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73-673: In the Kingdom of Israel the royal secretary had both the duties of private secretary to the king and secretary of state. In addition, the royal secretary exercised some fiscal duties. Currently the royal secretary of Great Britain is denominated Private Secretary to the Sovereign and has been since 1805. Seungjeongwon was the Royal Secretariat during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392 – 1910). Originally of

146-425: A Low Chronology for the stratigraphy of Iron Age Israel. Finkelstein's model would push stratigraphic dates assigned by the conventional chronology by up to a century later, so Finkelstein concluded that much of the monumental architecture characterizing Israel in the 10th century BCE that biblical United Monarchy has been traditionally associated with instead belongs to the 9th century. Finkelstein wrote that "Accepting

219-580: A clay bulla , or inscribed seal, of Jehucal , son of Shelemiah, son of Shevi, an official mentioned at least twice in the Book of Jeremiah . In July 2008, she also found a second bulla, belonging to Gedaliah ben Pashhur, who is mentioned together with Jehucal in Jeremiah 38:1. Amihai Mazar called the find "something of a miracle." He has said that he believes the building may be the Fortress of Zion that David

292-468: A country under centralized governance but rather as tribal chiefdom over a small polity in Judah, disconnected from the north's Israelite tribes. The rival chronology of Israeli archaeologist Amihai Mazar places the relevant period beginning in the early 10th century BCE and ending in the mid-9th century BCE, addressing the problems of the traditional chronology while still aligning pertinent findings with

365-587: A difference of one year at most. Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) The Kingdom of Israel ( Hebrew : מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל ‎ Mamleḵeṯ Yīśrāʾēl ), also called the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Samaria , was an Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age . Its beginnings date back to the first half of the 10th century BCE. It controlled

438-619: A fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II . Many members of these northern tribes also fled south to the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem seems to have expanded in size five-fold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water Siloam to be provided by King Hezekiah . In their book The Bible Unearthed , Israeli authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only

511-516: A fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the northern Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II . No known non-Biblical record exists of the Assyrians having exiled people from four of the tribes of Israel: Dan , Asher , Issachar , Zebulun . Descriptions of the deportation of people from Reuben , Gad , Manasseh , Ephraim and Naphtali indicate that only

584-567: A kingdom in the first half of 9th century BCE, with its capital at Tirzah first, and next at the city of Samaria since 880 BCE. The existence of this Israelite state in the north is documented in 9th century BCE inscriptions. The earliest mention is from the Kurkh stela of c. 853 BCE, when Shalmaneser III mentions "Ahab the Israelite", plus the denominative for "land", and his ten thousand troops. This kingdom would have included parts of

657-458: A political union between them existed, it might have had no practical effect on their relationship. In the biblical account, David embarks on successful military campaigns against the enemies of Judah and Israel and defeats such regional entities as the Philistines to secure his borders. Israel grows from kingdom to empire, its military and political sphere of influence expanding to control

730-475: A polity extending as far north as Jezreel and as far south as Hebron and reaching a border with Gath, with a capital located in Gibeon rather than Jerusalem. According to Dever, such a polity is a united monarchy in its own right, ironically confirming the biblical tradition. In addition, he rejected the notion that Gibeon was the capital of such polity since there is "no clear archaeological evidence of occupation in

803-535: A portion of these tribes were deported, and the places to which they were deported are known locations given in the accounts. The deported communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of the composition of the Books of Kings and Chronicles and did not disappear by assimilation. 2 Chronicles 30:1–18 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians, in particular people of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun, and how members of

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876-505: Is also hotly debated. While the current consensus allows for a historical Solomon, it regards his reign as king over the United Monarchy in the tenth century BCE as uncertain and the biblical description of his apparent empire's lavishness as most probably a massive anachronistic exaggeration. According to the biblical account, on the succession of Solomon's son Rehoboam , the United Monarchy split into two separate kingdoms:

949-522: Is consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its terrain." On August 4, 2005, archaeologist Eilat Mazar announced that she had discovered in Jerusalem what may have been the palace of King David . Now referred to as the Large Stone structure , Mazar's discovery consists of a public building she dated from the 10th century BCE, a copper scroll, pottery from the same period, and

