The Fabric of History: Text, Artifact and Israel’s Past (JSOT Supplement 127)

Written by Diana Vikander Edelman (ed.) Reviewed By Richard S. Hess

This collection includes Edelman’s introductory essay on methodology which opts for formulating historical hypotheses and using inductive verification of the empirical data. Statements about the divine cannot be tested empirically, a point made explicit in Knauf’s ‘From History to Interpretation’. T.L. Thompson’s ‘Text, Context and Referent in Israelite Historiography’ is the major essay in the collection, disputing as fallacious the following: Israel had a canon before the 4th century ad; biblical narratives can be understood as allegorical refractions of historical events; historical criticism is possible without extra-biblical evidence; Israelite literature existed before the 8th century bc; the Bible contains any reliable and knowable historical information from before the exile. J.M. Miller’s brief essay counters Thompson with an argument for a critical use of the Bible in historical reconstruction. W.G. Dever returns the challenge with an emphasis upon the need for archaeological data to be used in historical study. A study by the late G.W. Ahlström concludes the collection with the observation that the biblical writers did not write ‘real history’ because they addressed moral and theological concerns. As is apparent, the work represents diverse and ‘in process’ perspectives, whose disagreements focus around questions of what history is and what constitutes historical evidence.


Richard S. Hess

Denver Seminary, Denver