This is the other side, ancient history is alot of maybes and with current evedence sam believes this is the most likely story. Ofc its not definitive and most likely will be proven wrong in a few years but its still good speculation@@curtis.e_flush
It always tickles me that at this incredibly ancient point in history Egypt is already referred to as the "New Kingdom". Really puts into perspective how deep the well of human history actually goes
I'm glad you're doing history of the Jews outside the religious texts! It's really difficult to find stuff like that (either that or I just don't know where to look). I subbed man and am looking forward to your future videos!
@@braggsean1026 - I think many secular schools don't regard the history of how the bible came to be important enough to include it in their curriculum. Additionally, you have families whose faith says that scripture is inerrant: better to avoid that subject altogether. (I'm Catholic, and I would avoid teaching this subject to non-Catholics in public schools out of respect for other faiths.)
@@braggsean1026 - there's a lot of knowledge, but time to teach is short, and teaching everything is impossible. As I wrote, many school authorities will decide that the subject of the bible's history is not important enough or too contentious to teach. On one side are the faithful who consider it important but can't agree on how to teach it - on the other side are those who care little about religious objection but do not assign much weight to the subject.
I discovered your channel after hearing Rabbi Sacks (may he be well) offhandedly mention the Kitos War, and my subsequent Googling led me to your video. I will hopefully remember to Like each video as I binge through them, because this channel is an absolute treasure
3:38 It's slings, not slingshots. A slingshot is a child's toy that relies on an elastic material for propulsion and, at worst, could take out an eye or tooth; a sling is a cord-based weapon that uses leverage to propel stones and bullets with sufficient force to break bones and even kill.
I find it easier to find information about Jewish history, from people who are actually Jewish. Or are at least familiar with their culture. The Christian religion goes as far to not just disregard truth, but to outright make up truths, to solidify a narritive. I don't like talking crap about a religion that so many people look towards for hope. BUT as a person who was raised to be Christian. I feel a lot of time was wasted trying to unlearn lies. It's like their lies were all domino's and once one fell, the rest fell as well. Try telling a Christian, you know someone who believes in reincarnation. And they'll automatically assume you are talking about some New Age belief or Hinduism. But within the kabbalah in Judaism, reincarnation happens when someone needs to finish mitzvahs. Whether it's them or they need to help someone else finish them. (I found it interesting because my father ridiculed his mom for believing in reincarnation while being Christian. He said, "she doesn't know what she believes.") Sorry for the rant.
@@josholin31 lol nah, I feel you bro. I used to be Christian and I find most of Christian theology and doctrine has nothing to do with the Bible and is just a product of selective belief.. most christians would be shocked with the reality of Judaism and usually Jewish people are more honest about their religion and it's history
@0:43 - video says "it's widely agreed that the Exodus never happened" What's agreed upon is that no large group of people fled from Egypt to conquer Canaan and become the Israelites. The Israelites were the Canaanites who developed a distinctive culture after the Bronze Age collpase. It is still deemed possible that a small group of people fled Egypt and later mixed into the Israelites and that their origin story became the story of all of Israel. Because a small group wouldn't leave much for archeologists to discover, it's difficult to say how the story of the Exodus actually developed.
@@crhu319 - Robert E. Friedman writes books and articles about the Levite hypothesis. But I haven't yet heard him saying that they were refugees from Amarna.
@@Achill101 well as a Muslim I believe both books were divinely inspired but I didn’t mean to get into a theological debate. Just wanted to point it out.
When it comes to the writing systems, you're sort of jumping a bit there and conflating. The adapted Egyptian script did not evolve into the *Hebrew alphabet*, but what most people like to call Paleo-Hebrew or Proto-Hebrew alphabet. That is basically the same as the Phonecian script, which developed from Proto-Sinaitic, which probably repurposed hieroglyphs, but people felt it would be wrong to refer to what is assumed to be the script of ancient Hebrew scripts as "Phonecian". This proto-Hebrew alphabet had been largely replaced by the aramaic script which later evolved into the square letters known to this day. Aramaic script also evolved from Phonecian. So in a way you are right-ish. However, the routes were different. It's confusing and multi-layered and it's odd to shorten it in this way. Also, the prevalent opinion in the field is that Proto-Sinaitic was developed by Cannanites who spoke a Semitic language, not necessarily the Egyptians living there. Again, it would be great to link sources.
@@Rolando_Cueva Agree that it's totally ok to simplify; but I also think that it's good to point it out when you do. I've heard too many people say something wrong and when you correct them they point to an article where they read an oversimplification of a scientific process, yet they still argue with someone who's read the underlying research.
Yeah I don’t think that it’s even that complicated to explain all this, people just presuppose Hebrew primacy all the time and that’s not useful for history. Even the term “paleo-Hebrew” didn’t come about until the 1950s and all that term does is ignore Canaanite/Phoenician culture and pretend it’s just a nameless step closer to Biblical Hebrew. But evens then, Biblical Hebrew was called “the Canaanite language” by the ancient Israelites!
@@LordJagd you are right that Christians tend to give everything a biblical spin, but it's no reason to take it to the other direction. We have more evidence of the early levantine script from the southern levant than the northern, so there is no reason to refer to it as the Phoenician script. The Phoenicians did develop a more organized version, which the southerners might have been influenced by later. In the bible Hebrew is called Yehudit, or Judean, and there is no reference to Canaanite languages. Hebrews were part of the Canaanite culture, and so were the Phoenicians, you shouldn't give importance to any side if you want to be objective. Especially since Judea and Israel were the biggest and strongest kingdoms of the Canaanites.
I know you're trying to keep things simple but I still highly encourage you to add sources to your videos so viewers can dig deeper if they want. Also, scholars generally agree that parts of the Exodus story happened historically and were fused with other traditions (like many things in the Bible and oral traditions in general). Namely, that a probable Canaanite tradition about Egyptian occupation fused with a probable tradition of a smaller group of people fleeing Egypt some time during the New Kingdom (New Kingdom texts mention "Asiatics" as slaves and workers). Also apparently this Exodus tradition seems to come from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but didn't really exist in Judah, for whatever reason. The expulsion of the Hyksos, a semitic speaking dynasty that subjugated Egypt for a time (role reversal!), could also have contributed somewhat to the story. My sources: "On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt" by Manfred Bietak "The Exodus" by Richard Elliot Friedman "The Book of Exodus: A Biography" by Joel S. Baden "The Emergence of Iron Age Israel: On Origins and Habitus" by Avraham Faust "Bitter Lives: Israel In And Out of Egypt" by Carol A. Redmount "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" by Donald B. Redford
Exactly. He says downright outrageous things like Jacob/David/Solomon were made up to give israel and Judah common ancestry, or that he knows the exact six tribes that made up the sea peoples etc.. with ZERO sources. It's pure nonsense that no legit scholar would take seriously.
@@xXDarkxIdealsXx I have noticed some errors on his vids and like, I know he’s trying to present things in short form and easy to digest but I wish he would identify stuff that’s Up For Debate due to minimal evidence, current accepted Best Guess conjecture and scholarship. Like This is What Most Scholars Currently Think Bur Arent Sure and More Studies Need to Be Done kinda Thing Like saying anything is “made up” usually brings a modern listener an image of some great conspiracy of lies. A better way of saying it is gradual cultural syncretism occurred between multiple tribal groups with a similar history, that possibly turned in a unified story, with kernels of truth throughout it For instance, what’s currently up for debate is the biblical narrative of one kingdom splitting into two. Exa biblical sources confirm Israel was briefly unified from two into one later, but the original “kingdom” of Israel MAY have just have been a small area or tribe, and that grew into a story of something bigger. Not untrue, just exaggerated with time There’s loads of evidence for Judah and Israel as separate kingdoms. And there’s an Amorite or Moabite stelle that mention the House of David, and an Egyptian Bronze Age collapse mentions the “seed of Israel”, whether Israel refers to land or just a people is unclear. So a historic David definitely existed, and some sort of area or people used the name Israel while Egypt occupied Canaan in the late Bronze Age. These little details contradict the biblical narratives somewhat, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true, just that details changed or were lost. The cultural memory of SOMETHING remains, which is the important and impressive part
@@xXDarkxIdealsXx - where does he say David and Solomon were made up? It seems clear today that their power and wealth were exaggerated, but by how much is debated between scholars. . . . Where does he say he knows the exact tribes that made up the sea people? The sea people are today believed to have come from the Aegean and become the biblical Philistines, not a tribe within Israel. . . . It's an entertaining video, not a scholarly contribution. It should try to be truthful but providing sources is not its job.
@@Achill101 It's not clear. The same people that said that David & Solomon didn't exist, NOW tell us that they did exist, but that their power & wealth was exaggerated and that they lived 100 years later than the Biblical record suggests. They know nothing for sure. Nothing.
@@davidschalit907 - there are plenty of people who claim that David and Salomon existed but in a smaller kingdom than the bible describes and who have never publicly claimed that the two didn't exist at all. . . . Those who claimed the two never existed are more from a camp that sees no historical value in the bible for the time before 587BC, the so called Minimalists, and many of them still don't think David and Salomon existed. . . . But what's more important: archeology is a science, and changing your opinion upon new evidence is a sign of integrity, not of generally bad judgment. The Tel-Dan stele of the 1990s was new evidence, and many archeologists who doubted David's existence were convinced by the stele that the southern dynasty of 850BC saw themselves indeed as descendents of a David as the first king of their dynasty.
