Tijdschrift , Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS), Volume 6: Article 7 (2006), Silvio Sergio Scatolini Apóstolo, On The Elusiveness and Malleability of "Israel" Words not only reproduce reality, they produce it to us. Wittgenstein has suggested that the meaning ("Bedeutung") of words is established in and through use. Moreover, he compared language (as parole) to a game that can be fully understood only by those who know its rules (language as langue). These rules are radically linked to the actual practice of the game. This article focuses on the term "Israel" in the Hebrew Bible, because it offers us an excellent example of the broad range of references that a term may develop overtime. The article concludes with a reminder to exegetes and theologians that they should refrain from assuming beforehand that if a term is repeatedly read in, read (out) or recited in a text, it must always mean the same within the text itself or, for that matter, in the plane of interaction between text and the exegete or theologian.
Tijdschrift , Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS), Volume 5: Article 17 (2005), Philip R. Davies, The Origin of Biblical Israel
This article outlines my answer to the problem of the origin of 'biblical Israel'. I look for a period when 'Israel' was dominant and 'Judah' subordinate, and a period of time in which an identity 'Israel' could be absorbed by a population that also saw itself as 'Judah' in such a way that it was irreversible. However, we do not need to look specifically for a political definition of 'Israel', since when it is defined so as to include Judah (especially the Pentateuch) rather than when referring to the kingdom that bore the name (especially Samuel and Kings), 'Israel' is used in a primarily religious (including ethnic) sense, not a political one. This accords well with its usage in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. For over a century, a province called 'Judah' was in fact governed from a territory that, as the Bible and biblical historians themselves would describe it, was 'Benjamin'. During this period the identity 'Israel' could very easily permeate the population of 'Benjamin-Judah' in such a way that the later restoration of political and cultic supremacy to Jerusalem could not challenge it, let alone remove it. But with the reestablishment of Jerusalem, Bethel was defamed and destroyed; 'Israelite' stories were revised and overlaid with Judean ones, and (if Blenkinsopp's reconstruction of the Judean Priesthood during the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods is correct) its Aaronite priesthood was transferred to Jerusalem, thus relocating the religious centre of Jacob/Israel to the 'city of David'. The name 'Israel' was thus retained and redefined: 'biblical Israel' was invented, with Judah at its head. The implications of the answer for the history of biblical traditions are considerable.