1022-451: Is no ultimate consensus between the different factions and scholarly disciplines concerned with the period as to when it is depicted as having begun or when it ended. Most biblical scholars follow either of the older chronologies established by American archaeologists William F. Albright and Edwin R. Thiele or the newer one by Israeli historian Gershon Galil . Thiele's chronology generally corresponds with Galil's chronology below, with

1095-532: Is one of the most universally accepted archaeological sites from the biblical period. In around 840 BCE, the Mesha Stele records the victory of Moab (in today's Jordan ), under King Mesha , over Israel, King Omri and his son Ahab . Archaeological finds, ancient Near Eastern texts, and the biblical record testify that in the time of the Omrides , Israel ruled in the mountainous Galilee , at Hazor in

1168-433: Is said to have captured. Other scholars are skeptical that the foundation walls are from David's palace. Garfinkel also claimed to have discovered David's palace in 2013, 25 kilometres away, at Khirbet Qeiyafa . Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, an Iron Age site in Judah, found an urbanized settlement radiocarbon dated well before scholars such as Finkelstein suggest that urbanization had begun in Judah, which supports

1241-592: The Baal cycle discovered at Ugarit ). The reference in Hosea 10 to Israel's "divided heart" may refer to these two cultic observances, although alternatively it may refer to hesitation between looking to Assyria and Egypt for support. The Jewish Bible also states that Ahab allowed the cult worship of Baal to become acceptable of the kingdom. His wife Jezebel was the daughter of the Phoenician king of Tyre and

1314-555: The Deuteronomistic history in the Hebrew Bible , a United Monarchy or United Kingdom of Israel existed under the reigns of Saul , Ish-bosheth , David , and Solomon , encompassing the territories of both the later kingdoms of Judah and Israel . Whether the United Monarchy existed—and, if so, to what extent—is a matter of ongoing academic debate. During the 1980s, some biblical scholars began to argue that

1387-543: The Kingdom of Israel in the north, containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria ; and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, containing Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple . In the 1980s, a few biblical scholars began to assert that the archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before the late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed. In 1995 and 1996, Israel Finkelstein published two papers where he proposed

1460-579: The Samaritans . The Assyrians, as part of their historic deportation policy , also settled other conquered foreign populations in the territory of Israel. According to Israel Finkelstein , Shoshenq I 's campaign in the second half of the 10th century BCE collapsed the early polity of Gibeon in central highlands, and made possible the beginning of the Northern Kingdom, with its capital at Shechem , around 931 BCE. Israel consolidated as

1533-617: The Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin . The unpopularity of Rehoboam's reign among the rest of the Israelites , who sought Jeroboam as their monarch, resulted in Jeroboam's Revolt , which led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria), whereas the loyalists of Judah and Benjamin kept Rehoboam as their monarch and established the Kingdom of Judah in the south ( Judea ), ending Israelite political unity. While

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1606-498: The 10th century BCE, but they cite the fact that the earliest independent reference to the Kingdom of Israel dates to about 890 BCE and that to the Kingdom of Judah dates to about 750 BCE. Some see the united monarchy as fabricated during the Babylonian Exile transforming David and Solomon from local folk heroes into rulers of international status. Finkelstein has posited a potential United Monarchy under Jeroboam II in

1679-551: The 8th century BCE, whereas the former one was potentially invented during the reign of Josiah to justify his territorial expansion. Finkelstein's views have been strongly criticized by Amihai Mazar; in response, Mazar proposed the Modified Conventional Chronology, which places the beginning of the Iron IIA period in the early 10th century and its end in the mid-9th century, solving the problems of

1752-820: The Bible. In his book, The Forgotten Kingdom (2016), Israel Finkelstein considered that Saul, originally from the Benjamin territory, had gained power in his natal Gibeon region around the 10th century BCE and that he conquered Jerusalem in the south and Shechem to the north, creating a polity dangerous to Egypt's geopolitical intentions. So, Shoshenq I , from Egypt, invaded the territory and destroyed this new polity, and installed David of Bethlehem in Jerusalem (Judah) and Jeroboam I in Shechem (Israel) as small local rulers who were vassals of Egypt. Finkelstein concludes that

1825-467: The High Chronology while still dating the archeological discoveries to the 10th century BCE. Finkelstein's Low Chronology and views about the monarchy have received strong criticism from other scholars, including Amnon Ben-Tor , William G. Dever , Kenneth Kitchen , Doron Ben-Ami , Raz Kletter and Lawrence Stager . Though Amélie Kuhrt acknowledges that "there are no royal inscriptions from