As point to the Exodus. The agricultural and urban collapse throughout the mediterranean due to environmental and human causes(a domino effect) brought many peoples into nomadic lives because of the need of keep moving to survive. This resulted into the pastoralist folk to thrive in a time which probably inspired all future apocalyptic narratives. Bronze age collapse was the end of civilization in the place where civilization begin to exist and pretty much where civilization stand. My guess based on what I've studied as an armchair historian, is that social structure was one of the first things to be hit. Local aristocratic elites and priesthood was the first in being purge by the common people when they were unable to provide security and basic welfare. There is plenty of letters of the local rulers crying for the Pharaoh assistance to repel marauders, what is interesting is the mention of the happiru which it seems a word to describe the outcast, not a tribe or group specific but a loosely banded group of people, probably nomadic, that were disgruntled by the stablishment in Canaan and resulted into banditry and probably political violence against the upper levels of canaanite society. Looks to me this where the protagonist of the Exodus and a few centuries later, like 200 years after the collapse there is the mention of the judges, the of judges seems to originate from the need of some kind of charismatic figure to impose order between the nomads in the land. Looks to me that the origin pf the exodus, the antagonistic portrait of the Egyptians in jewish literature and the 40 years of wandering fits to the narrative of the happiru.
I discovered this Channel about a month ago and instantly fell in love. I’m closing in on watching all of your videos. Keep up the amazing work. I am learning so much.
I’m just starting to watch your history videos. Is there a link where you explain who you are, what your educational background is, what your expertise is in, and any other pertinent personal information. Thank you!
I just found your channel and am instantly enjoying your "to the point" explanations. It's interesting how much the bronze age collapse influenced a lot of changes in the region both economically, culturally, and religiously. And some of the changes from ~1200 BCE onward could have easily started with the huge volcano explosion at Thera (Santorini island). The Minoan civilization in Crete who also disappeared at that time, were a very large "middleman" trading link between now modern Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and presumably the entire east coast of the Mediterranean. It makes you wonder if the exodus was really just mythology of some people fleeing after that event. Seems like you briefly elude to this a little at the beginning.
Whether or not David was king depends on what the "king" means. When the word "kuningas" arrived from Germanic language into Finnish language it was used from any chief and leader, and only later did the word "kuningas" become established to mean king in Finnish. Therefore I have thought that Saul and David, respectively, have been tribal chiefs and only later has the word "melech" been used as the title of king and therefore they were later considered to be real kings as well. However, my theory is not taken seriously because I'm neither a researcher nor a professor. Many people are very convinced that David, Solomon, and the other kings mentioned in Bible are just fairy tales and not real people, as scholars and professors have convincingly suggested. The Books of Kings and the Chronicles may have been written long after Babylonian exile and therefore cannot be considered a reliable source of history. However, I oppose this idea because internationally, scholars seem to think otherwise and that the accounts have some historical basis and thr names appear in archeology.
We also have to think about how we use the same words that people did did thousands of years ago and slowly over time those words started describing different things. Joshua defeats 31 kings in Caanan and massacres all the cities they inhabited. What did "king" and "city" mean to these people? When we think of kings, we think of large states like England, France, and Spain. When we think of cities we think of modern metropolises. But Socrates describes the ideal city population as 5040 and before the industrial revolution in the 19th century, 98% of the world's population was rural. On top of that, these events took place 1000 years before the Classical Era so the population would have been even lower. According to Google, the global population in 1000BC was 50 million. If we assume that Canaan back then had proportionally the same amount of the global population as it does today, then Israel would have 58.5k people living in it in 1000BC. What I get out of this is what Joshua would have called a king was what we would call a petty tribal chief and what he would call a city was what we would call a small tribal encampment, perhaps with a palisade wall. These "cities" probably had only a couple hundred people at most and constituted 2% of Canaan's population at most. But people in later eras read these things and use their understanding of what a city and king are and not that of the people who lived in those past ages, so you picture Joshua slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people in this brutal great crusade when that's not remotely possible.
I appreciate all you are doing. Sometimes you show text but do not allow enough time to read it. UA-cam overwrites the screen when I pause it. Please allow more time to see what you are showing and fewer pictures of yourself. Your videos are more meaningful at 75% speed. Thank you.
Correction: The inexistence of a United Monarchy is a theory proposed by literally one archeologist in the 90's. It is heavily debated and criticised, and it is definitely not considered a fact by modern archeologists. The main problem in proving or disproving the theory is because it requires dating of incredible precision. Since we are talking about a period of only about 100 years, its very hard to claim with 100% certainty that an archeological find is from the United Monarchy period. Every time the remains of a big building is found in or around Jerusalem dating to the First Temple Period, a heated argument erupts about if its from exactly the 10th century BCE, or could it be actually be from 50 later; which would put it in the 9th, and irrelevant to United Monarchy discussion. There is plenty of reading material on this online for anyone interested.
I'm not exactly Jewish (my mother's father was Jewish, and I have been raised a christian), but It's really interesting to learn about my ancestor's history
How do you respond to new theories saying that Egyptians never talked about their defeats and the Egyptian sayings common in the Torah such as "with an outstretched hand" as well as comparisons like "chaff" as well as the tabernacle being based on Ramses' war camp
Hi. Do you have a video about the Samaritan Israelites? Not the Samaritans who were exiled, but the Samaritans who’ve remained in the land since they entered with Joshua.
@@patrickrowan6001 Thanks. I’ve been able to acquire more information since I last watched this video. The Samaritans say that there was, in fact, an exile by the Assyrians, but the numbers weren’t anything near what most of us have been taught. Assyrian records show us that they exiled about 29,000 northern Israelites, which is only a fraction of their numbers. If the Assyrians took more than that, you’d think that they’d be proud and would record a bigger number, right? Sadly, most of us have been taught that the northern Israelites were “replaced” by gentiles. I don’t believe in karma, but if I did, this is karma…since the church teaches that the Jews (the chosen) have been replaced by gentiles (the church.) The Judean records tell us that King Ahaz made an alliance with the King of Assyria, so we can thank Ahaz for bringing in disaster. 😣 But according to the Samaritans, the northern Israelites had forced conversions and wars, etc. that helped diminish their numbers, too. I caught something else when studying Joshua recently. The SANCTUARY was, in fact, in Shechem. In Chapter 24 of Joshua, Joshua made his famous speech in Shechem “under the oak that was by the “SANCTUARY.” The writing is clear to tell us that a “tent” was set up in Shiloh, but the “sanctuary” was in Shechem. The Samaritans say that Eli rebelled against the priesthood. The rebellion took a group from Judah and built an additional Tent on Meeting in Shiloh. So, for a period of time, there were two Tents…the one built with Moses (the sanctuary) and the one built under Eli (in Shiloh). This makes sense because why else would Joshua mention TWO tents? In studying the priestly garment, we can learn a lot. The high priest carried the names of the sons of Israel on his SHOULDERS. The names were engraved on stones as a lasting memorial. And Ephraim’s stone on the breastplate is the same type of stone worn on the priest’s shoulders. But there’s more. The meaning of the word “Shechem” is “shoulder”. The chosen place was on the shoulder (mountain) of Shechem. Moses and Israel sang a song to exalt YHWH about Him planting them in “the place” “the place made for Your dwelling” “the MOUNTAIN of His inheritance” “the SANCTUARY which His hands established.” Joshua tells us that YHWH placed the sanctuary in the mountain of their inheritance…the mountain of Shechem, the shoulder of Shechem. The ceremony of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal even resembles the shoulders of the priestly garment. Half the tribes on one side, the other half on the other side. Interestingly, the order of the tribes changes. And if Shechem no longer had authority or relevance after the temple was built in Jerusalem, then why would Solomon’s son need to go there to be coronated as King of Judah? What were they really doing in Shechem? How was a descendant of an Ammonite princess able to enter the assembly of Israel, much less serve as Judah’s King? Makes zero sense!
Realize you’re working with what you’ve got, but I think this would benefit from an acknowledgment that a lot of the material here is this side of pure speculation
@Sam Aronow Recently subscribed to your channel! Love your dedication and hard work to presenting the known history trough the Jewish perspective! One can assume that a lot of effort was put to your videos along with proper editing and etc... Truly you have created a one of a kind UA-cam educational/enriching history channel in my opinion! very educational videos!! that is why I became very frustrated when I could not find any data online to back up some of the facts you presented in this video. I would really appreciate if you answered me or point me to a reliable information source regarding the following questions : question #1 : quote : "For one, the biblical narrative of a united kingdom between Judah and Israel is generally disregarded by modern historians. DOES THIS MEAN THAT JUDEA AND THE OTHER TRIBES OF ISRAEL WERE NEVER UNIFIED AS ONE KINGDOM? WAS THERE ALWAYS A SEPERATION BETWEEN JUDEA AND THE OTHER TRIBES OF ISRAEL? This contradicts sayings told in Jewish (religious and non-religious alike) high schools in Israel, that at first there was a unified kingdom of Israel, that included ALL the tribes. And later on, broke to two kingdoms Judea and Israel. question #2 : quote : " But nowadays, it's widely agreed by archaeologists and historians that the Exodus never happened Because the Israelites were never slaves in Egypt at all. But that doesn't mean that the Israelites weren't part of the Egyptian Kingdom. IF THE EXODUS STORY NEVER ACOURED, HOW DID THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL CAME TO BE IN CANAAEN ? DID THE SONS OF ISRAEL (JACOB) NEVER REALLY TRAVELED TO EGYPT AND SETTELED IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN ?(AS TOLD FROM GENEISIS CHAPTER 46 PASSAGE 6) WHERE DO THE ISRAELITES ORIGINATE FROM, ACCORDING TO FINDINGS TODAY? would really appreciate a full and detailed explanation or a link to some relevant information sources keep producing amazing content!
