01_Biblica_Hong_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:54 Pagina 334 334 KOOG P. HONG A naïve acceptance of the biblical portrayal of the common origin of Judah and Israel is questioned 54. In the end, biblical historians have learned that the real history of Israel and Judah must be distinguished from its biblical portrayal, which was informed by much of the theo- logical and political interests of later periods 55. To be sure, these are highly contested issues that will continue to be debated. Still, even though one may not admit these recent chal- lenges to their fullest extent, it becomes increasingly difficult to deny their implications for source criticism 56. One of the main bases that source critics defended against tradition-historical claims for inde- pendence of individual traditions is that both Israelites and Judeans shared stories of the past. According to them, even if a tradition was originally rooted in south or north at its oral level, those disparate traditions were later fused into a collective memory. This fusion must have happened either in the alleged tribal amphictyony or in the united monarchy. Then, with the theory of amphictyony no longer holding 57, it means that skepticism over the grandeur of David’s (southern and northern) empire indicates the loss of a melting-pot era in which a common identity would have been forged. Necessary questions then follow: When did this shared memory arise, and who combined disparate traditions together? This pre- cisely is the kind of question that recent European scholars ask when they highlight the pre-P “hiatus” between the exodus and the patri- archal traditions. That is, before P put these together, it is claimed, the exodus tradition and the patriarchal traditions existed indepen- dently as competing myths of Israel’s origin. In our case, likewise, we focus on the hiatus between the Abraham tradition (from the FINKELSTEIN – SILBERMAN, The Bible Unearthed, 149-158; P.R. DAVIES, 54 “The Trouble with Benjamin”, Reflection and Refraction (eds. R. REZETKO – T.H. LIM – W.B. AUCKER) (VTS 113; Leiden 2007) 109; ID., “The Origin of Biblical Israel”, Essays on Ancient Israel in Its Near Eastern Context. A Trib- ute to Nadav Naʼaman (eds. Y. AMIT et al.) (Winona Lake, IN 2006) 145. See P.R. DAVIES, In Search of “Ancient Israel” (JSOTSS 148; Sheffield 55 1992); ID., The Origins of Biblical Israel (LHBOTS 485; New York 2007). E.g. J.L. SKA, Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch (Winona Lake, 56 IN 2006) 129-131. For a defense, see SCHWARTZ, “Recent Scholarship’s Cri- tique”, 12-14. M. NOTH, Das System der zwölf Stämme Israels (Darmstadt 1930). For 57 a critique, see A.D.H. MAYES, Israel in the Period of the Judges (London 1974). © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati