Why Another History of Israel? Ahab and Jehoshaphat

When reading a book, I often jot a short evaluative comment at the end of each chapter to remind my future self of its value and potential use in teaching or elsewhere. If I were making such notes for my own new book, A History of Ancient Israel, I would give the chapter on Ahab and Jehoshaphat one of my highest marks. What I mean is that this era of history, beginning with Ahab’s father Omri, is so greatly illuminated by archaeological discoveries, geographical understanding, and chronological connections. It is only when you bring the evidence together that you can identify historical realities otherwise lost to time. Let me illustrate this with some chronological discoveries I made. It’s worth noting from the start that these discoveries depend upon the reliability of Scripture. I suspect that one reason some of these connections have been overlooked is that many scholars who have studied this period have not regarded the biblical chronological data as sufficiently reliable to build upon. If you are unwilling to trust the biblical records, you are unlikely to discover what emerges when the chronological details are brought together. Another reason, to be sure, is that it took sc...