I'm not Sam, but I'll try to answer your questions anyhow. Questions 1: Yes, it's possible that Judah and Israel were always separated. It's also possible that David and Salomon ruled over some parts of the later Israel in the North. But what archeological finds seem to contradict now is a United Monarchy with great prosperity and extraordinary building activity. Most importantly: there was hardly any scribal activity in that time, and you can have neither a prosperous kingdom nor reliable chronicles without it. Question 2: The Israelites were the people living in Canaanite highlands who developed a new common identity after the Bronze Age collapse. Today's consensus among scholars is that there is NO historicity in Genesis: no Adam or Eve, no Noah, no patriarchs, no Joseph.
@@Achill101 Thank you very much for your answer! shocking and interesting facts for me! sure would like some sources of information to back up what you wrote but thank you for answering anyway
@@shahaking - one well written popularization of the history of ancient Israel is The Bible Unearthed by Finkelstein and Silverman, but there are many more books if you prefer a different one. The question of the historicity of Genesis has been pretty much closed by scholars, with a negative result, similarly the historicity of the Conquest of Canaan, with negative result. Most of the ancestors of Israelites and Judahites had always lived in Canaan since the Bronze Age collapse, a small group might have brought with them a tradition of an exodus from Egypt later. But the historicity of the United Monarchy is still a subject of active research today: while Finkelstein denies it, other archeologists affirm it. Enjoy your reading about the history.
@@Achill101 wow thanks! so nice to know there are knowlegeble individuals out there online thank you for the reading recomandation and the detailed answers
Hey I really love ur vids, highly interesting although u make some tough claims, I was wondering what are the sources for pretty much everything iron age related?
Very good video. I've been watching this series and very impressed. In the future,, will you be going over some of the theories on if a united kingdom existed. And as I do not speak Hebrew, is it true that David was usually referred to as a prince or chieftain instead of king?
@@SamAronow a book on jewish history not on travel. You speak to fast for a non english native speaker. But i like your narrative. It remains me that of Isaac Asimov. By the way, Asimov wrote a lot of books on history, which at least on Spain are very popular. I read most of them. Unfortunately he left a lot of history “unwritten”: precolombine cultures, french revolution, china history, japan history, are some of them. Also the history of religions. Would you be so kind to write a book on each of them? Thank you. (I hope that tweet on creeps is not directed to me)
I'm curious, if you're willing to share, what kind of Jew you are? I'm not super familiar with all of the options that exist today aside from Hesidic, Reformed, and Orthodox, but I know there are others as well and so I'm curious what perspective you're coming from in your Judaism and, if it's different from how you were raised, which sect you were raised in.
1:45 i can't tell if we're looking at the 'southern Canaanites' or both the northern and southern Canaanites. i can't tell which part of the coast the Sea Peoples settled on. From Philistia to Sidon? Where on this map are the Judean mountains?
We are looking at both southern and northern Canaanites (or Phoenicians), including Aram which are not considered Canaanites. The sea people in this picture, or philistines, are the dark green color in the south west, and the tribe of Dan, which might also belong to the sea people, is the small brown area just above it. The Phoenicians are to the north west, and include Sidon, Tyre, Acre, and Dor. In this map or period, Menashe is dividing the Phoenicians from the philistines. Judea is the big blue area to the south, with the tribe of Simeon inside it. This map isn't necessarily the most accurate, since the sources of most tribal names is found only in the bible, but it still gives the right idea, and might be true.
There is evidence for an Exodus in history and archeology. It's just that people are looking in the wrong time period for it. I'd recommend "Patterns of Evidence Exodus" documentary, which provides evidences to support the Exodus from multiple sources, but it claims it's back way before the Ramses period, in the Kingdom of Avaris. The reason people look to the wrong time period for the evidence is because of a couple of reasons. "1. Pi-Ramses" in the Bible, but this is likely a later placeholder name for the original name of the city by later scribes. And 2. the Masoretic Text altered some of the numbers and chronologies from the original scrolls (like the DSS and LXX). But the physical tangible of a mass exodus is indeed there, in the Old Kingdom period that is, as opposed to the later kingdoms, which is where people typically are (wrongly) looking for evidence of Exodus.
I didn’t see anything about Moses. Isn’t he considered the most important prophet in Judaism of this time period. What’s your take on historical Moses?
I like Freud's idea of Moses being a priest of Akhenaten's monotheism 1351-1334 BC.Exodus was just a little expulsion of Moses and some followers into Midian, todays Saudi Arabia.Where some of Akhenaten's ideas might have originated.
I still hold onto the idea that Moses and the Levites were Egyptian in origin and had some type of conflict led them to leave Egypt and integrate into Israel My theory is that the Pharaoh in the Exodus was Seti II, and his brother Amunmosse rebelled against him. He set up a competing kingdom in northern Egypt for 2 years. After a military defeat, Amunmosse makes a daring escape across the sea of reeds at a time he knew he would be able to make a crossing but the opportunity would not allow his brother to follow, lest his army get stuck in the mud. Amunmosse then goes into Midian, and spends some time there building alliances, eventually marrying a Midianite woman, and accepting the Gods of her father, in return for uniting the tribes of the area under him to resist Egypt, which they do for a time. They eventually take credit for Egypt losing influence in the area(when really it was the Bronze Age collapse), and this Moses becomes a great cultural hero who came out of Egypt and freed the land from the Egyptians. Perhaps the lands of Israel and Judea were, in fact, the “promised land” for this effort, even if no conquest took place, this cultural idea could have taken hold, that these lands belonged to God. Form Midian, worship of Yaweh spreads north probably as a means of social cohesion in a post-Egyptian world. These are all basically related peoples, and this shared faith became a touchstone that brought stability to the region. Or perhaps, it spread due because there was some type of oath under Yahweh, and then you have the time of Judges, where you have their loose confederation, with people basically worshiping other gods, until every so often you get some radical preacher trying to get people back to the God that saved them from Egypt, and this is where it dovetails back into normal history. This also works to explain why Moses and Aaron never got to Israel. Because 1) it wasn’t ever their goal. Moses was probably aiming to get his throne back in Egypt, this is why the reason Moses doesn’t get there in the Bible is so silly and 2) it also explains the distinction the Israelites placed between themselves and the Canaanite’s, despite them being the same people apparently. Israel were those who had sworn an oath to Yahweh. Over centuries, and with the need to fit this story into a wider narrative, this story becomes Moses leading the people out of Egypt
"Hundred years is not long enough for history to descend into legend" I'll disagree giving an example: "Rosary Miracle of Hiroshima". The story the miracle is based on happened in 1945, less than 100 years ago, but the current legend has mutated heavily and doesn't resemble the original story at all. And we do have the original story - the interview with a priest that took part in the "miracle"! Still, with decades passing and further interviews being conducted, the priest slowly changed his account of easily explainable events into what we would call "legend" now. Legend: "8 priests less that 0,5 mile away from epicenter of the hydrogen bomb explosion survived the explosion with no injuries and no radiation sickness, and lived their lives in full health" Actual story: "4 priests 1 mile away survived the blast in a double braced house (like almost 50% of other people in their zone), 2 of the priests suffered heavy wounds, all 4 experienced varying levels of radiation sickness, 1 died in his 60s. Quite a different tale.
This begs the question, what was wealth to people back then? What did that mean? Our conception of wealth is something that people living in the Iron Age could not even imagine. Solomon's Temple has its dimensions listed and it's about the size of those little Protestant churches you see in the USA. But Solomon lined the entire interior with cedar wood from Lebanon which was a huge symbol of wealth in the region as the cedars of Lebanon were in massive demand. That sounds like nothing to us as we can buy a literal ton of cedar without breaking the bank but to the ancients in the Levant and Egypt, that meant you were filthy rich.
Thanks for the new perspective, I love that Jewish history is so much more than oral tradition, though that has an importance in its own right. Your videos always peak my curiosity, keep it up!
This might have come out later than this video, but have you looked at the solomonic gates thing? If all of northern israel's borders AND Jerusalem were fortified using the same blueprints in the 10th century bc that does suggest the united monarchy was a thing does it not?
It's less about taking a minimalist stance and more about only making claims on things that there is evidence for. The tanakh might be a lot more true than what is presented here but there is just so much we don't know about this period and we shouldn't treat tanakh as fact unless there is evidence to back it up.
@@McFluff33 well, it depends what scholar you ask, if you know hebrew i can link a channel of a guy, going to doctors and profesors and asking them on this subject, he gives a wide range of views, really good channel
@@pussy_destroyer6306 I reccomened watching israel knohl, david shapira and maor ovadia if youre interested in the maximslists Search in youtube "alex tseitlin"
Yea, established historians didn't think King's David & Solomon existed as well. So there current views on the Exodus and Israelites in Egypt is their views NOW. Also, for a people to have tribes, with a story behind how they came about , one that completely denies that story needs to explain how that story evolved.
The Philistines in the Bible were probably the Phoenicians by another name. They were a separate group that had wars with the ancient Hebrews. The Philistines were Greeks.
The Egyptian calendar became corrupted, according to Doctor Immanuel Velikovsky in his 2 Books "Worlds in Collision" 1950, and "Earth in Upheaval" 1955, and these events brought such changes that the disruption of the Egyptian calendar was moved 600 years. Hence our Exodus from Egypt took place but not according to the Current Egyptian calendar. So to say that we did not escape from Egypt is incorrect and this needs to be addressed.
