Endnote 1 – Save Us from Postmodern Malarkey

Revisionist literature is too extensive to cite fully, but for the latest statements of the principals, with references to most earlier literature, see Philip Davies, In Search of “Ancient Israel” (Sheffield: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament [JSOT] Press, 1992), Keith W. Whitelam, The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History (London: Routledge, 1996); Niels Peter Lemche, The Israelites in History and Tradition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998); and Thomas L. Thompson, The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel (New York: Basic Books, 1999). My latest responses, again with full references, will be found in William G. Dever, “Archaeology, Ideology, and the Quest for ‘Ancient’ or ‘Biblical Israel.’” Near Eastern Archaeology 61:1 (1998), pp. 39–52, and “Histories and Non-histories of Ancient Israel,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) 316 (1999). Also helpful on the fundamental issue of historiography and faith are many of the essays in V. Philips Long, ed., Israel’s Past in Present Research: Essays on Ancient Israelite Historiography (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999).