Biblical maximalism

Last updated

Biblical maximalism is the movement in Biblical scholarship that, as opposed to Biblical minimalism, affirms the historicity of central Biblical narratives, such as those pertaining to the United Monarchy, and the historical authenticity of ancient Israel as a whole. [1] Due to differences between the Bible and 19th- and 20th-century archaeological findings, there exist discrepancies between these two parties of biblical exegetists: the biblical maximalists argue that prior to Judaism's Babylonian Captivity (the period that spanned the 6th-century B.C.), the Bible serves an accurate historical source and should influence the conclusions drawn from archaeological studies; whereas biblical minimalists assert that the Bible must be read as fiction, unless proven otherwise by archaeological findings, and ought not be considered in secular studies. [2] [3]

Contents

The debate between the two parties revolves, predominantly, around one major issue in the sphere of biblical interpretation: the existence, or nonexistence, of the united kingdom of Solomon and David. [2] Minimalists argue that this kingdom must have been different from the one presented in the biblical texts— 1 Kings and 2 Samuel , for example—stating that the current archaeological evidence does not indicate that a state organization of the kind once existed. Maximalists, on the other hand, hold that the archeological evidence currently uncovered is sufficient to prove the existence of the United Monarchy. [4]

Because of their disagreements, minimalist–maximalist relations have been characterized by inflamed rhetoric and frequent personal attacks. [5]

Notable biblical maximalists

Important maximalist works

See also

Related Research Articles

The historicity of the Bible is the question of the Bible's relationship to history—covering not just the Bible's acceptability as history but also the ability to understand the literary forms of biblical narrative. Questions on biblical historicity are typically separated into evaluations of whether the Old Testament and Hebrew Bible accurately record the history of ancient Israel and Judah and the second Temple period, and whether the Christian New Testament is an accurate record of the historical Jesus and of the Apostolic Age. This tends to vary depending upon the opinion of the scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biblical archaeology</span> Archaeological sub-discipline

Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land, from biblical times.

The patriarchal age is the era of the three biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, according to the narratives of Genesis 12–50. It is preceded in the Bible by the primeval history and followed by The Exodus.

John Van Seters is a Canadian scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Currently University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, he was formerly James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature at UNC. He took his Ph.D. at Yale University in Near Eastern Studies (1965) and a Th.D. h.c. from the University of Lausanne (1999). His honours and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH fellowship, an ACLS Fellowship, and research fellowships at Oxford, Cambridge, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and National Research Foundation of South Africa. His many publications include The Hyksos: A New Investigation (1966); Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); In Search of History ; The Edited Bible (2006); and The Biblical Saga of King David (2009).

William Gwinn Dever is an American archaeologist, scholar, historian, semiticist, and theologian. He is an active scholar of the Old Testament, and historian, specialized in the history of the Ancient Near East and the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah in biblical times. He was Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1975 to 2002. He is a Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania.

Biblical minimalism, also known as the Copenhagen School because two of its most prominent figures taught at Copenhagen University, is a movement or trend in biblical scholarship that began in the 1990s with two main claims:

  1. that the Bible cannot be considered reliable evidence for what had happened in ancient Israel; and
  2. that "Israel" itself is a problematic subject for historical study.

Thomas L. Thompson is an American-born Danish biblical scholar and theologian. He was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1993 to 2009. He currently lives in Denmark.

<i>What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?</i> 2001 book by William G. Dever

What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel is a 2001 book by biblical scholar and archaeologist William G. Dever detailing his response to the claims of minimalists to the historicity and value of the Hebrew Bible. The book was also conceived as a response to Thomas L. Thompson's minimalist book The Bible in History.

Niels Peter Lemche is a biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen, whose interests include early Israel and its relationship with history, the Old Testament, and archaeology.

The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past,, is a book by Thomas L. Thompson, Professor of Old Testament at the University of Copenhagen. Its US title is The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel.

The Making of the Pentateuch by R. N. Whybray, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies at the University of Hull (UK), was a major contribution to the field of Old Testament studies, and specifically to theories on the origins and composition of the Pentateuch. Its originality lay in its detailed critique of the documentary hypothesis, and it remains a standard text on many reading lists.

<i>Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come from?</i> Book by William G. Dever

Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? is a book by American biblical scholar and archaeologist William G. Dever.

Peter Eric Enns is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation. Outside of his academic work Enns is a contributor to HuffPost and Patheos. He has also worked with Francis Collins' The BioLogos Foundation. His book Inspiration and Incarnation challenged conservative/mainstream Evangelical methods of biblical interpretation. His book The Evolution of Adam questions the belief that Adam was a historical figure. He also wrote The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our 'Correct' Beliefs.

"The Bible's Buried Secrets" is a Nova program that first aired on PBS, on November 18, 2008. According to the program's official website: "The film presents the latest archaeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archaeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?"

Tremper Longman III is an Old Testament scholar, theologian, professor and author of several books, including 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award winner Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharaohs in the Bible</span> Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible

The Bible makes reference to various pharaohs of Egypt. These include unnamed pharaohs in events described in the Torah, as well as several later named pharaohs, some of whom were historical or can be identified with historical pharaohs.

Iain William Provan is a British Old Testament scholar, now living in Canada. He was Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College in Vancouver from 1997 until his retirement on December 31, 2022.

V. Philips Long, also known as Phil Long, is an American Old Testament scholar.

James K. Hoffmeier is an American Old Testament scholar, an archaeologist and an egyptologist. He was Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Mark J. Boda is a Canadian academic and Old Testament scholar, specializing in the literature and theology of the Old Testament.

References

  1. ↑ "Biblical Minimalism and Maximalism in Scholarship". Biblical Archaeology Society. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  2. 1 2 Lendering, Jona (2009). "Maximalists and Minimalists". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-11. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  3. ↑ Reid, Garnett H. (1998). "Minimalism and Biblical History". Bibliotheca Sacra. 155 (620): 394–410.
  4. ↑ Schiffman, Lawrence (2003). "Making the Bible Come to Life: Biblical Archaeology and the Teaching of Tanakh in Jewish Schools". Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. 37 (4): 38–49. ISSN   0041-0608.
  5. ↑ Mykytiuk, Lawrence J. (2013-07-01). "Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992–2008 and Beyond, Part 2.2: The Literature of Perspective, Critique, and Methodology, Second Half". Journal of Religious & Theological Information. 12 (3–4): 114–155. doi:10.1080/10477845.2013.841475. ISSN   1047-7845.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.