Hi, love the series, I’ve watched many episodes, but i keep coming back to this one. I have questions. You mention the exodus from Egypt as probably being false, but you make no mention of Moses, Aaron (my namesake) and you make passing mention of King Solomon who is credited with building the first temple on the site where Adam was created. But, you do not mention any of this. You also claim in later videos that Adam and Eve was imported from Babylon. Are you saying Moses and the 10 commandments is false as well? If so, who build the first temple and what is the significance of the foundation stone? Also, in later videos, you mention the ark, but say it is of really no significance. Are you claiming that it never contained the 10 commandments or the staff of Aaron? These are some pretty important foundational questions that you completely ignored. I’d love your feedback on why you chose this path. Thanks!
The problem with two Jewish kingdoms is which one should a Jew provide loyalty to? Which one had political/ religious authority from a legalistic or religious point of view?
great vids! but terrible and too-loud and unrelated background music. please lose the background music bug, it disturbs the listening experience and it is too loud in the mix especially the unrelated orchestral piece you have here. Shostakovich is really not fitting the topic…
And actually Pharaoh Mernapath the successor of Ramses the Great had a battle with the Sea people's and settled the Sherden or Shardona who we believe are now the nargalic civilization of sardinia, probably on the southern coast close to where Philistia would be three decades in the future after Ramses the third settled the Peleset, who were probably the Pelasgeians from Greece. Not the Hellens, to become the Philistines. It was actually the Sherden, from the battle a generation before, that helped Ramses the third defeat the sea peoples in a large sea battle at the mouth of the Nile.
you are very impressive, keep it up. now the critique: i remember reading that all historians agree that Abraham existed (sorry dont remember the source). if that statement raises your hackles, then you should also rethink your own summary line where you dismiss the exodus as never occuring. Also the egyptian historians, even the antisemitic Manetho u referred to in the damascus affair video, see the israelites as a separate group than the egyptians and caananites. so its a bit glib for you to say that the exodus and the books of moses were not a thing. its interesting how well the bible describes the places peoples and events around egypt and israel of the time, so i would not dismiss the exodus out of hand just because of poor archealogical record. who knows what future scientific methods will uncover, i would stay at least agnostic on the issue.
One problem: the Berlin Pedestal Relief likely refers to Israel as an independent polity 100 years BEFORE Rameses the Great or the arrival of the Sea Peoples. So where then does Israel come from? Two Egyptian inscriptions from the 15th century BCE refer to wanderers (Shashu) of YHWH being the enemies of the Pharaoh and Egypt never incorporated YHWH into their pantheon as they were prone to do with other gods like Baal. Now, do I believe there were 600,000 wandering the desert for 40 years? No, and I don't think the text actually demands that. As for there never being a united kingdom, that doesn't pass the smell test. First, the Tel Dan inscription was found in the extreme north of Israel-- not even Judean territory. If the Bible was essentially written as Judah's propaganda, its obsession with the precise northern kingdom's comings and goings makes little sense. It would be like A US history book spending half its time talking about Canada. Kings and the rest of the Old Testament has only a passing interest in the activities of Moab, Edom, the Philistines, and Aramaens-- only as they relate to Israel or Judah. The two were culturally distinct from the surrounding cultures yet highly similar to each other, both with the same god that the rest of the region despised (although the Northern Kingdom was much more syncretic as the Bible indicates). Yet we are to believe they developed independently and weren't ever politically unified? No. It makes sense the north and south were united for a time (for only three generations by the way) and they split up due to latent tribal tensions that existed much earlier than Rehoboam. The minimalist approach is filled with as many assumptions and biases as the religious approach; at least the religious people admit theirs.
Jacob/Israel had 12 sons according to the Bible. Each son had their own tribe except for Joseph who's two sons had their own tribes instead bringing the number up to 13. The song of Deborah mentions the tribe of Machir (son of Manasseh son of Jacob) which has led some historians to think that in early Israel Machir existed as a 14th tribe that became absorbed into the tribe of Manasseh
Hallo from Denmark in the north . Great video. Now I belive just and other historians. That there newer was unified kingdom. But does rule out , that the south could dominated the north . I belive indeed there was three kings of south called Saul, David and Salomon . And that these three kings was powerfull enough to dominate the Northern kingdom and held overlord ship over the north. So that the kings in north was simply vasals under Saul, David and Solomon . Then after Solomons death. The overlord ship collapsed and Israel became the dominant kingdom . But then memory of the judas overlord ship gradual faded away and replaced with myth of the united kingdom .
Why does it have to be a "consensus" view? IF people like you had their way, Darwinism would have been eliminated as not a "consensus" view. Controversial opinions are sometimes stellar discoveries, and majority opinions are often wrong.
@@robinlillian9471 Nevermind that this guy here never mentions A SINGLE SOURCE in this video to back up his bogus claims. Also we have consensus to establish whether or not something is worth its salt under scrutiny, because otherwise we get any tom dick and harry like this youtuber making shit up. Also Darwinism was entirely created by darwin to justify the supremacy of the white race over everyone, so if you want to support that racist nutter go ahead.
@@robinlillian9471 These video's are presented in a matter of fact way, all OP did was point out that this isn't settled science and shouldn't be consumed under that understanding.
So you were taught Scripture is mythology? Is there any part of Scripture that you accept as historical? How do you have and teach and identity if the written record is false, mythology? Do you value all your peoples opinions or just the ones that educate the children to disbelieve their Scriptures?
a lot of archeology, assyrian ancient texts, aramean tel dan victory stele (c 830 bce), the moabite mesha stele (c 850 bce) egyptian texts- as well as various corroborating histories written centuries later that used various primary sources (greek historians for example).
@@Hickokboy they are well corroborated from around 900 Bce (separate kingdoms of israel and judah), currently the most disputed era is the united kingdom (Saul, Ishbaal, David, Solomon, Rohoboam/Jeroboam I) that precedes the separate kingdoms (c 1050 Bce to c 920 Bce) in the last three decades of research the united kingdom begun regaining traction due to recent very good archeological discoveries (tel dan stele and khirbet qeiyafa) but it is still difficult to tell. the problem is that this period follows shortly after the bronze age collapse and the surrounding empires crumbled and literacy dropped to near none existence. therefore written records of this time period are too few and far between and mostly deal with internal matters and not geopolitical content. so even if the united monarchy did exist just as we know there was a king named david there - that does not mean that the biblical character we have of him is historical but rather are mythologized legends that are based on distant historical memories.
![Judaism and Islam (570-750) [feat. Al Muqaddimah]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UI9RIzNe-tM/mqdefault.jpg)
A list of sources would be nice, would like to know more!
Yes, lots of definitive statements without proof of reference. There is much stating of personal opinion and belief presented as definitive fact.
This is the other side, ancient history is alot of maybes and with current evedence sam believes this is the most likely story. Ofc its not definitive and most likely will be proven wrong in a few years but its still good speculation@@curtis.e_flush
There should have been few small exodus with people like levites which means companions and cohanim priests came bringing the monotheism
The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein
It always tickles me that at this incredibly ancient point in history Egypt is already referred to as the "New Kingdom". Really puts into perspective how deep the well of human history actually goes
What is new shall become old, and what is old shall become new again. The history is future
No, the new kingdom is opposed to the old kingdom which is also egypt.
I'm glad you're doing history of the Jews outside the religious texts! It's really difficult to find stuff like that (either that or I just don't know where to look). I subbed man and am looking forward to your future videos!
he is just regurgitating stuff you will learn in ANY secular school.
@@braggsean1026 - I think many secular schools don't regard the history of how the bible came to be important enough to include it in their curriculum. Additionally, you have families whose faith says that scripture is inerrant: better to avoid that subject altogether.
(I'm Catholic, and I would avoid teaching this subject to non-Catholics in public schools out of respect for other faiths.)
@@Achill101 I'm a Libertarian, teach EVERYTHING if you plan on using my money.
@@braggsean1026 - there's a lot of knowledge, but time to teach is short, and teaching everything is impossible. As I wrote, many school authorities will decide that the subject of the bible's history is not important enough or too contentious to teach. On one side are the faithful who consider it important but can't agree on how to teach it - on the other side are those who care little about religious objection but do not assign much weight to the subject.
@@Achill101 You cant teach one thing without opposing viewpoints, thats not education thats indoctrination
I discovered your channel after hearing Rabbi Sacks (may he be well) offhandedly mention the Kitos War, and my subsequent Googling led me to your video. I will hopefully remember to Like each video as I binge through them, because this channel is an absolute treasure
3:38 It's slings, not slingshots. A slingshot is a child's toy that relies on an elastic material for propulsion and, at worst, could take out an eye or tooth; a sling is a cord-based weapon that uses leverage to propel stones and bullets with sufficient force to break bones and even kill.
Imagine in the future they consider our projectile weapons propelled by a contained powder charge to be primitive and questionably effective.
Subbed. It's very very tough to find Jewish history outside the Bible and this is very informative and eye opening
I find it easier to find information about Jewish history, from people who are actually Jewish. Or are at least familiar with their culture.
The Christian religion goes as far to not just disregard truth, but to outright make up truths, to solidify a narritive.
I don't like talking crap about a religion that so many people look towards for hope. BUT as a person who was raised to be Christian. I feel a lot of time was wasted trying to unlearn lies. It's like their lies were all domino's and once one fell, the rest fell as well.
