Verbal Fisticuffs over Early Israelite Origins

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Where did the earliest Israelites who settled in the central hill country of Canaan in about 1200 B.C.E. (at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age) come from? In a major article in the November/December 2008 issue of BAR, the prominent Israeli scholar Anson Rainey answered the question: Based on the linguistic, pottery and other archaeological evidence, the answer—for Rainey—is clear: “The ancient Israelites migrated as pastoralists from east of the Jordan.”^a

A principal target of Rainey’s article was the work of a leading American archaeologist, William Dever. Dever, who, according to Rainey, “simply ignored the Transjordanian evidence that thoroughly undermined his contention” that the earliest Israelites came from within Canaanite society west of the Jordan.

A heated discussion ensued in the Queries and Comments section of BAR (March/April 2009) and on the BAR Web site. Dever called Rainey a “secular fundamentalist,” a derisive characterization that Rainey himself had coined. Rainey responded that “Dever’s message is typical of his usual apples and oranges arguments, rarely meticulous about details.” Rainey counter-punched that Dever was “play[ing] a Mickey Mouse game with pottery,” Dever’s admitted specialty.

Dever has now replied to Rainey in a full-length article in a forthcoming festschrift. There Dever calls Rainey’s claims “truly incredible … Rainey’s imagination has run away with him … Rainey is an excellent philologian and historical geographer, but he is no archaeologist and has no first-hand acquaintance with pottery.”

Dever’s conclusion:

“Rainey simply does not care about facts or fairness. He shamelessly misquotes those he targets, assuming that no one will check. He makes assertions unsupported by any facts, passing them off as mainstream scholarship. He presents himself as the ultimate authority and dismisses those who differ as ‘incompetent.’ Finally, he makes astonishing obita dicta, often in the process contradicting himself.”

This is unlikely to be the end of the debate, and Biblical scholars, archaeologists and philologians will be following it with avid interest. So will we.

Where did the earliest Israelites who settled in the central hill country of Canaan in about 1200 B.C.E. (at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age) come from? In a major article in the November/December 2008 issue of BAR, the prominent Israeli scholar Anson Rainey answered the question: Based on the linguistic, pottery and other archaeological evidence, the answer—for Rainey—is clear: “The ancient Israelites migrated as pastoralists from east of the Jordan.”a A principal target of Rainey’s article was the work of a leading American archaeologist, William Dever. Dever, who, according to Rainey, […]