Considering 'Minimalism', Historiography and History

EMANUEL PFOH

Berlín

Congreso; European Association of Biblical Studies Annual Meeting / Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting - Berlin 7-11 August 2017; 2017

EABS / SBL / Humboldt Universität

The 'maximalist/minimalist' debates of the 1990s reflect a positive moment of epistemological and methodological discussions within the field of Old Testament historical studies, in spite of some concerned voices viewing such debates as proper of a crisis in the writing of ancient Israelite history. These debates actually allowed for rethinking the primary ways in which the history of 'ancient Israel' was produced, the status of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as a historical source, and they even opened up the possibility of addressing a new and wider historiographical genre in the field: the history of ancient Palestine, as a more critical historiographical horizon overcoming the limitations of the traditional focus on 'ancient Israel'. This paper considers, in a first place, the relevance of the 'minimalist' positions for a critical historiography of ancient Israel/Palestine, and in a second place, building on such elaboration, the prospects for writing histories of the region in the 21st century beyond issues of historicity related to ancient textual traditions and more concerned with problem-oriented themes, like political practices, economic structures, cult and ritual practices, etc.