Try telling a Christian, you know someone who believes in reincarnation. And they'll automatically assume you are talking about some New Age belief or Hinduism. But within the kabbalah in Judaism, reincarnation happens when someone needs to finish mitzvahs. Whether it's them or they need to help someone else finish them.
(I found it interesting because my father ridiculed his mom for believing in reincarnation while being Christian. He said, "she doesn't know what she believes.")
Sorry for the rant.
@@josholin31 lol nah, I feel you bro. I used to be Christian and I find most of Christian theology and doctrine has nothing to do with the Bible and is just a product of selective belief.. most christians would be shocked with the reality of Judaism and usually Jewish people are more honest about their religion and it's history
@@inominate2024 I could not agree more. I can't believe I had been so wrong about something for so long
@0:43 - video says "it's widely agreed that the Exodus never happened"
What's agreed upon is that no large group of people fled from Egypt to conquer Canaan and become the Israelites. The Israelites were the Canaanites who developed a distinctive culture after the Bronze Age collpase. It is still deemed possible that a small group of people fled Egypt and later mixed into the Israelites and that their origin story became the story of all of Israel. Because a small group wouldn't leave much for archeologists to discover, it's difficult to say how the story of the Exodus actually developed.
The Quran actually says it was a small group.
@@crhu319 - Robert E. Friedman writes books and articles about the Levite hypothesis. But I haven't yet heard him saying that they were refugees from Amarna.
@@keeshans5768 - but how does the Quran know it happened in the first place except by copying it from the Tanakh?
@@Achill101 well as a Muslim I believe both books were divinely inspired but I didn’t mean to get into a theological debate. Just wanted to point it out.
@@keeshans5768 - Ok.
When it comes to the writing systems, you're sort of jumping a bit there and conflating.
The adapted Egyptian script did not evolve into the *Hebrew alphabet*, but what most people like to call Paleo-Hebrew or Proto-Hebrew alphabet. That is basically the same as the Phonecian script, which developed from Proto-Sinaitic, which probably repurposed hieroglyphs, but people felt it would be wrong to refer to what is assumed to be the script of ancient Hebrew scripts as "Phonecian".
This proto-Hebrew alphabet had been largely replaced by the aramaic script which later evolved into the square letters known to this day.
Aramaic script also evolved from Phonecian. So in a way you are right-ish. However, the routes were different. It's confusing and multi-layered and it's odd to shorten it in this way.
Also, the prevalent opinion in the field is that Proto-Sinaitic was developed by Cannanites who spoke a Semitic language, not necessarily the Egyptians living there.
Again, it would be great to link sources.
Welp it’s an oversimplified video.
Nonetheless, your comment will be helpful for those who care about the details.
@@Rolando_Cueva Agree that it's totally ok to simplify; but I also think that it's good to point it out when you do. I've heard too many people say something wrong and when you correct them they point to an article where they read an oversimplification of a scientific process, yet they still argue with someone who's read the underlying research.
I like calling it the Levantine script.
Yeah I don’t think that it’s even that complicated to explain all this, people just presuppose Hebrew primacy all the time and that’s not useful for history. Even the term “paleo-Hebrew” didn’t come about until the 1950s and all that term does is ignore Canaanite/Phoenician culture and pretend it’s just a nameless step closer to Biblical Hebrew. But evens then, Biblical Hebrew was called “the Canaanite language” by the ancient Israelites!
@@LordJagd you are right that Christians tend to give everything a biblical spin, but it's no reason to take it to the other direction.
We have more evidence of the early levantine script from the southern levant than the northern, so there is no reason to refer to it as the Phoenician script. The Phoenicians did develop a more organized version, which the southerners might have been influenced by later.
In the bible Hebrew is called Yehudit, or Judean, and there is no reference to Canaanite languages.
Hebrews were part of the Canaanite culture, and so were the Phoenicians, you shouldn't give importance to any side if you want to be objective. Especially since Judea and Israel were the biggest and strongest kingdoms of the Canaanites.
I know you're trying to keep things simple but I still highly encourage you to add sources to your videos so viewers can dig deeper if they want. Also, scholars generally agree that parts of the Exodus story happened historically and were fused with other traditions (like many things in the Bible and oral traditions in general). Namely, that a probable Canaanite tradition about Egyptian occupation fused with a probable tradition of a smaller group of people fleeing Egypt some time during the New Kingdom (New Kingdom texts mention "Asiatics" as slaves and workers).
Also apparently this Exodus tradition seems to come from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but didn't really exist in Judah, for whatever reason. The expulsion of the Hyksos, a semitic speaking dynasty that subjugated Egypt for a time (role reversal!), could also have contributed somewhat to the story.
My sources:
"On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt" by Manfred Bietak
"The Exodus" by Richard Elliot Friedman
"The Book of Exodus: A Biography" by Joel S. Baden
"The Emergence of Iron Age Israel: On Origins and Habitus" by Avraham Faust
"Bitter Lives: Israel In And Out of Egypt" by Carol A. Redmount
"Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" by Donald B. Redford
Exactly. He says downright outrageous things like Jacob/David/Solomon were made up to give israel and Judah common ancestry, or that he knows the exact six tribes that made up the sea peoples etc.. with ZERO sources. It's pure nonsense that no legit scholar would take seriously.
@@xXDarkxIdealsXx I have noticed some errors on his vids and like, I know he’s trying to present things in short form and easy to digest but I wish he would identify stuff that’s Up For Debate due to minimal evidence, current accepted Best Guess conjecture and scholarship. Like This is What Most Scholars Currently Think Bur Arent Sure and More Studies Need to Be Done kinda Thing
Like saying anything is “made up” usually brings a modern listener an image of some great conspiracy of lies. A better way of saying it is gradual cultural syncretism occurred between multiple tribal groups with a similar history, that possibly turned in a unified story, with kernels of truth throughout it
For instance, what’s currently up for debate is the biblical narrative of one kingdom splitting into two. Exa biblical sources confirm Israel was briefly unified from two into one later, but the original “kingdom” of Israel MAY have just have been a small area or tribe, and that grew into a story of something bigger. Not untrue, just exaggerated with time
There’s loads of evidence for Judah and Israel as separate kingdoms. And there’s an Amorite or Moabite stelle that mention the House of David, and an Egyptian Bronze Age collapse mentions the “seed of Israel”, whether Israel refers to land or just a people is unclear. So a historic David definitely existed, and some sort of area or people used the name Israel while Egypt occupied Canaan in the late Bronze Age.
These little details contradict the biblical narratives somewhat, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true, just that details changed or were lost. The cultural memory of SOMETHING remains, which is the important and impressive part
@@xXDarkxIdealsXx - where does he say David and Solomon were made up? It seems clear today that their power and wealth were exaggerated, but by how much is debated between scholars.
. . . Where does he say he knows the exact tribes that made up the sea people? The sea people are today believed to have come from the Aegean and become the biblical Philistines, not a tribe within Israel.
. . . It's an entertaining video, not a scholarly contribution. It should try to be truthful but providing sources is not its job.
@@Achill101
It's not clear.
The same people that said that David & Solomon didn't exist, NOW tell us that they did exist, but that their power & wealth was exaggerated and that they lived 100 years later than the Biblical record suggests.
They know nothing for sure. Nothing.
@@davidschalit907 - there are plenty of people who claim that David and Salomon existed but in a smaller kingdom than the bible describes and who have never publicly claimed that the two didn't exist at all.
. . . Those who claimed the two never existed are more from a camp that sees no historical value in the bible for the time before 587BC, the so called Minimalists, and many of them still don't think David and Salomon existed.
. . . But what's more important: archeology is a science, and changing your opinion upon new evidence is a sign of integrity, not of generally bad judgment. The Tel-Dan stele of the 1990s was new evidence, and many archeologists who doubted David's existence were convinced by the stele that the southern dynasty of 850BC saw themselves indeed as descendents of a David as the first king of their dynasty.
As point to the Exodus. The agricultural and urban collapse throughout the mediterranean due to environmental and human causes(a domino effect) brought many peoples into nomadic lives because of the need of keep moving to survive. This resulted into the pastoralist folk to thrive in a time which probably inspired all future apocalyptic narratives. Bronze age collapse was the end of civilization in the place where civilization begin to exist and pretty much where civilization stand. My guess based on what I've studied as an armchair historian, is that social structure was one of the first things to be hit. Local aristocratic elites and priesthood was the first in being purge by the common people when they were unable to provide security and basic welfare. There is plenty of letters of the local rulers crying for the Pharaoh assistance to repel marauders, what is interesting is the mention of the happiru which it seems a word to describe the outcast, not a tribe or group specific but a loosely banded group of people, probably nomadic, that were disgruntled by the stablishment in Canaan and resulted into banditry and probably political violence against the upper levels of canaanite society. Looks to me this where the protagonist of the Exodus and a few centuries later, like 200 years after the collapse there is the mention of the judges, the of judges seems to originate from the need of some kind of charismatic figure to impose order between the nomads in the land. Looks to me that the origin pf the exodus, the antagonistic portrait of the Egyptians in jewish literature and the 40 years of wandering fits to the narrative of the happiru.
I discovered this Channel about a month ago and instantly fell in love. I’m closing in on watching all of your videos. Keep up the amazing work. I am learning so much.
It's "LeBrons Age" not "The Bronze Age".
⭕️ ⬅️lebron james??
@@junefranklin458he predicted it
If anyone's wondering the classical song in the beginning is Waltz no 2 by Shostakovich
Mr. Aronow, I'm new to your channel but really enjoying your work. Do you detail the 14 tribes vs 12 in another video?