1898-685: The Israelite captives were resettled in the Khabur region, and the rest in the land of the Medes , thus establishing Hebrew communities in Ecbatana and Rages . The Book of Tobit additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh , in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali. The Hebrew Bible relates that the population of

1971-418: The Kingdom experienced a period of decline as a result of sectional rivalries and struggles for the throne. In c. 732 BCE, king Pekah of Israel, while allied with Rezin , king of Aram , threatened Jerusalem . Ahaz , king of Judah , appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III , the king of Assyria , for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and

2044-480: The Kingdom of Israel was exiled, becoming known as the Ten Lost Tribes . To the south, the Tribe of Judah , the Tribe of Simeon (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the Tribe of Benjamin and the people of the Tribe of Levi , who lived among them of the original Israelite nation, remained in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah continued to exist as an independent state until 586 BCE, when it

2117-548: The Low Chronology means stripping the United Monarchy of monumental buildings, including ashlar masonry and proto-Ionic capitals" According to Finkelstein and Neil Silberman , the authors of The Bible Unearthed , ideas of a united monarchy is not accurate history but "creative expressions of a powerful religious reform movement" that are possibly "based on certain historical kernels." Finkelstein and Silberman accept that David and Solomon were real kings of Judah around

2190-514: The Nimrud slab, which comments he went to "the Hatti and Amurru lands, Tyre, Sidon, the mat of Hu-um-ri "land of ʻOmri", Edom , Philistia , and Aram (not Judah)." The Tell al-Rimah stela of the same king introduces a third way of talking about the kingdom, as Samaria, in the phrase " Joash of Samaria ". The use of Omri's name to refer to the kingdom still survived, and was used by Sargon II in

2263-526: The alliance. However, the sons of Ahab were slaughtered by Jehu following his coup d'état around 840 BCE. After being defeated by Hazael , Israel began a period of progressive recovery following the campaigns against Aram-Damascus of Adad-nirari III . This ultimately led to a period of major territorial expansion under Jeroboam II , who extended the kingdom's possessions throughout the Northern Transjordan. Following Jeroboam II's death,

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2336-425: The archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before the late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed. Scholars remain divided among those who support the historicity of the biblical narrative, those who doubt or dismiss it, and those who support the kingdom's theoretical existence while maintaining that the biblical narrative is exaggerated. Proponents of

2409-452: The areas of Samaria , Galilee and parts of Transjordan ; the former two regions underwent a period in which a large number of new settlements were established shortly after the kingdom came into existence. It had four capital cities in succession: Shiloh , Shechem , Tirzah , and the city of Samaria . In the 9th century BCE, it was ruled by the Omride dynasty , whose political centre was

2482-455: The biblical Eglon ) had uncovered an elite house (which he referred to as "the governor's residency"), whose foundations were dated by carbon-14 analysis in the late 11th–10th century BCE, the time usually ascribed to Saul, David and Solomon. Such dating would strengthen the thesis that a centralized state existed at the time of David. According to mainstream source criticism , several contrasting source texts were spliced together to produce

2555-409: The building programme. However, Israel Finkelstein's Low Chronology would propose to date them to the 9th century BCE. Yigael Yadin later concluded that the stables that had been believed to have served Solomon's vast collection of horses were built by King Ahab in the 9th century BCE. Following Solomon's death in c.  926 BCE , tensions between the northern part of Israel, containing

2628-682: The cities of Shechem and Samaria , and the southern Kingdom of Judah , which contained Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Israel (or the Northern Kingdom or Samaria) existed as an independent state until 722 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The Kingdom of Judah (or the Southern Kingdom) existed as an independent state until 586 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire . Many alternative chronologies have been suggested, and there

2701-522: The city of Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible , the territory of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was once amalgamated under a Kingdom of Israel and Judah , which was ruled by the House of Saul and then by the House of David . However, upon the death of Solomon , who was the son and successor of David , there was discontent over his son and successor Rehoboam , whose reign was only accepted by

2774-468: The current Books of Samuel. The most prominent sections in the early parts of the first book come from a pro-monarchical source and from an anti-monarchical source. By identifying both sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed. The anti-monarchical source describes Samuel , having thoroughly routed the Philistines , as begrudgingly accepting the people's demand for a ruler and appointing Saul by cleromancy . The pro-monarchical source describes

