I'm rereading Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible." When I first read it about 5 years ago it blew my mind and I still think it's fun and good read, but after reading and learning more about archeology's view of ancient Israel, it seems a bit dated.
Mainly, it assumes a united monarchy and more broadly that Samuel 1 to the end of Kings are all history--albeit with a bias point of view.
The only thing I can see from some research online about archaelogy of Shiloh (not done by people working to prove the Bible's is 100% accurate) is that it was a cult center, possibly in early Israelite time.
Given that archaeologists now challenge the united monarchy, how realistic is the Shiloh priest idea put forward by Friedman, Halpern and others? What does archaeology of Shiloh tell us?
We couldn't be called a Kingdom anymore as we wouldn't have a King or Queen. We can't be called Britain because of Northern Ireland. Great Britain and Northern Ireland isnt a good name. What are your thoughts?
The forms of government can be endless but can you please state what form of government it would be under the flag (i.e Dictatorship or Democracy)
When I first learned the Bible as history more than a decade ago, one of the surprises was the complete lack of evidence for the Biblical account of Joshua's conquest. One of the interesting things to me about the post-Judges period is that the story of Saul takes place in much more geographically restricted area (mostly the Judean Hills) than the story of David. At the time, it seemed like this was the point where the Biblical narrative was becoming less mythic and more historically based.
To me, it always seemed like Saul rose to the chiefdom of a small confederacy and David turned this confederacy into a state. It's not an idea explicit in the historical text, but it's one that makes a lot of historical. I've seen better maps than these, but these are the apologetic maps I found online: map 1, map 2. This seems additionally support by the oldest tribes lists, which seem focused around the Judean foothills rather than in geopolitically more important Judah (see here, The Twelve (or So) Tribes of Israel). These things together--that Saul's confederacy and the oldest lists of tribes are geographically close to each other, but not near Judah which apparently became dominant later--seem to suggest that there is something historical in at least the location of Saul's activities, that they preserve some sort of historical memory.
If Saul, David, and Solomon are not at least quasi-historical figures, what is the rhetorical point of Saul? We tend to believe that narratives are included in the Bible for at least some reason. It seems most obvious that this is to explain how the Davidic line took over from another, original person or dynasty.
Tel Dan inscription from the 9th Century BCE is the earliest evidence we have of a line claiming descent from a historical David, which is not tremendously long after the standard Biblical tells us David existed.
Looking through this sub, there have been relatively few posts on the United Monarchy here at all and almost nothing about Saul specifically:
- [How is the existence of the first temple explained by scholars who doubt the authentic
With the external threat of Syria weighing heavily in the minds of all the people of the United Monarchy, and the integration of the Defence forces of both Lebanon and Jordan, the central government in Jerusalem and the Jordanian local government have agreed to further integration for the benefit of, and protection of, all citizens of both Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. The local government has received only a titular change to "Local Authority", much in the same manner of Lebanon's Local Authority.
The Kingdom of Jordan, as it is now known, finds itself as one of the three constituent Kingdoms within the United Monarchy - Israel, Lebanon and Jordan are all ruled constitutionally by King Ariel, although his powers are much more far-reaching in Israel and extremely limited within the other two.
[M] This is a finalisation.
I was told recently that the US Marine Corps instigated a coup on the Hawaiian Islands and forced the Queen out of power. I'm curious who was responsible and how it went down...it doesn't seem to be a very widely known fact.
##2040
Israel
- Old Population: 21,681,700
- New Population: 22,332,151
- Population Growth Rate: 3%
- Population Density: 827.43 per km2
- Old GDP: $576,292,417,996
- New GDP: $605,107,038,896
- GDP Growth Rate: 5%
- GDP per capita: $27,095
Lebanon
- Old Population: 5,768,612
- New Population: 5,797,455
- Population Growth Rate: 0.5%
- Population Density: 554.68 per km2
- Old GDP: $92,692,828,585
- New GDP: $99,181,326,586
- GDP Growth Rate: 7%
- GDP per capita: $17,108
Jordan
- Old Population: 9,498,157
- New Population: 9,545,648
- Population Growth Rate: 0.5%
- Population Density: 106.84 per km2
- Old GDP: $73,312,590,293
- New GDP: $79,177,597,516
- GDP Growth Rate: 8%
- GDP per capita: $8,295
##United Monarchy Totals
- Population: 37,675,254
- Population Density: 496.32 per km2
- GDP: $783,465,962,998
- GDP per capita: $17,500
The demographic trends and processes which have defined the region for the past decades have continued in earnest - that is, among the Arab populations of the United Monarchy the population growth has continued to decrease, now at a negative growth rate while the Jewish population growth rate has continued at roughly a standard 2% per annum. Reasons behind these trends have been explored by many demographic scientists from both Jewish and Muslim denominations, and the conclusions that the main causes of these changes result in the constantly increasing size of the Haredi Jewish population, alongside better healthcare and other modern amenities being provided to the Arab Muslim populations of Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
The result of these trends, occurring as they have across the course of the entire early 21st century, have resulted in the following rough estimates on population, likely to be confirmed in the upcoming 2039 census.
In Israel itself (including Gaza and the West Bank), Jewish population is estimated at 72%.
In Lebanon, Jewish population is estimated at 2% due to limited cross-border migration.
In Jordan, Jewish population is estimated at less than 1% - but this number is highly likely to rise as the United Monarchy continues to become more united.
The census of 2039 is sure to shed more light on these demographic issues and trends in the United Monarchy.
This is kind of a shower thought I had so I wouldn't take this too seriously but I thought I would share.
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People in America already act as if the president is King. They praise him or hate him depending on what the government does regardless if he was responsible for said actions or not.
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The president has incredible administrative powers over government agencies and institutions. More so every year.
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The president has the power the give executive orders and presidential decrees which can bypass congress entirely. However congress can legislate a law to overrule them.
When it comes down to it, the only thing that keeps the US from being a practical elective monarchy is term length and limit.
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