I’m just starting to watch your history videos. Is there a link where you explain who you are, what your educational background is, what your expertise is in, and any other pertinent personal information. Thank you!
What is the name of the classical piece in the background around 1:33?
Waltz no.2 by Dmitry Shostakovich
I just found your channel and am instantly enjoying your "to the point" explanations. It's interesting how much the bronze age collapse influenced a lot of changes in the region both economically, culturally, and religiously. And some of the changes from ~1200 BCE onward could have easily started with the huge volcano explosion at Thera (Santorini island). The Minoan civilization in Crete who also disappeared at that time, were a very large "middleman" trading link between now modern Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and presumably the entire east coast of the Mediterranean. It makes you wonder if the exodus was really just mythology of some people fleeing after that event. Seems like you briefly elude to this a little at the beginning.
This channel is flipping awesome 👌 👏 great to hear history from a different point of view.
A colleague recommended your page. I love this!
Whether or not David was king depends on what the "king" means. When the word "kuningas" arrived from Germanic language into Finnish language it was used from any chief and leader, and only later did the word "kuningas" become established to mean king in Finnish. Therefore I have thought that Saul and David, respectively, have been tribal chiefs and only later has the word "melech" been used as the title of king and therefore they were later considered to be real kings as well. However, my theory is not taken seriously because I'm neither a researcher nor a professor. Many people are very convinced that David, Solomon, and the other kings mentioned in Bible are just fairy tales and not real people, as scholars and professors have convincingly suggested. The Books of Kings and the Chronicles may have been written long after Babylonian exile and therefore cannot be considered a reliable source of history. However, I oppose this idea because internationally, scholars seem to think otherwise and that the accounts have some historical basis and thr names appear in archeology.
We also have to think about how we use the same words that people did did thousands of years ago and slowly over time those words started describing different things.
Joshua defeats 31 kings in Caanan and massacres all the cities they inhabited. What did "king" and "city" mean to these people? When we think of kings, we think of large states like England, France, and Spain. When we think of cities we think of modern metropolises. But Socrates describes the ideal city population as 5040 and before the industrial revolution in the 19th century, 98% of the world's population was rural. On top of that, these events took place 1000 years before the Classical Era so the population would have been even lower. According to Google, the global population in 1000BC was 50 million. If we assume that Canaan back then had proportionally the same amount of the global population as it does today, then Israel would have 58.5k people living in it in 1000BC.
What I get out of this is what Joshua would have called a king was what we would call a petty tribal chief and what he would call a city was what we would call a small tribal encampment, perhaps with a palisade wall. These "cities" probably had only a couple hundred people at most and constituted 2% of Canaan's population at most.
But people in later eras read these things and use their understanding of what a city and king are and not that of the people who lived in those past ages, so you picture Joshua slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people in this brutal great crusade when that's not remotely possible.
There is the term melekh in hebrew which means king or more accurately ruler
I appreciate all you are doing. Sometimes you show text but do not allow enough time to read it. UA-cam overwrites the screen when I pause it. Please allow more time to see what you are showing and fewer pictures of yourself. Your videos are more meaningful at 75% speed. Thank you.
Correction:
The inexistence of a United Monarchy is a theory proposed by literally one archeologist in the 90's. It is heavily debated and criticised, and it is definitely not considered a fact by modern archeologists.
The main problem in proving or disproving the theory is because it requires dating of incredible precision.
Since we are talking about a period of only about 100 years, its very hard to claim with 100% certainty that an archeological find is from the United Monarchy period.
Every time the remains of a big building is found in or around Jerusalem dating to the First Temple Period, a heated argument erupts about if its from exactly the 10th century BCE, or could it be actually be from 50 later; which would put it in the 9th, and irrelevant to United Monarchy discussion.
There is plenty of reading material on this online for anyone interested.
I'd love to know your sources or at least a suggested text so that I could dig in deeper to this content. Thank you!
I remember a documentary mentioning how the Exodus actually would've happened during Egypt's Middle Kingdom instead of the New Kingdom.
I'm not exactly Jewish (my mother's father was Jewish, and I have been raised a christian), but It's really interesting to learn about my ancestor's history
You’re not a Jew. But you’re Jew-ish.
@@guitarlearningtoplay its a pun
@@guitarlearningtoplay that went right over your head 😆
How do you respond to new theories saying that Egyptians never talked about their defeats and the Egyptian sayings common in the Torah such as "with an outstretched hand" as well as comparisons like "chaff" as well as the tabernacle being based on Ramses' war camp
Can you leave soundtrack credits?
Hi. Do you have a video about the Samaritan Israelites? Not the Samaritans who were exiled, but the Samaritans who’ve remained in the land since they entered with Joshua.
There probably wasn't an exile of the Samaritan Israelites, he's talked about them once or twice
@@patrickrowan6001 Thanks. I’ve been able to acquire more information since I last watched this video.
The Samaritans say that there was, in fact, an exile by the Assyrians, but the numbers weren’t anything near what most of us have been taught. Assyrian records show us that they exiled about 29,000 northern Israelites, which is only a fraction of their numbers. If the Assyrians took more than that, you’d think that they’d be proud and would record a bigger number, right?
Sadly, most of us have been taught that the northern Israelites were “replaced” by gentiles. I don’t believe in karma, but if I did, this is karma…since the church teaches that the Jews (the chosen) have been replaced by gentiles (the church.)
The Judean records tell us that King Ahaz made an alliance with the King of Assyria, so we can thank Ahaz for bringing in disaster. 😣 But according to the Samaritans, the northern Israelites had forced conversions and wars, etc. that helped diminish their numbers, too.
I caught something else when studying Joshua recently. The SANCTUARY was, in fact, in Shechem. In Chapter 24 of Joshua, Joshua made his famous speech in Shechem “under the oak that was by the “SANCTUARY.” The writing is clear to tell us that a “tent” was set up in Shiloh, but the “sanctuary” was in Shechem.
The Samaritans say that Eli rebelled against the priesthood. The rebellion took a group from Judah and built an additional Tent on Meeting in Shiloh. So, for a period of time, there were two Tents…the one built with Moses (the sanctuary) and the one built under Eli (in Shiloh). This makes sense because why else would Joshua mention TWO tents?
In studying the priestly garment, we can learn a lot. The high priest carried the names of the sons of Israel on his SHOULDERS. The names were engraved on stones as a lasting memorial. And Ephraim’s stone on the breastplate is the same type of stone worn on the priest’s shoulders.
But there’s more. The meaning of the word “Shechem” is “shoulder”. The chosen place was on the shoulder (mountain) of Shechem. Moses and Israel sang a song to exalt YHWH about Him planting them in “the place” “the place made for Your dwelling” “the MOUNTAIN of His inheritance” “the SANCTUARY which His hands established.” Joshua tells us that YHWH placed the sanctuary in the mountain of their inheritance…the mountain of Shechem, the shoulder of Shechem. The ceremony of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal even resembles the shoulders of the priestly garment. Half the tribes on one side, the other half on the other side. Interestingly, the order of the tribes changes.
And if Shechem no longer had authority or relevance after the temple was built in Jerusalem, then why would Solomon’s son need to go there to be coronated as King of Judah? What were they really doing in Shechem? How was a descendant of an Ammonite princess able to enter the assembly of Israel, much less serve as Judah’s King? Makes zero sense!
Your channel is a treasure. Thanks for sharing such knowledge in an excellent presentation. Congratulations!
Realize you’re working with what you’ve got, but I think this would benefit from an acknowledgment that a lot of the material here is this side of pure speculation
@Sam Aronow
Recently subscribed to your channel!
Love your dedication and hard work to presenting the known history trough the Jewish perspective!
One can assume that a lot of effort was put to your videos along with proper editing and etc...
Truly you have created a one of a kind UA-cam educational/enriching history channel in my opinion! very educational videos!!
that is why I became very frustrated when I could not find any data online to back up some of the facts you presented in this video.
I would really appreciate if you answered me or point me to a reliable information source regarding the following questions :
question #1 :
quote : "For one, the biblical narrative of a united kingdom between Judah and Israel is generally disregarded by modern historians.
DOES THIS MEAN THAT JUDEA AND THE OTHER TRIBES OF ISRAEL WERE NEVER UNIFIED AS ONE KINGDOM?
WAS THERE ALWAYS A SEPERATION BETWEEN JUDEA AND THE OTHER TRIBES OF ISRAEL?
This contradicts sayings told in Jewish (religious and non-religious alike) high schools in Israel, that at first there was a unified kingdom of Israel, that included ALL the tribes. And later on, broke to two kingdoms Judea and Israel.
question #2 :
quote : "
But nowadays, it's widely agreed by archaeologists and historians that the Exodus never happened Because the Israelites were never slaves in Egypt at all. But that doesn't mean that the Israelites weren't part of the Egyptian Kingdom.
IF THE EXODUS STORY NEVER ACOURED, HOW DID THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL CAME TO BE IN CANAAEN ?
DID THE SONS OF ISRAEL (JACOB) NEVER REALLY TRAVELED TO EGYPT AND SETTELED IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN ?(AS TOLD FROM GENEISIS CHAPTER 46 PASSAGE 6)
WHERE DO THE ISRAELITES ORIGINATE FROM, ACCORDING TO FINDINGS TODAY?
would really appreciate a full and detailed explanation or a link to some relevant information sources
keep producing amazing content!
I'm not Sam, but I'll try to answer your questions anyhow.
Questions 1: Yes, it's possible that Judah and Israel were always separated. It's also possible that David and Salomon ruled over some parts of the later Israel in the North. But what archeological finds seem to contradict now is a United Monarchy with great prosperity and extraordinary building activity. Most importantly: there was hardly any scribal activity in that time, and you can have neither a prosperous kingdom nor reliable chronicles without it.
