ABSTRACT
The aetiological myths of holy places discussed in this work form a unied body of sources. The Bible associates the beginnings of nine such places in various parts of Palestine with the patriarchs, with the times around the conquest of Canaan and with the period of Judges. Neither the books describing the deeds of David and Saul, nor the books of Kings, contain a separate aetiological myth. This in itself is enough to let us conclude that the books of Samuel and the books of Kings are texts of a different kind than the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua and Judges. It is tempting to apply the epithet “historiographical” to them. The concept would, however, need to be dened more precisely. Biblical historiography is unique in the Middle East where there is no work comparable to the description of the deeds of Judah and Israel.1 Arnaldo Momigliano’s theory that Greek and Jewish historiography have common roots in unpreserved Persian writings seems to be unwarranted.2 Niels Peter Lemche’s claims regarding the dependence of biblical historiography on the historiographic traditions of the Greeks and Romans require further study.3 Even if the appearance of aetiological myths of holy places were an indicator applicable to these studies, we would still have to recognise the difference in kind between the Genesis-Judges collection and that of 1 Samuel-2 Kings. The Pentateuch, the book of Joshua as well as the book of Judges contain a record of the Israelites’ mythical past and for 1. Van Seters, In Search of History. 2. A. Momigliano, “Biblical and Classical Studies. Simple Reections upon Historical Method,” Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, serie III, 11 (1981): 25-32; idem, The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography, Berkeley, 1990, 5-28. 3. Lemche, The Israelites in History and Tradition; but particularly “Ideology and the History of Ancient Israel,” SJOT 14 (2000): 165-93; see also Edelman (ed.), The Fabric of History; Davies, In Search of “Ancient Israel”; Fritz and Davies (eds.), The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States; Grabbe (ed.), Can a “History of Israel” Be Written?
