The Invention of Ancient Israel

The Invention of Ancient Israelshows how the true history of ancient Palestine has been obscured. Keith W. Whitelam reveals how ancient Israel has been invented by scholars in the image of a European nation state, and effected by the realization of the state of Israel in 1948. Exploring the theological and political assumptions which have shaped research into this area, this study concentrates on two crucial periods from the end of the late Bronze Age to the Iron Age--a so-called period of the emergence of ancient Israel--and the rise of an Israelite state under David. It explores the prospects for developing the study of Palestinian history as a subject in its own right, divorced from the history of the Bible, and argues that Biblical scholars, through their traditional view of this area, have contributed to dispossession both of a Palestinian land a misrepresentation of the true state of Israel.