Ancient Israel Emergence Theories

Written by Levi Clancy

First published May 11, 2009 Last modified August 29, 2011

Theory	Overview	Challenges
Invasion & Conquest	Albright, Bright and Wright’s invasion and conquest model regards the Biblical conquest narrative as historical, and that Israel’s emergence was led by Joshua and completed in his life. This model mentions destructions of towns, including Jerusalem (Joshua 12:10; Judges 1:21), Jericho, Ai and Hazor (Joshua 11:11-13). To verify this, destruction layers were sought at sites mentioned.	There are differences between Joshua and Judges, with Joshua presenting a utopia and Judges providing issues of failure.
Gradual Infiltration	Albrecht’s 1929 model postulates that some Canaanites fled crowded centers, entering the highlands as pastoral nomads. This opposes the Biblical view of a group feeling Egypt.	The earliest Iron I evidence is from the 11^th century in Wadi Feinan, making this theory difficult to verify. Most settlements were in the lowlands, not the highlands. This does not perfectly square with the Biblical tradition of the Transjordan from Numbers.
Peasant Revolt	Mendenhall’s 1969 model postulates that disaffected Canaanite peasantry revolted against their overlords in the costal plain and fled inland. This presumes that people were being oppressed and viewed it as such. This relies upon the ‘Apiru in the Amarna texts being Israelites (ie, Amarna Letter 254 and 290. This is an essentially Marxist theory based on strict, non-applicable dichotomies: elites vs. peasants; rural vs. urban; sedentists vs. pastoralists; polytheists vs. monotheists.	It is rare that peasants of the ancient Near East revolted, per the battered wife phenomenon. Also, this view is based on modern standards. Not only were these urban centers still inhabited by sheep — people would often live right above their animals — but Mendenhall makes the difficult-to-digest notion that revolutionary monotheists had an epiphany and mobilized to escape from polytheists.
Social Evolution	Finkelstein’s 1988 model relies upon an explosion of small, village-like rural/agrarian highland sites during the Iron Age I (1,200-1,100 BC). He argues that iron was used to carve out cisterns into the hill, from which water could be extracted; also, terraces were formed to allow agriculture and horticulture.
Ruralization	Stager’s 1998 economic model postulates labor shortages at the Late Bronze Age’s end due to North Kingdom empire and collapse of city-states. This collapse, combined with free land, free peasants and non-working land owners, was a catalyst for people to evacuate from Canaan.
No Israel	This minimalist theory uses the fact that so-called Israelites are actually Canaanites (based on material culture) and that an actual Israel did not arise until the Hellenistic period.	“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” — also, the Merneptah Stele is considered definitive evidence of Israel.

Emergence of IsraelAt latest, pre-Israel emerged by the mid-13^th century BC. Highland settlements appeared during the Middle Bronze Age as mostly farmsteads, terraced fields and rock-cut and plastered cisterns. Their material culture was distinctly Canaanite; this does not jibe with the Bible’s Exodus tale, which would have led to an Egyptian material culture. During the mid-13^th century BC (Late Iron Age), settlements such as Hazor were being destroyed; Israelites claimed to have been the culprits, but other candidates include the Sea Peoples (too decentralized), Philistines (too far away) or ‘Apiru (likely Israelites themselves). The Merneptah Stele (1207 BC) is the earliest definitive mention of an Israelite ethnic group.

Below are some early mentions of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. Hebrew (aka ‘Apiru in Akkadian) was not a self-designation, so it is unclear if this truly referred to the early Israelites.

She called out to her servants and said to them “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. (Genesis 39:14)

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth. (Exodus 1:19)

When the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, ‘What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? (1 Sam 4:6)

Below is a list of the Israelite tribes and their estimated populations, as gathered from Numbers 1.

Tribe	# of ‘eleph	# of men	men per ‘eleph
Reuben	46	500	10.9
Simeon	59	300	5
Gad	45	650	14.4
Judah	74	600	8.1
Issachar	54	400	7.4
Zebulun	57	400	7
Ephraim	32	200	6.3

Tribe	# of ‘eleph	# of men	men per ‘eleph
Manesseh	32	200	6.3
Benjamin	35	400	11.4
Dan	62	700	11.3
Asher	41	500	12.2
Naphtali	53	400	7.5
Total	598	5550	9.28
Based on Numbers 1. Derived from lecture notes, Dr. Burke 2009.

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