from: Israel Finkelstein /
Neil A. Silberman: The Bible unearthed.
Archeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin
of Its Sacred Texts; The Free Press, a division of Simon
& Schuster, Inc., 2001; German edition has got the
title "No trombones before Jericho" (orig. German:
"Keine Posaunen vor Jericho"): edition C.H.Beck oHG,
Munich 2002;
Here in this analysis is used the
German version "Keine Posaunen vor Jericho" of DTV,
Munich 2004, second edition of 2005. All page
indications refer to the German version. I hope the page
numbers are not very different.
Propaganda against all gods
but "God"
In southern Reich of "Judah" the
propagandists are beginning a religious reform movement
now with the aim to ban all gods but God (JHWH). The
temple in Jerusalem shall be cleaned of all "foreign" gods
(p.250).
There is a big quarrel and dispute
provoked by this: The warner prophets claim that they want
to prevent another ruin as it had been with northern
kingdom of Israel, and they get many followers, more than
the other gods. By this religious law and religious policy
are "present". But now the propagandists also claim that
all Israelites have to have the same belief, and Jerusalem
is getting stronger and stronger. Priests and prophets are
propagating the "right" form of adherence for all
inhabitants of Judah and all Israelites from the ex
northern Reich of Israel (p.267).
This
"God alone movement"
-- means that an orthodox form of belief
would be good
-- also wants to manipulate the history
of the Jews presenting one single history for all Jews
with Jerusalem as the central place
-- and it can be admitted, that the "God
alone movement" had connections to economy, policy and
culture, and that the final goal was the reconquest of the
northern Reich with a new "dynasty of David" with the
center in Jerusalem, and all other centers of religious
cults of the North should be destroyed (p.269).
[That's religious dictatorship].
The
religious censorship in kingdom of Judah under king
Hezekiah according to faked OT
OT claims:
-- king Hezekiah is said having ruled in
Jerusalem as "good" king for 25 years and had executed
general religious reforms guaranteeing"purity" and
"loyalty" to God since the alleged king David (p.253)
-- king Hezekiah is said having
converted Jerusalem in a center of adherence of God and is
said having installed the dynasty of David as the only
mediator between the population and God (p.270)
-- king Hezekiah is said having induced
the elimination of the sacrifice tables on the "heights"
(on the hill tops)
-- king Hezekiah is said having induced
the destruction of the picture of goddess of fertility
Ashera
-- king Hezekiah is said having
destroyed the serpent of faked Moses
-- king Hezekiah is said having been the
most loyal king to God (2d book of Kings 18,3-7) and only
with king Hezekiah is said having been reinstalled all
divinity as it had allegedly been under David (p.254)
[but there never was any king David
before...]
OT claims that Hezekiah had been that
brave like the faked king David, and whole Judah is said
having been freed of the sins of the past by king Hezekiah
(p.271).
According to faked OT King Hezekiah is
said having sent messengers to the faked tribes of Ephraim
and Manasseh - that means to the highlands in the ex
northern Reich of Israel - for an invitation of Passover
in Jerusalem (2d book of Chronicle 30,1; 30,10; 30,18).
Biblical books of Chronicle of OT are presenting this king
Hezekiah as a second Solomon, and Hezekiah is said having
unified whole Israel around the temple of Jerusalem.
Hezekiah is said having sought the leadership in Judah and
also in the ex northern Reich of Israel (p.280).
The other cults of other gods are
described in the OT of the Bible as a chaotic social
diversity (p.269), and the old tribal structures in the
countryside have also to be destroyed (p.269-270). The
original Jewish tradition is called a Canaanite heresy and
suddenly is qualified as foreign (p.270).
OT
stating the prohibition of all other cults - OT never
mentioning the representatives of the old cults
Historiography only has the literature
of the priests of the "God alone movement". The methods of
the enemies of king Hezekiah who want to tolerate the
cults of Astarte (goddess of fertility), of the stars
(celestial body) or of other gods are not delivered to
posterity (p.285).
All cults without "God" - these are
cults of fertility, or cults of the ancestors - are
prohibited. All religious pluralism is prohibited (p.267).
The "One God" propagandists are winning whereas the origin
of this movement are the sermons of the northern kingdom
of Israel (p.268). Finkelstein / Silberman estimate that
the warner prophets have manipulated the Jewish priests
and the royal officials (p.268) supporting the "One god
movement" only (p.269).
[And by this the little kingdom of Judah
shall be saved from the huge Assyrian Empire? That's an
absolute nonsense...]
But the representatives of the
traditional customs don't give up (p.268). But Bible
conceals this.But according to Finkelstein /
SilbermanBible would be another book when the
traditionalists had "won".
Finkelstein / Silberman:
"If the adherents of the traditional
forms of the syncretic [mixed religious] adherence [for
many different gods] had won at the end, so there had
possibly been a totally other Bible - or perhaps none at
all." (p.269)
Archeology
speaks about king Hezekiah: there were no religious
reforms and no censorship
Archeology cannot find any
archaeological finding of the alleged reforms under king
Hezekiah installing a One God Belief. The both religious
sites of Arad and Beersheba which are stated in connection
with Hezekiah's reforms are controversial (p.270).
There are new traditions in
Jerusalem: graves in the rocks for the rich
Above all for Jerusalem there are proved
new rites of burial, eventually in connection with a new
formed elite. At the slopes of the mountain ranges around
Jerusalem there are installed graves in the rocks, often
with rich installations, the roofs with gables, with
comices, with pyramids with crowns, probably of the upper
class, for the nobility or for high officials (p.266).
Findings of inscriptions of these graves
indicate that the graves were from the nobility. The same
kind of graves can be found in other towns ofthe hilly
countryside (p.266).
OT is blaming these graves of luxury in
the rocks, for example prophet Isaiah. He is blaming
Sebna, the supreme royal palace guard, for having a grave
in the rocked installed (Isaiah 22,15-16) (p.266).
