Abraham Malamat – författare

The broad spectrum of the Mari documents provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times.In 1936, a French archaeological expedition to Mari, the capital of a kingdom on the Middle Euphrates in Syria, began uncovering a vast archive of some 25,000 cuneiform tablets. This huge corpus of Old Babylonian documents, mostly from the Mari palace - a unique royal complex of the eighteenth century BC - is slowly revealing a vivid picture of Mesopotamia at the time when the Israelites were in their earliest formative stage.One most fascinating facet of the archives is the light they shed on the early phases of Israelite socio-history. Indeed, the Mari archives now comprise the prime extra-Biblical source for this period, for they reflect a West Semitic population analogous to the so-called `Patriarchs'.The broad spectrum of the Mari documents, from exotic prophecies to political intrigue, provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible, and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times.

The book holds 26 chapters encompassing the history of Israel from its very beginnings up to the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 BC). The successive parts are (1) The Dawn of Israel, dealing with the Israelite proto-history, Mari and early Israel as well as the tribal societies and genealogies. (2) Forming a Nation, The Exodus and Conquest of Canaan, the period of the Judges and the charismatic nature of the Judges, the Danite migration. (3) The Rise of the Davidic Dynasty, a political view of the kingdom of David and Solomon, the diplomatic, international marriages of the latter, organs of statecraft in the Israelite monarchy. (4) King Amon and Josiah and their final fate, twilight of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem. (5) This part is dedicated to historical episodes in the Former Prophets and in the Prophetical Books. Several excursi follow.This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.