Question 2: The Israelites were the people living in Canaanite highlands who developed a new common identity after the Bronze Age collapse. Today's consensus among scholars is that there is NO historicity in Genesis: no Adam or Eve, no Noah, no patriarchs, no Joseph.
@@Achill101 Thank you very much for your answer! shocking and interesting facts for me!
sure would like some sources of information to back up what you wrote but thank you for answering anyway
@@shahaking - one well written popularization of the history of ancient Israel is The Bible Unearthed by Finkelstein and Silverman, but there are many more books if you prefer a different one. The question of the historicity of Genesis has been pretty much closed by scholars, with a negative result, similarly the historicity of the Conquest of Canaan, with negative result. Most of the ancestors of Israelites and Judahites had always lived in Canaan since the Bronze Age collapse, a small group might have brought with them a tradition of an exodus from Egypt later. But the historicity of the United Monarchy is still a subject of active research today: while Finkelstein denies it, other archeologists affirm it. Enjoy your reading about the history.
@@Achill101 wow thanks! so nice to know there are knowlegeble individuals out there online thank you for the reading recomandation and the detailed answers
@@shahaking - you're welcome.
2:15 Ouch! I had it turned up enough to hear you well, and then the Simpsons blasted my eardrums.
Hey I really love ur vids, highly interesting although u make some tough claims, I was wondering what are the sources for pretty much everything iron age related?
The music is interfering with the information.
I am inclined to listen more on Shostakovitch's Second Waltz than to your monologue.
Very good video. I've been watching this series and very impressed. In the future,, will you be going over some of the theories on if a united kingdom existed. And as I do not speak Hebrew, is it true that David was usually referred to as a prince or chieftain instead of king?
You should write a book. I will buy it!
I did!
@@SamAronow a book on jewish history not on travel. You speak to fast for a non english native speaker. But i like your narrative. It remains me that of Isaac Asimov.
By the way, Asimov wrote a lot of books on history, which at least on Spain are very popular. I read most of them. Unfortunately he left a lot of history “unwritten”: precolombine cultures, french revolution, china history, japan history, are some of them. Also the history of religions.
Would you be so kind to write a book on each of them? Thank you.
(I hope that tweet on creeps is not directed to me)
What are the musical credits again? You said names at the end but I don't see the composer's name? Wonderful video as always!
The piece is Jazz Suite No. 2: VI. Waltz 2 by Shostakovich
I have a question, why is Yahweh missing in your pantheon? Wasn't he god of war back then?
Well done Sam!
Love the use of Shostakovich
I'm curious, if you're willing to share, what kind of Jew you are? I'm not super familiar with all of the options that exist today aside from Hesidic, Reformed, and Orthodox, but I know there are others as well and so I'm curious what perspective you're coming from in your Judaism and, if it's different from how you were raised, which sect you were raised in.
Where did you get the Info, that there were 14 tribes?
Favorite youtuber
No, you are not the only one that remembers that King David movie from the 80's. I also remember that movie, Richard Gere played King David.
Wow you blew me away twice at the halfway point. Never slaves in Eqypt. 14 tribes? Please explain
Have you ever explained the 14 tribes btw?
1:45 i can't tell if we're looking at the 'southern Canaanites' or both the northern and southern Canaanites. i can't tell which part of the coast the Sea Peoples settled on. From Philistia to Sidon? Where on this map are the Judean mountains?
We are looking at both southern and northern Canaanites (or Phoenicians), including Aram which are not considered Canaanites.
The sea people in this picture, or philistines, are the dark green color in the south west, and the tribe of Dan, which might also belong to the sea people, is the small brown area just above it.
The Phoenicians are to the north west, and include Sidon, Tyre, Acre, and Dor. In this map or period, Menashe is dividing the Phoenicians from the philistines.
Judea is the big blue area to the south, with the tribe of Simeon inside it.
This map isn't necessarily the most accurate, since the sources of most tribal names is found only in the bible, but it still gives the right idea, and might be true.
The biggest mystery here is the connection between Bronze Age collapse and Strauss waltzes.
The 2001 a space odyssey edit
There is evidence for an Exodus in history and archeology. It's just that people are looking in the wrong time period for it. I'd recommend "Patterns of Evidence Exodus" documentary, which provides evidences to support the Exodus from multiple sources, but it claims it's back way before the Ramses period, in the Kingdom of Avaris.
The reason people look to the wrong time period for the evidence is because of a couple of reasons. "1. Pi-Ramses" in the Bible, but this is likely a later placeholder name for the original name of the city by later scribes. And 2. the Masoretic Text altered some of the numbers and chronologies from the original scrolls (like the DSS and LXX).
But the physical tangible of a mass exodus is indeed there, in the Old Kingdom period that is, as opposed to the later kingdoms, which is where people typically are (wrongly) looking for evidence of Exodus.
I didn’t see anything about Moses. Isn’t he considered the most important prophet in Judaism of this time period. What’s your take on historical Moses?
There is no historical evidence of Moses or the Israelites being slaves I'm Egypt... Basically the exodus story never happened
I like Freud's idea of Moses being a priest of Akhenaten's monotheism 1351-1334 BC.Exodus was just a little expulsion of Moses and some followers into Midian, todays Saudi Arabia.Where some of Akhenaten's ideas might have originated.
I still hold onto the idea that Moses and the Levites were Egyptian in origin and had some type of conflict led them to leave Egypt and integrate into Israel
My theory is that the Pharaoh in the Exodus was Seti II, and his brother Amunmosse rebelled against him. He set up a competing kingdom in northern Egypt for 2 years.
After a military defeat, Amunmosse makes a daring escape across the sea of reeds at a time he knew he would be able to make a crossing but the opportunity would not allow his brother to follow, lest his army get stuck in the mud.
Amunmosse then goes into Midian, and spends some time there building alliances, eventually marrying a Midianite woman, and accepting the Gods of her father, in return for uniting the tribes of the area under him to resist Egypt, which they do for a time. They eventually take credit for Egypt losing influence in the area(when really it was the Bronze Age collapse), and this Moses becomes a great cultural hero who came out of Egypt and freed the land from the Egyptians. Perhaps the lands of Israel and Judea were, in fact, the “promised land” for this effort, even if no conquest took place, this cultural idea could have taken hold, that these lands belonged to God. Form Midian, worship of Yaweh spreads north probably as a means of social cohesion in a post-Egyptian world. These are all basically related peoples, and this shared faith became a touchstone that brought stability to the region. Or perhaps, it spread due because there was some type of oath under Yahweh, and then you have the time of Judges, where you have their loose confederation, with people basically worshiping other gods, until every so often you get some radical preacher trying to get people back to the God that saved them from Egypt, and this is where it dovetails back into normal history. This also works to explain why Moses and Aaron never got to Israel. Because 1) it wasn’t ever their goal. Moses was probably aiming to get his throne back in Egypt, this is why the reason Moses doesn’t get there in the Bible is so silly and 2) it also explains the distinction the Israelites placed between themselves and the Canaanite’s, despite them being the same people apparently. Israel were those who had sworn an oath to Yahweh.
Over centuries, and with the need to fit this story into a wider narrative, this story becomes Moses leading the people out of Egypt
The Amarna letters imply some sort of Exodus, don't they? Who led the anarchist revolution, and why wasn't the reigning Pharaoh responsive?
"Hundred years is not long enough for history to descend into legend"
I'll disagree giving an example: "Rosary Miracle of Hiroshima". The story the miracle is based on happened in 1945, less than 100 years ago, but the current legend has mutated heavily and doesn't resemble the original story at all. And we do have the original story - the interview with a priest that took part in the "miracle"! Still, with decades passing and further interviews being conducted, the priest slowly changed his account of easily explainable events into what we would call "legend" now.
Legend: "8 priests less that 0,5 mile away from epicenter of the hydrogen bomb explosion survived the explosion with no injuries and no radiation sickness, and lived their lives in full health"
Actual story: "4 priests 1 mile away survived the blast in a double braced house (like almost 50% of other people in their zone), 2 of the priests suffered heavy wounds, all 4 experienced varying levels of radiation sickness, 1 died in his 60s.
Quite a different tale.
Good grief?! Your background is way too loud?!
This begs the question, what was wealth to people back then? What did that mean? Our conception of wealth is something that people living in the Iron Age could not even imagine. Solomon's Temple has its dimensions listed and it's about the size of those little Protestant churches you see in the USA. But Solomon lined the entire interior with cedar wood from Lebanon which was a huge symbol of wealth in the region as the cedars of Lebanon were in massive demand. That sounds like nothing to us as we can buy a literal ton of cedar without breaking the bank but to the ancients in the Levant and Egypt, that meant you were filthy rich.
Are you following Israel Finkelsteins interviews by Alex Tseitlin?
By 14 Tribes you include Moab and Edom?
In Contra Apion, Josephus correlates the Exodus with the Hyksos expulsion.
Thanks for the new perspective, I love that Jewish history is so much more than oral tradition, though that has an importance in its own right. Your videos always peak my curiosity, keep it up!
Wow bill wurtz, im glad he is helping out with history still!
“Widely agreed” it’s barely agreed.
They can’t even agree “how” the “mythologizing” happened.
This might have come out later than this video, but have you looked at the solomonic gates thing? If all of northern israel's borders AND Jerusalem were fortified using the same blueprints in the 10th century bc that does suggest the united monarchy was a thing does it not?
