The Hunt for Ancient Israel - Essays in Honour of Diana V. Edelman - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
Kings Saul, David, and Arthur: On Writing a History of the 'Dark Age'
The Hunt for Ancient Israel - Essays in Honour of Diana V. Edelman - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
Lester L. Grabbe [+]
University of Hull
Lester L. Grabbe is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hull and has written extensively on ancient Israel, including Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know it (T&T Clark, 2017) and the edited collection, The Hebrew Bible and History: Critical Readings (T&T Clark, 2018).
Description
One of our problems in writing the early history of ancient Israel is that the period of its beginnings is essentially a “Dark Age.” Yet this is hardly the only period of history known as the “Dark Age”; another well-known one is the period of two centuries or so after the Romans left the British Isles. It is during this period that King Arthur is placed. This essay will attempt to work out principles for writing a history of Israel's Dark Age by looking at the historiographic problems and their proposed solutions arising from the British Dark Age and, especially, the historicity of King Arthur.