The Jewish people's historical claims to a small area of land bordering the eastern Mediterranean are not only the foundation for the modern state of Israel, they are also at the very heart of Judeo-Christian belief. Yet in The Mythic Past, Thomas Thompson argues that such claims are grounded in literary myth, not history. Among the author's startling conclusions are these: There never was a "united monarch" of Israel in biblical times We can no longer talk about a time of the Patriarchs The entire notion of "Israel" and its history is a literary fiction.The Mythic Past provides refreshing new ways to read the Old Testament as the great literature it was meant to be. At the same time, its controversial conclusions about Jewish history are sure to prove incendiary in a worldwide debate about one of the world's seminal texts, and one of its most bitterly contested regions.
| Preface: the academic debate | ||
| Pt. 1 | How Stories Talk about the Past | |
| Ch. 1 | History and origins: the changing past | 8 |
| Ch. 2 | Confusing stories with historical evidence | 34 |
| Ch. 3 | How the Bible talks about the past | 62 |
| Ch. 4 | Myths of origins | 82 |
| Pt. 2 | How Historians Create a Past | |
| Ch. 5 | Beginnings | 105 |
| Ch. 6 | A Mediterranean economy | 130 |
| Ch. 7 | Palestine's many peoples | 155 |
| Ch. 8 | Under the shadow of empires | 179 |
| Ch. 9 | Historians create history | 200 |
| Pt. 3 | The Bible's Place in History | |
| Ch. 10 | The Bible's social and historical worlds | 234 |
| Ch. 11 | The Bible's literary world | 267 |
| Ch. 12 | The Bible's theological world I: how God began | 293 |
| Ch. 13 | The Bible's theological world II: the myths of the sons of God | 323 |
| Ch. 14 | The Bible's theological world III: Israel as God's son | 353 |
| Ch. 15 | The Bible's intellectual world | 375 |
| Maps | 398 | |
| Chronological table | 402 | |
| Index of texts cited | 408 |
Overview
The Jewish people's historical claims to a small area of land bordering the eastern Mediterranean are not only the foundation for the modern state of Israel, they are also at the very heart of Judeo-Christian belief. Yet in The Mythic Past, Thomas Thompson argues that such claims are grounded in literary myth, not history. Among the author's startling conclusions are these: There never was a "united monarch" of Israel in biblical times We can no longer talk about a time of the Patriarchs The entire notion of ...