2847-513: The discovery of part of the ancient city walls around the City of David, which she believes dates to the tenth century BCE. According to Mazar, "It's the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel," and "It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem, there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction." The 10th century is the period the Bible describes as

2920-586: The divinely-appointed birth of Saul (a single word being changed by a later editor so that it referred to Samuel) and his leading of an army to victory over the Ammonites , which resulted in the people clamouring for him to lead them against the Philistines when he is appointed king. Many scholars believe that the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account. For example,

2993-676: The establishment of a monarchy by anointing Saul. In the Second Book of Samuel , Saul's disobedience prompts Yahweh to curtail his reign and to hand his kingdom over to another dynasty, leading to Saul's death in battle against the Philistines. His heir Ish-bosheth rules for only two years before being assassinated. Though David was only the King of Judah, he ends the conspiracy and is appointed King of Israel in Ish-bosheth's place. Some textual critics and biblical scholars suggest that David

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3066-405: The existence of Israel and Judah as two independent kingdoms is not disputed, some historians and archaeologists reject the historicity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah . Around 720 BCE, Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The records of Assyrian king Sargon II indicate that he deported 27,290 Israelites to Mesopotamia . This deportation resulted in the loss of one-fifth of

3139-581: The existence of an urbanized kingdom in the 10th century BCE. The Israel Antiquities Authority stated, "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date." The techniques and interpretations to reach some conclusions related to Khirbet Qeiyafa have been criticized by some scholars, such as Finkelstein and Alexander Fantalkin. In 2010, archaeologist Eilat Mazar announced

3212-509: The gap in Israelite history after the events described in Deuteronomy . Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) According to the biblical account, the united monarchy was formed when the elders of Israel expressed the desire for a king. God and Samuel seem to have a distaste for the monarchy, with God telling Samuel that "[Israel has] rejected me, that I should not be king over them." However, Samuel still proceeds with

3285-461: The history of the Kingdom of Israel has been the Hebrew Bible, especially the Books of Kings and Chronicles . These books were written by authors in Jerusalem , the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. Being written in a rival kingdom, they were inspired by ideological and theological viewpoints that influence the narrative. Anachronisms, legends and literary forms also affect the story. Some of

3358-404: The kingdom's existence traditionally date it to between c.  1047 BCE and c.  930 BCE . In the 1990s, Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein contended that existing archaeological evidence for the United Monarchy in the 10th century BCE should be dated to the 9th century BCE. This model placed the biblical kingdom in Iron Age I , suggesting that it was not functioning as

3431-644: The kingdom's population and is known as the Assyrian captivity , which gave rise to the notion of the Ten Lost Tribes . Some of these Israelites, however, managed to migrate to safety in neighbouring Judah, though the Judahites themselves would be conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire nearly two centuries later. Those who stayed behind in Samaria following the Assyrian conquest mainly concentrated themselves around Mount Gerizim and eventually came to be known as

3504-490: The latter three returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah . The religious climate of the Kingdom of Israel appears to have followed two major trends. The first was the worship of Yahweh ; the religion of ancient Israel is sometimes referred to by modern scholars as Yahwism . The Hebrew Bible , however, states that some of the northern Israelites also adored Baal (see 1 Kings 16:31 and

3577-607: The lowlands (the Shephelah ), the Jezreel plain, lower Galilee and parts of the Transjordan. Ahab's forces were part of an anti-Assyrian coalition, implying that an urban elite ruled the kingdom, possessed a royal and state cult with large urban temples, and had scribes, mercenaries, and an administrative apparatus. In all this, it was similar to other recently-founded kingdoms of the time, such as Ammon and Moab . Samaria

3650-592: The memory of a united monarchy was inspired by Saul's conquered territory serving first the ideal of a great united monarchy ruled by a northern king in the times of Jeroboam II and next to the idea of a united monarchy ruled from Jerusalem. In an article on the Biblical Archaeology Review , William G. Dever strongly criticized Finkelstein's theory, calling it full of "numerous errors, misrepresentations, over-simplifications and contradictions." Dever noted that Finkelstein proposes that Saul ruled

