Bible

First post: February 27, 2025.

Periodically I get interested (again) in the history of the Bible. This year (2025) was a banner year for me with regard to the Bible.  Updates might not be updated.

1200 BCE. 

Bible -- Ugarit -- Canaan -- 1200 BCE -- Late Bronze Age -- Early Iron Age -- Egypt Collapses

Stories From Ancient Canaan, Second Edition, Michael D. Coogan, c. March 15, 2012. Notes here.

Michael Coogan is Lecturer in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at Harvard Divinity School and Director of Publications for Harvard Semitic Museum. He has taught at a number of prestigious universities and colleges, and has participated in archaeological excavations in Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and Egypt.

Who Really Wrote The Bible? The Story Of The Scribes, William M. Schniedewind, c. 2024, Princeton University Press. Notes here.

 

The Invention Of Hebrew, Seth L. Sanders, c. 2009. Notes here.

 

1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline, c. 2021. Notes here.

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Dead Sea Scrolls
Essenes

3 BCE - 1CE

Wiki.

 

Essenes and Dead Sea scrolls go hand-in-hand / hand-in-glove.

At the time of their discovery, 1946 - 1956, the discovery generated a lot of discussion. 

Since then, excitement has faded but you have to at least have a passing understanding.

Discovered by a Bedouin shepherd, and then more and more discovered by more and more Bedouins. 

Qumran caves on northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.

Most important to me: Edmund Wilson wrote a series (?) of articles on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From those articles, he published a book on the same in 1955, then came out with a second book that contained the original book and then an update, published in 1967, and subsequently edited and copyrighted again in 1969.

I have a hard copy of the book, The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1947 - 1969, with copyright dates of 1955, 1967, and 1969.

It's interesting: my entire time growing up in Williston, 1953 - 1969, was the very same time the Dead Sea scrolls were being discovered and studied. 

The book I have is very musty and if you have sensitivities to such things you may find yourself wheezing. It's "amazing" to read Edmund's history of the Dead Sea scrolls written at the time they were first discovered and published in The New Yorker. It certainly seems a lot of lines were written in the wiki entry without proper attribution to Edmund Wilson. I was disappointed to not see a link to his work.

Once you know the background story of the Dead Sea scrolls, it might be fun to read excerpts from his book. Edmund Wilson has a major section on the Essenes.