Meindert Dijkstra – författare

The view of ancient Israelite religion as monotheistic has long been traditional in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, religions that have elaborated in their own way the biblical image of a single male deity. But recent archaeological findings of texts and images from the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their neighbourhood offer a quite different impression. Two issues in particular raised by these are the existence of a female consort, Asherah, and the implication for monotheism; and the proliferation of pictorial representations that may contradict the biblical ban on images. Was the religion of ancient Israel really as the Bible would have us believe? This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to these issues, presenting the relevant inscriptions and discussing their possible impact for Israelite monotheism, the role of women in the cult, and biblical theology.

Republished in an English edition as the modern state of Israel prepares to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2023, this book presents a history of Israel and Palestine up to the foundation of that modern state. Stretching from the thirteenth century BCE until the First World War, it is a concealed history of a mixed multitude of winners and losers living in the same land. It can be read as a regional history of the Southern Levant, written in light of modern historical and archaeological research. But it can also help shed light on the Israeli-Palestinian question. It contributes to a better understanding of why the Palestinians--regardless of where they live--have remained rooted in their patrimony, Palestine, and why they as a people, now as ever, are entitled to a land and state of their own.