3723-583: The monarchy of Saul, the capital is in Gibeah . After Saul's death, Ish-bosheth rules over the Kingdom of Israel from Mahanaim , and David establishes the capital of the Kingdom of Judah in Hebron . After the civil war with Saul, David forges a powerful and unified Israelite monarchy and rules from c. 1000 to 961 BCE. Some modern archaeologists, however, believe that the two distinct cultures and geographic entities of Judah and Israel continued uninterrupted, and if

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3796-511: The most important public documents. They also kept deputations entertained and resolved disputes between courtiers. The elected kings maintained the tradition and the royal secretary often had a great deal of power. The secretary to the Pope , formerly known as Secretarius Domesticus evolved into the Secretariat of State . Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) According to

3869-538: The name Israel is from an Egyptian inscription, the Merneptah Stele , dating from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1208 BCE); this gives little solid information, but indicates that the name of the later kingdom was borrowed rather than originating with the kingdom itself. According to the Hebrew Bible, for the first sixty years after the split, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over

3942-537: The northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years, there was no open war between them, as, for the most part, Judah had engaged in a military alliance with Aram-Damascus , opening a northern front against Israel. The conflict between Israel and Judah was temporarily settled when Jehoshaphat , King of Judah, allied himself with the reigning house of Israel, Ahab , through marriage. Later, Jehosophat's son and successor, Jehoram of Judah , married Ahab's daughter Athaliah , cementing

4015-540: The office of royal secretary in Poland was the secretary protonotarius (or royal notary). It was under this name that the office operated under Władysław II Jagiełło from 1387 to 1423. Under the Jagiellon dynasty the royal secretaries were responsible for arranging the royal correspondence, representing the king at the regional sejms, arranging all kinds of cases most often financial, diplomatic correspondence, and editing

4088-453: The phrase "the whole house of Omri" in describing his conquest of the city of Samaria in 722 BCE. It is significant that the Assyrians never mention the Kingdom of Judah until the end of the 8th century, when it was an Assyrian vassal state : possibly they never had contact with it, or possibly they regarded it as a vassal of Israel/Samaria or Aram, or possibly the southern kingdom did not exist during this period. One traditional source for

4161-499: The recorded events are believed to have occurred long after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Biblical archaeology has both confirmed and challenged parts of the biblical account. According to the Hebrew Bible, there existed a United Kingdom of Israel (the United Monarchy ), ruled from Jerusalem by David and his son Solomon , after whose death Israel and Judah separated into two kingdoms. The first mention of

4234-504: The reign of King Solomon . Not all archaeologists agree with Mazar, and archaeologist Aren Maeir is dubious about such claims and Mazar's dating. In the Jewish Study Bible (2014), Oded Lipschits states the concept of United Monarchy should be abandoned, while Aren Maeir believes there is insufficient evidence in support of the United Monarchy. In August 2015, Israeli archaeologists discovered massive fortifications in

4307-763: The role of David in the development of ancient Israel. In his books, Beyond the Texts (2018) and Has Archeology Buried the Bible? (2020), William G. Dever has defended the historicity of the United Monarchy, maintaining that the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon are "reasonably well attested." Similar arguments were advanced by Amihai Mazar in two essays written in 2010 and 2013, which point toward archaeological evidence emerged from excavation sites in Jerusalem by Eilat Mazar and in Khirbet Qeiyafa by Yosef Garfinkel . In 2018, archaeologist Avraham Faust announced that his excavations at Tel 'Eton (believed to be

4380-468: The ruins of the ancient city of Gath , supposed birthplace of Goliath . The size of the fortifications shows that Gath was a large city in the 10th century BCE, perhaps the largest in Canaan at the time. The professor leading the dig, Aren Maeir , estimated that Gath was as much as four times the size of contemporary Jerusalem, which cast doubt that David's kingdom could have been as powerful as described in

4453-413: The ten northern tribes, and the southern section, dominated by Jerusalem and the southern tribes, reached a boiling point. When Solomon's son and successor Rehoboam dealt tactlessly with economic complaints of the northern tribes, in about 930 BCE (there are differences of opinion as to the actual year), the Kingdom of Israel and Judah splits into two kingdoms: the northern Kingdom of Israel , which included

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4526-540: The tenth century, much less monumental architecture." Dever went as far as to dismiss Finkelstein's theory as "a product of his fantasy, stemmed by his obsession to prove that Saul, David and Solomon were not real kings and that the United Monarchy is an invention of a Judahite-biased biblical writer." Dever concluded by stating that "Finkelstein has not discovered a forgotten kingdom. He had invented it. The careful reader will nevertheless gain some insights into Israel—Israel Finkelstein, that is." Another more moderate review

