Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On 10/27/07, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> If you haven't read the modern research, how do you know what their
> claims are?  What their arguments are?  How do you know how much
> they reconstruct and how well they use the ancient sources?
>
> Let us take the Bible for example.  ....

The arguments in the previous post were based mostly on Yonina Dor's
analysis.  Now, I'm bring in Oded Lipschitz's book.  Since in another thread,
I feel necessary now to refer to some of the archaeological evidence, I will
also include some of that.

Jer 43:4-6 has been quoted as an example of the totality of the expulsion.
Oded Lipschitz relates to these verses, and points out that aside from
later editings, some of which we can discern using 4QJer^b, the word 'kl'
all refers to all those who had been captured by Johanan ben Qerah.
That is, this refers to the section in Jer 41:16.  However, these were
people that were originally captured by a group of around 10 rebels -
Jer 41:1-2, 41:10.  That is, "all this remainder that were captured" is
a group of people that could have been captured by around 10 people.
It can't be talking about the entirety of Judah.  Later, Jer 52:30 describes
how 745 were exiled in Nebuchadrezzar's 23rd year, whereas the
events described in Jer 41-43 and in 2 Kings 25:8-26 take place in the
5th and 7th months of the 19th year (2 Kings 25:8).  That is, Jews
continued to remain after the events of 2 Kings 25:8-25.  In total, 4600
Jews were exiled, according to Jer 52:30, and it is unlikely that this
represents the entire population of Judah.

Lipschitz also discusses, among many other things, the archaeological
evidence.  Thus, the sites of a-Nasbe (identified with Mispeh), el-Ful
(identified with Gibeah), and Beitin (identified with Bet El), there
is continuous
habitation throughout the 6th century BCE.  In el-Ful there is some (but not
complete) abandonment toward the end of the 6th century BCE, and a-
Nasbe shows building that suggests it had become an official center during the
Babylonian period, which is consistent with the Biblical evidence, as in, for
example, Jer 40:5-7.  In Gibeon, we also have inscriptional evidence, and so 
we
can make a conclusion based on stratigraphy, paleography, and ceramics.

The picture that emerges is that some few thousand people representing
the elite of Judah were exiled.  A few more that were captured by an
attempted revolt of around 10 people, ran away.  But a large population
remained, with Mispah becoming the capital of the Babylonian province.

Yitzhak Sapir