1978

Introductory remarks

This text is written in response to the recent chapter of Malcolm Clark and William Dever in the new Israelite and Judaean History by Hayes and Miller. The first part attempts to clarify my position for giving an Iron Age post quem dating for the origin of the Genesis narratives, while the second part discusses the sociologically descriptive term ‘dimorphic’ as used by Dever in his article, and as it has been variously used in the writing of Mesopotamian history. I then discuss the limits of the use to which such parallels or analogies can be put in developing a history of Palestine. The EB IV/MB I period is then used as an example of the effect of sociological and anthropological questions on the writing of a history of Palestine, while the final discussion deals with the complexity of settlement patterns in Bronze Age Palestine and the variety of political strac-tures implied by such patterns, as well as the impact of such observations on the history of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The changes that have occurred during the last decade in publications dealing with the historical background of the patriarchs, beginning with Morton Smith's 1968 presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature and the publication of the English version of a 1969 article of Benjamin Mazar have dramatically altered our perspec-fives on both the Pentateuchal tales and the late pre-history of Palestine.