4599-729: The territories of the tribes of Reuben , Gad and Manasseh in Gilead including the desert outposts of Jetur , Naphish and Nodab . People from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system, in Halah , Habor, Hara and Gozan ( 1 Chronicles 5:26 ). Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim , and an Assyrian governor

4672-502: The text mentions later armour (1 Samuel 17:4–7, 38–39; 25:13), the use of camels (1 Samuel 30:17), cavalry (as distinct from chariotry ) (1 Samuel 13:5, 2 Samuel 1:6), and iron picks and axes (as if they were prevalent) (2 Samuel 12:31). Most scholars believe that the text of the Books of Samuel was compiled in the 8th century BCE - rather than in the 10th century when most of the events described took place - based on historical and legendary sources. The narrative served primarily to fill

4745-474: The time of Saul, David, and Solomon. Mazar's chronology and the traditional one have been fairly widely accepted, though there is no current consensus on the topic. Recent archaeological discoveries by Israeli archaeologists Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel in Jerusalem and Khirbet Qeiyafa , respectively, seem to support the existence of the United Monarchy, but the dating and identifications are not universally accepted. The historicity of Solomon and his rule

4818-451: The time of the united monarchy (indeed very little written material altogether) and not a single contemporary reference to either David or Solomon," she concludes, "Against this must be set the evidence for substantial development and growth at several sites, which is plausibly related to the tenth century." Kenneth Kitchen ( University of Liverpool ) reaches a similar conclusion, arguing that "the physical archaeology of tenth-century Canaan

4891-571: The upper Jordan Valley , in large parts of Transjordan between the Wadi Mujib and the Yarmuk , and in the coastal Sharon plain . In Assyrian inscriptions, the Kingdom of Israel is referred to as the "House of ʻOmri ". The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III mentions Jehu , son of ʻOmri. The Neo-Assyrian emperor Adad-nirari III did an expedition into the Levant around 803 BCE mentioned in

4964-761: The weaker client states of Philistia , Moab , Edom and Ammon , with Aramaean city-states Aram-Zobah and Aram-Damascus becoming vassal states. David is succeeded by his son Solomon, who obtains the throne in a somewhat-disreputable manner from the rival claimant Adonijah , his elder brother. Like David's Palace , Solomon's temple is designed and built with the assistance of Tyrian architects, skilled labourers, money, jewels, cedar and other goods obtained in exchange for land ceded to Tyre . Solomon goes on to rebuild numerous significant cities, including Megiddo , Hazor and Gezer . Some scholars have attributed aspects of archaeological remains excavated from these sites, including six-chambered gates and ashlar palaces, to

5037-540: Was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire . The tradition of the Samaritan people states that much of the population of the Kingdom of Israel remained in place after the Assyrian captivity , including the Tribes of Naphtali, Manasseh, Benjamin and Levi – being the progenitors of the modern Samaritans. In their book The Bible Unearthed , Israeli authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only

5110-402: Was deported by the Assyrians. During the three-year siege of Samaria in the territory of Ephraim by the Assyrians, Shalmaneser V died and was succeeded by Sargon II , who himself records the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the northern kingdom came to an end. Some of

5183-421: Was placed over the region of Naphtali. According to 2 Kings 16:9 and 2 Kings 15:29 , the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. The remainder of the northern kingdom of Israel continued to exist within the reduced territory as an independent kingdom until around 720 BCE, when it was again invaded by Assyria and more of the population was deported. Not all of Israel's populace

5256-536: Was responsible for the assassination and that his innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions. Israel rebels against David and crowns David's son Absalom . David is forced into exile east of the Jordan River but eventually launches a successful counterattack, which results in the death of Absalom. Having retaken Judah and asserted control over Israel, David returns west of the Jordan. Throughout

5329-534: Was written in the same magazine by Aaron Burke: Burke described Finkelstein's book as "ambitious" and praised its literary style but did not accept his conclusions: according to Burke, Finkelstein's thesis is mainly based on his proposed Low Chronology, ignoring the criticism that it has received from scholars like Amihai Mazar , Christopher Bronk Ramsey and others, and engages in several speculations that archeology, biblical and extrabiblical sources cannot prove. He also criticized him for persistently trying to downgrade

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