An overview of the period of the judges Bible Study Week 2013

1. AN OVERVIEW

2. OUTLINE
1.Historical History
2.Biblical History
3.WIIFU

3. BRONZE TO IRON AGE
BRONZE
• Copper + tin => most applications, functional
and decorative
• Copper + silver => higher shine, mirrors
• Small settlements, “city” states
IRON
• Wrought iron (hand forged) in Early Iron Age
• Easier to produce larger quantities
• Not as hard or workable as good bronze
• Use triggered by disruption of tin supplies
• Larger settlements, wider governing

4. EGYPT’S DOMINANCE
Eighteenth Dynasty (Thutmose III, Amenhotep II) 1500 –
1400
Nineteenth Dynasty (Seti I, Ramses II) 1300 - 1200

5. A TIME FOR MIGRATION
Amos 9:7

6. AN EXAMPLE: UGARIT
“The history of the city may now be traced from its earliest
beginnings in the pre-pottery Neolithic period (about 6500
b.c.), through the Chalcolithic, early Bronze, and middle
Bronze periods, to its complete and final destruction in the
late Bronze period soon after 1200 by the Sea Peoples. We
have no evidence that the site of Ugarit was ever occupied
again.”The most significant discoveries at Ugarit for the study of both
history and religion are the discoveries of the epigraphic
materials. The Ugaritic texts have provided a welcome
resource for clarifying the meanings and nuances of
unknown and obscure words and phrases in the OT.
…The closest primary evidence available for reconstructing
the Canaanite religion Israel faced…foremost is the Baal-
Anath cycle that has survived in a number of large tablets and
smaller fragments… The myth was closely related to the cycle
of the year and described the ongoing struggles between life
and death… in actual practice the Canaanites employed
sacred prostitution and other imitative practices to restore

7. SURROUNDING PEOPLES

8. Absence of pig bones:
“Unique to Israelite culture, and the
complete opposite of Canaanite
culture, in which pigs were
common. A number of scholars
who are otherwise skeptical about
determining ethnic identity from
material culture remains in this
case acknowledge the obvious:
that here we seem to have at least
one ethnic trait of later, biblical
Israel that can safely be
projected back to its earliest
days” (p108)
Destruction of religious artifacts:
“The temples and their elaborate
paraphernalia that are so typical of
Late Bronze Age Canaanite
society simply disappear by the
end of the 13th century' (p126),
… at Hazor there were 'six or
seven Egyptian statues that must
have been deliberately mutilated.
Heads and arms were chopped off,
the chisel marks still visible on the
torsos.…the Israelites were
responsible…there are currently no
better candidates' (p67)”
BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD

9. END OF THE PERIOD
Khirbet Qeiyafa
• Site in use only for a short period of ~50
years
• Dated to late 11th century (Saul / David)
• Evidence of centrally organised state of
Israel
• No pig bones (Philistines ate pigs and dogs)
• Rooms for worship attached to houses (no
temples and no figurines or idols)
• Ostracon with 5 lines of text: “The men and
the chiefs/officers have established a king”.
Is this announcing the ascent of Saul to the

10. THE DATES PROBLEM
 Historical data seems to fit the Exodus
& entry to land about 1250 BC/1210 BC
 BUT… 1 Kings 6:1 – 480 years from
Exodus to Temple (967 BC)
 This would put Exodus at 1447BC
 Chronology in the text <> 590 years
 Acts 13:20 (ESV, NET, RSV, Roth)
 ???

11. OUTLINE
1.Historical History
2.Biblical History
3.WIIFU

12. BIBLICAL HISTORY
Often selective and stylised
Classic example: Melchizedek (Heb
7)
Designed for spiritual lessons, to
educate and make political
comment
Dating issues – 40 years a
generation

13. STRUCTURE OF JUDGES

14. STRUCTURE OF JUDGES

15. JOSHUA V JUDGES
 God’s command: Deut 20:16-17
 Joshua’s campaign: Josh 10:40, 11:15
 Judges 1: failure to conquer…
Contradiction?

16. The type of rhetoric in question was a
regular feature of military reports in the
second and first millennia, as others have
made very clear.
Merneptah: “Israel is wasted, his seed is
not”
Tuthmosis III “the numerous army of
Mitanni, was overthrown within the hour,
annihilated totally, like those now non-
existent”
Mesha: “Israel has utterly perished for
always”
Ramses II: “His majesty slew the entire
force of the wretched foe from Hatti,
together with his great chiefs and all his
brothers, as well as all the chiefs of all the
countries that had come with him, their
infantry and their chariotry falling on their
faces one upon the other.”
It is in this frame of reference that the
Joshua rhetoric must also be
“The rhetoric of total conquest, complete
annihilation and destruction of the enemy,
killing everyone, leaving no survivors, etc, is a
common hyperbolic way of describing a
victory in ancient near eastern histories of the
same period”
“I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land”,
says the Lord; “I will consume man and beast; I will
consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and
the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off
man from the face of the land,” says the Lord.” (Zeph 1:2-
3)
“I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without
inhabitant.” (Jer 34:22)
“the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this
land, and cause man and beast to cease from here” (Jer

17. Othniel
Ehud
Shamgar
Deborah (Barak)
Gideon
Abimelech
Tola
Jair
Jephthah
Ibzan
Elon
Abdon
Samson

18. DEBORAH
Canaanites
JEPHTHAH
Ammonites
GIDEON
Midianites
SAMSON
Philistines
Ibzan, Elon,
Abdon
Jair
Othniel, Ehud, Tola
Shamgar
Barak’s doubt
Women, tent
peg
Son of prostitute
Ill advised vow
Reassurance, barley
cake, 300 men, ephod
Women,
jawbone
prisoner

19. CYCLES IN HISTORY
Israel
turn
from
God
God delivers
them to an
enemy
Israel
turn to
God
God
raises up
a
deliverer
Israel
rescued
and enjoy
peace
Assyria
Isaiah 10
Babylon
Jer 30/31
Joel
Future
Zech 13/14
Assyria
Micah 3-5

20. THE TYPES OF ISSUES
The Solution:
God’s use of imperfect people who trust him

21. OUTLINE
1.Historical History
2.Biblical History
3.WIIFU

22. 1. Moses
2. Joshua
3. Judges
A GENERATIONAL PATTERN
1. Jesus
2. Apostles
3. Post-
Apostles
Judges 2:7-10

23. Judges
1. Idolatry
2. Immorality
3. Civil war
THE SAME ISSUES
1st Century
1. Idolatry &
Jesus’
nature
2. Immorality
3. Schism
Christadelphia
n
1. Atonement
2. Divorce
3. Internal strife

24. Example: Timothy - 1 Tim 4:12-
16
Influence of imperfect, uncertain,
vulnerable people
“the day of small things”
“a grain of mustard seed … the smallest
of all seeds”
“the base things… hath God chosen”
People like us
THE SAME SOLUTIONS