Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 7/2/06, Carl Christensen wrote:
> Hello Yitzak,
>
> I am Carl Christensen, a new member.  Could you please direct me to specfic
> examples to which you are refering?
>
> Yitzak wrote:
> "That someone arriving in Israel, who is coming through
> the Jordan river, has come from Aram or that he came from Egypt in
> a round-about way?  If that is not enough, the idea that the Israelites
> came from the north is (I think) more consistent archaeologically."
>
> Thank you for your assistance

This appears to have been based more on a quote by someone on
another list some years ago that Baruch Halpern in his book,
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan, relates the settlement to
Aramean tribes and to North Syria.  Since this (book and/or mailing
list quote) might not be that great of a source to quote, nor represent
any kind of consensus, I can still at least suggest that settlement
during the Iron Age, which has affinities with the Israelite settlement,
is to be found to the north and east of Israel, in various states that
arose during the Iron Age.  Furthermore, Ahlstrom, in discussing
the increase of settlements during the Iron Age I, spends some
time dealing with a bull figurine found in the Dothan Valley (p. 363-
365 in "The History of Ancient Palestine.")  Let me rephrase then
and mainly retract that statement as follows: "The idea that Israelites
came from the North does have some archaeological evidence on
which to rest although perhaps it may be more correct to speak of
various cultural affinities that the local Canaanite culture developed
with northern areas"?

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com