2:43 who are the extra 2 tribes?
you take a very minimalist stand on the history...
@EQSun Hitou well not only that, but there are allot of maximalist researchers, who think the general plot of most of the bible is true.
It's less about taking a minimalist stance and more about only making claims on things that there is evidence for. The tanakh might be a lot more true than what is presented here but there is just so much we don't know about this period and we shouldn't treat tanakh as fact unless there is evidence to back it up.
@@McFluff33 well, it depends what scholar you ask, if you know hebrew i can link a channel of a guy, going to doctors and profesors and asking them on this subject, he gives a wide range of views, really good channel
@@אוהדאריאליופה give it to me
@@pussy_destroyer6306
I reccomened watching israel knohl, david shapira and maor ovadia if youre interested in the maximslists
Search in youtube "alex tseitlin"
What were the 14 tribes?
Why 14?
Yea, established historians didn't think King's David & Solomon existed as well. So there current views on the Exodus and Israelites in Egypt is their views NOW.
Also, for a people to have tribes, with a story behind how they came about , one that completely denies that story needs to explain how that story evolved.
Great information and incite. 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
The Philistines in the Bible were probably the Phoenicians by another name. They were a separate group that had wars with the ancient Hebrews. The Philistines were Greeks.
The Egyptian calendar became corrupted, according to Doctor Immanuel Velikovsky in his 2 Books "Worlds in Collision" 1950, and "Earth in Upheaval" 1955, and these events brought such changes that the disruption of the Egyptian calendar was moved 600 years. Hence our Exodus from Egypt took place but not according to the Current Egyptian calendar. So to say that we did not escape from Egypt is incorrect and this needs to be addressed.
music is too loud and distracting
The whole timeline thing is gonna confuse people I believe the exodus is in a much older time line than mentioned
Okay, I know I'm showing up late to this, but I think it was Ramses III who defeated the Sea Peoples and resettled them.
The predator: Let me introduce myself
"Meeoowwww?"
Why is he living in a nicely decorated cave?
Oh. That’s why. Cool
Hi, love the series, I’ve watched many episodes, but i keep coming back to this one. I have questions. You mention the exodus from Egypt as probably being false, but you make no mention of Moses, Aaron (my namesake) and you make passing mention of King Solomon who is credited with building the first temple on the site where Adam was created. But, you do not mention any of this. You also claim in later videos that Adam and Eve was imported from Babylon. Are you saying Moses and the 10 commandments is false as well? If so, who build the first temple and what is the significance of the foundation stone? Also, in later videos, you mention the ark, but say it is of really no significance. Are you claiming that it never contained the 10 commandments or the staff of Aaron? These are some pretty important foundational questions that you completely ignored. I’d love your feedback on why you chose this path. Thanks!
5 minutes?!!? you gotta redo this time period homie
The problem with two Jewish kingdoms is which one should a Jew provide loyalty to?
Which one had political/ religious authority from a legalistic or religious point of view?
great vids! but terrible and too-loud and unrelated background music. please lose the background music bug, it disturbs the listening experience and it is too loud in the mix especially the unrelated orchestral piece you have here. Shostakovich is really not fitting the topic…
Ditch the music, as your fast-talking is hard to track as it is
Do I need to see Gere as King David again? oof I don’t know
Phoenicians: Boat Canaanites
Hebrews/Jews: Horse and Mountain Canaanites
And actually Pharaoh Mernapath the successor of Ramses the Great had a battle with the Sea people's and settled the Sherden or Shardona who we believe are now the nargalic civilization of sardinia, probably on the southern coast close to where Philistia would be three decades in the future after Ramses the third settled the Peleset, who were probably the Pelasgeians from Greece. Not the Hellens, to become the Philistines. It was actually the Sherden, from the battle a generation before, that helped Ramses the third defeat the sea peoples in a large sea battle at the mouth of the Nile.
you are very impressive, keep it up. now the critique: i remember reading that all historians agree that Abraham existed (sorry dont remember the source). if that statement raises your hackles, then you should also rethink your own summary line where you dismiss the exodus as never occuring. Also the egyptian historians, even the antisemitic Manetho u referred to in the damascus affair video, see the israelites as a separate group than the egyptians and caananites. so its a bit glib for you to say that the exodus and the books of moses were not a thing. its interesting how well the bible describes the places peoples and events around egypt and israel of the time, so i would not dismiss the exodus out of hand just because of poor archealogical record. who knows what future scientific methods will uncover, i would stay at least agnostic on the issue.
One problem: the Berlin Pedestal Relief likely refers to Israel as an independent polity 100 years BEFORE Rameses the Great or the arrival of the Sea Peoples. So where then does Israel come from? Two Egyptian inscriptions from the 15th century BCE refer to wanderers (Shashu) of YHWH being the enemies of the Pharaoh and Egypt never incorporated YHWH into their pantheon as they were prone to do with other gods like Baal. Now, do I believe there were 600,000 wandering the desert for 40 years? No, and I don't think the text actually demands that. As for there never being a united kingdom, that doesn't pass the smell test. First, the Tel Dan inscription was found in the extreme north of Israel-- not even Judean territory. If the Bible was essentially written as Judah's propaganda, its obsession with the precise northern kingdom's comings and goings makes little sense. It would be like A US history book spending half its time talking about Canada. Kings and the rest of the Old Testament has only a passing interest in the activities of Moab, Edom, the Philistines, and Aramaens-- only as they relate to Israel or Judah. The two were culturally distinct from the surrounding cultures yet highly similar to each other, both with the same god that the rest of the region despised (although the Northern Kingdom was much more syncretic as the Bible indicates). Yet we are to believe they developed independently and weren't ever politically unified? No. It makes sense the north and south were united for a time (for only three generations by the way) and they split up due to latent tribal tensions that existed much earlier than Rehoboam. The minimalist approach is filled with as many assumptions and biases as the religious approach; at least the religious people admit theirs.
More like a Canadian history book talking about the U.S. The South was greatly outshined by the North hence the inferiority complex?
Can anyone explain 14 tribes?
0:50 Is tat a Bill Wurtz reference?
The wrong music, too much of it, and too loud. Talks too fast. Very confusing jumble of name, dates, and facts.
David likely existed. The legends surrounding him, not so much.
0:47 don’t be jealous
Why 14 tribes?
Jacob/Israel had 12 sons according to the Bible. Each son had their own tribe except for Joseph who's two sons had their own tribes instead bringing the number up to 13. The song of Deborah mentions the tribe of Machir (son of Manasseh son of Jacob) which has led some historians to think that in early Israel Machir existed as a 14th tribe that became absorbed into the tribe of Manasseh
Half of what you said was debunked by inspiringphilosophy
Hallo from Denmark in the north . Great video. Now I belive just and other historians. That there newer was unified kingdom. But does rule out , that the south could dominated the north . I belive indeed there was three kings of south called Saul, David and Salomon . And that these three kings was powerfull enough to dominate the Northern kingdom and held overlord ship over the north. So that the kings in north was simply vasals under Saul, David and Solomon . Then after Solomons death. The overlord ship collapsed and Israel became the dominant kingdom . But then memory of the judas overlord ship gradual faded away and replaced with myth of the united kingdom .
14 tribes?
The Narrative presented here is highly speculative and by no means conclusively established, let alone a consensus view
Why does it have to be a "consensus" view? IF people like you had their way, Darwinism would have been eliminated as not a "consensus" view. Controversial opinions are sometimes stellar discoveries, and majority opinions are often wrong.
@@robinlillian9471 Nevermind that this guy here never mentions A SINGLE SOURCE in this video to back up his bogus claims. Also we have consensus to establish whether or not something is worth its salt under scrutiny, because otherwise we get any tom dick and harry like this youtuber making shit up. Also Darwinism was entirely created by darwin to justify the supremacy of the white race over everyone, so if you want to support that racist nutter go ahead.
@@robinlillian9471 These video's are presented in a matter of fact way, all OP did was point out that this isn't settled science and shouldn't be consumed under that understanding.
So you were taught Scripture is mythology? Is there any part of Scripture that you accept as historical? How do you have and teach and identity if the written record is false, mythology? Do you value all your peoples opinions or just the ones that educate the children to disbelieve their Scriptures?
You talk waayyy too fast. Slow it down.
Look up Avaris.
What are these other sources about this subject besides the bible?
a lot of archeology, assyrian ancient texts, aramean tel dan victory stele (c 830 bce), the moabite mesha stele (c 850 bce) egyptian texts- as well as various corroborating histories written centuries later that used various primary sources (greek historians for example).
@@Alexandroslav but are they conflituous with biblical narratives?
@@Hickokboy they are well corroborated from around 900 Bce (separate kingdoms of israel and judah), currently the most disputed era is the united kingdom (Saul, Ishbaal, David, Solomon, Rohoboam/Jeroboam I) that precedes the separate kingdoms (c 1050 Bce to c 920 Bce) in the last three decades of research the united kingdom begun regaining traction due to recent very good archeological discoveries (tel dan stele and khirbet qeiyafa) but it is still difficult to tell.
the problem is that this period follows shortly after the bronze age collapse and the surrounding empires crumbled and literacy dropped to near none existence. therefore written records of this time period are too few and far between and mostly deal with internal matters and not geopolitical content.
so even if the united monarchy did exist just as we know there was a king named david there - that does not mean that the biblical character we have of him is historical but rather are mythologized legends that are based on distant historical memories.
@@Alexandroslav Yea I would not trust the histories of peoples that were antagonistic througout their entire existence to the israelites.