Co wiemy, a czego jeszcze nie o dziejach starożytnego Izraela? Dyskusja wokół Historii Żydów w starożytności; od Thotmesa do Mahometa Ł. Niesiołowskiego-Spanò i K. Stebnickiej (Warszawa 2020)
What do we know and what we do not know yet about the history of ancient Israel? A discussion on The history of the Jews in antiquity from Thutmose to Muhammad, Ł. Niesiołowski-Spanò and K. Stebnicka (Warsaw 2020)

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the vision of the history of the Ancient Israel presented by two scholars in a book The history of the Jews in antiquity from Thutmose to Muhammad. The reconstruction of the history of Israel covers more than 1500 years from the end of the Bronze and the beginning of the Iron Age at the end of the 2nd millennium BC and finishes with the Muslim conquest of Palestine in 7th century AD. The narrative of the book is based on a large number of sources which are sometimes ambiguous though. The scholars present their own interpretation of the source material which is hardly accepta- ble sometimes. The book intends to present the history of the Ancient Israel from vario- us perspectives: political, social-economic and religious, through which it intends to give a full picture of the historical process. It seems that the book is intended to be a student’s textbook for the history of Ancient Israel, and therefore one should expect a special tho- roughness as far as the completeness of argumentation is concerned, as well as in cases of disputable presentations of various possible approaches. With such a delicate matter as the history of Ancient Israel or the interpretation of Biblical stories, epecially if it is to be a didactic tool and is to shape the view of Ancient Israel among future historians, one might also expect that the authors should take into consideration the attitude of a reader and the cultural tradition he may share. The hypotheses and opinions presented in the book often evoke serous doubts and reservations, which are presented in the discussion below. Doubts in question touch upon fundamental issues such as the origin of political structures of the states of Israel and Judah, evolution of the Jewish-Israelite beliefs, relgion and its institutions, and finally the complicated life of the Jews in the first centuries of the diaspora.

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