Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>]

Dear List People,

Part of the issue of the "united" monarchy and its size is
perspectival.

[But first, who first used the term "united monarchy?"  Is this a
modern construct?  Is it used biblically?  Certainly Ezekiel wanted
a unified polity but does the term "united monarchy" appear in
Hebrew?]

From our perspective in the 20th century, the kingdoms of Judah and
Israel look puny but from the perspective of someone living in a
village in the Negev in the 10th cent bce, Jerusalem may have looked
like an enchanted city.  Coming from a village of, perhaps, 8 or 10
one-story houses and surrounded by a rough fence of unworked
fieldstones, a visitor from the countryside might have marveled at
this urban area, Jerusalem, built high on a hill and having a "real"
wall and a tower and two story houses and a few vendors and
craftspeople.  On the other hand, a Jerusalemite visiting a village
might return and marvel about the glory of his/her city.
    Size was also perspectival.  In an age when 20 miles was the
average distance one could travel in day, a polity whose capital was
three or four days away would seem  to be a huge expanse of space
and would seem to encompass a huge expanse of land---an "empire."
[Is there a word in classical Hebrew for "empire" as opposed to
"kingdom?"]
    In a political system in which chieftains, ruling a loose group
of villages, formed the highest political level and a group of
villages was the largest political grouping, a ruler who exerted
some control over a large number of chieftains over a wide territory
would be seen as a very powerful person---a "king".
    Archeology can perhaps tell us what the realia was--how, for
example, Jerusalem was built and its size, etc---but it can't tell
us how contemporaries interpreted this realia.  In the nexus between
archeology and text, we begin to understand the constructedness of
our world interpretations---for in a sense text is the cultural
interpretation of what archeologists have found.

    This perspectival view of Jerusalem embellished through
generations grounded the legends of the golden age of David and the
idea of a large kingdom.

regards,
irene riegner