. Steiner6 Gender Marking, Overlapping and the Identity of the Bes-Like figures at Kuntillet ’AjrudBrian B. Schmidt7 Lost and Found? A non-Jewish Israel from the Merneptah Stele to the Byzantine periodIngrid Hjelm8 Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Jews: a reassessmentLukasz Niesiolowski- SpanòPART IIIIdeology and history9 From the Search for Ancient Israel to the History of Ancient PalestineEmanuel Pfoh10 Ethnicity and a Regional History of PalestineThomas L. Thompson11 "The Destruction that can be studied": Israeli archaeology and the deserted villagesRaz Kletter and Gideon Sulimani12 The Bible in the Service of Zionism: "We do not believe in God, but he nonetheless promised us Palestine"Ilan Pappe13 Arab Scholars’ Contribution

Ingrid Hjelm is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Director of the Palestine History and Heritage Project. She is the author of The Samaritans and Early Judaism (2000) and Jerusalem’s Rise to Sovereignty (2004) in addition to a considerable number of articles within the field of Samaritan studies, the history of ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible. Her latest book, co-edited with Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is Myths of Exile (2015).Thomas L. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen and author of some 130 articles and ca. 20 books, including The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974), The Early History of the Israelite People (1992), The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past (1999) and Biblical Narrative and Palestine’s History (2013), currently working as Project Developer on the Palestine History and Heritage Project.

Thought-provoking and sometimes controversial, these essays review the pathway that brought biblical scholarship to its present location. Some of the essays suggest alternative future pathways, others advance new theories about familiar data, and a few offer profound personal reflections on the implications of the Copenhagen School’s approach to biblical research. Agree or disagree with each author as you choose, but it will be impossible to remain indifferent to the important issues each has chosen to discuss.- K. L. Noll, Brandon University, Canada

• ContentsList of figures List of contributors List of abbreviations AcknowledgementsIntroduction Ingrid Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson PART IChanging Perspectives in Biblical Studies1 Old and New in Scandinavian Interpretation of the Hebrew BibleDouglas A. Knight 2 Myth and History: reflections on the relationship between biblical history and history of Israel Reinhard Kratz3 Out of the wilderness? Some suggestions for the future of Pentateuchal research Thomas M. Bolin4 The Contemporary Debate over Linguistic Dating of Biblical TextsMartin EhrensvärdPART IIArchaeology, History and Cult5 From Jerusalem with LoveMargreet L. Steiner6 Gender Marking, Overlapping and the Identity of the Bes-Like figures at Kuntillet ’AjrudBrian B. Schmidt7 Lost and Found? A non-Jewish Israel from the Merneptah Stele to the Byzantine periodIngrid Hjelm8 Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Jews: a reassessmentLukasz Niesiolowski- SpanòPART IIIIdeology and history9 From the Search for Ancient Israel to the History of Ancient PalestineEmanuel Pfoh10 Ethnicity and a Regional History of PalestineThomas L. Thompson11 "The Destruction that can be studied": Israeli archaeology and the deserted villagesRaz Kletter and Gideon Sulimani12 The Bible in the Service of Zionism: "We do not believe in God, but he nonetheless promised us Palestine"Ilan Pappe13 Arab Scholars’ Contribution