Observatório Bíblico

Pode uma ‘História de Israel’ ser escrita? Observando o debate atual sobre a História de Israel. Artigo publicado na Ayrton’s Biblical Page em 2001 e atualizado em 2019.

Em julho de 1996 foi realizado em Dublin, Irlanda, o Primeiro Seminário Europeu de Metodologia Histórica, do qual participaram pesquisadores escolhidos.

Diz Lester L. Grabbe no primeiro parágrafo do livro por ele editado – e que traz os resultados do Seminário – Can a ‘History of Israel’ Be Written? [Pode uma ‘História de Israel’ Ser Escrita?]. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997 [London: T. & T. Clark, 2005 – ISBN 0567043207]:

“O grupo surgiu das frustrações que eu, em primeiro lugar, venho sentindo acerca da atual situação do debate sobre como escrever a história de Israel e Judá nos segundo e primeiro milênios AEC e no século I da EC” (p. 11).

E continua:

“Nos últimos anos, um certo número de estudiosos – a maioria deles europeus por origem ou adoção – tem feito um ataque radical sobre o modo como a história de ‘Israel’ tem sido escrita. Mesmo aqueles outrora considerados radicais não escaparam da crítica. Este movimento, a princípio minoritário, causou pouco impacto no debate. Recentemente, porém, ele adquiriu personalidade, mas a resposta foi o surgimento de protestos, incluindo a sugestão de que tais tendências são perigosas, ou que podem ser tranquilamente ignoradas ou – de modo curioso – ambas as coisas ao mesmo tempo” (p. 11).

Lester L. Grabbe está se referindo à controvérsia existente entre a postura maximalista “que defende que tudo nas fontes que não pode ser provado como falso deve ser aceito como histórico” e a postura minimalista “que defende que tudo que não é corroborado por evidências contemporâneas aos eventos a serem reconstruídos deve ser descartado” (E. Knauf, citado por H. Niehr no mesmo livro, na p. 163). Os autores “minimalistas” são também conhecidos como membros da “Escola de Copenhague”.

Retomando Grabbe:

“Isto sugeriu que o tempo estava maduro para algo mais organizado, que abordasse as questões centrais de maneira sistemática e que determinasse quais são as reais posições e problemas (…). A tarefa inicial foi agrupar especialistas europeus que estavam, de maneira geral, convencidos de que existe, de fato, um problema” (p. 11-12).

O artigo apresenta algumas das mais importantes publicações dos participantes do Seminário Europeu de Metodologia Histórica [foram realizados 17 seminários entre 1996 e 2012] e procura explicar suas posições no atual debate sobre a História de Israel.

Estou estudando nestes dias, na Literatura Deuteronomista, com o Segundo Ano de Teologia do CEARP, O Contexto da Obra Histórica Deuteronomista – confira meu artigo de 2005 – e o assunto da última aula foi a invasão de Judá por Senaquerib, da Assíria, em 701 a.C. quando em Jerusalém reinava Ezequias e lá estavam os profetas Isaías e Miqueias.

Andei lendo algumas coisas recentes sobre o tema, entre elas o seguinte livro, muito interessante:

KALIMI, I.; RICHARDSON, S. (eds.) Sennacherib at the Gates of Jerusalem: Story, History and Historiography. Leiden: Brill, 2014, XII + 548 p. – ISBN 9789004265615.

Sumário

The Contributors

1. Sennacherib at the Gates of Jerusalem—Story, History and Historiography: An Introduction  – Isaac Kalimi and Seth Richardson

Part One: I will defend this City to Save It
2. Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah: The Chronicler’s View Compared with His ‘Biblical’ Sources – Isaac Kalimi
3. Cross-examining the Assyrian Witnesses to Sennacherib’s Third Campaign: Assessing the Limits of Historical Reconstruction – Mordechai Cogan
4. Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah: The Archaeological Perspective with an Emphasis on Lachish and Jerusalem – David Ussishkin
5.  Beyond the Broken Reed: Kushite Intervention and the Limits of l’histoire événementielle – Jeremy Pope

Part Two: The Weapon of Aššur
6. Family Matters: Psychohistorical Reflections on Sennacherib and His Times  – Eckart Frahm
7. The Road to Judah: 701 b.c.e. in the Context of Sennacherib’s Political-Military Strategy – Frederick Mario Fales
8. Sennacherib’s Invasion of the Levant through the Eyes of Assyrian Intelligence Services – Peter Dubovský

Part Three: After Life
9. Memories of Sennacherib in Aramaic Tradition – Tawny L. Holm
10. Sennacherib’s Campaign and its Reception in the Time of the Second Temple – Gerbern S. Oegema
11. Sennacherib in Midrashic and Related Literature: Inscribing History in Midrash  – Rivka Ulmer
12. The Devil in Person, the Devil in Disguise: Looking for King Sennacherib in Early Christian Literature – Joseph Verheyden
13. The First “World Event”: Sennacherib at Jerusalem – Seth Richardson

Os 12 autores

• Mordechai Cogan (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania) is Professor Emeritus of Biblical History in the Department of Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Peter Dubovský (Ph.D., Harvard University). Since 2008 he has been professor of Old Testament exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
• Mario Fales (Ph.D., University of Rome) is Full Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at the University of Udine.
• Eckart Frahm (Ph.D. Göttingen, Habilitation Heidelberg) is Professor of Assyriology at Yale University, where he has been since 2002.
• Tawny Holm (Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University) is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies at The Pennsylvania State University.
• Isaac Kalimi (Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Gutenberg Research Professor in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israelite History, Seminar für Altes Testment und Biblische Archaeologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany, and Senior Research Associate with the University of Chicago.
• Gerbern S. Oegema (Habilitation, University of Tübingen), is professor of biblical studies at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University since 2002.
• Jeremy Pope (Ph.D., John Hopkins University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
• Seth Richardson (Ph.D., Columbia University), Assyriologist and historian, was Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago from 2003–2011.
• Rivka Ulmer (Ph.D., Goethe University of Frankfurt) researches Midrash. She teaches Jewish Studies at Bucknell University (The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Chair in Jewish Studies, 2002–2007).
• David Ussishkin (Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
• Joseph Verheyden studied Philosophy (M.A.), Religious Studies (M.A.), and Oriental languages-Christian Orient (M.A.), before receiving his Ph.D. in Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven. Currently he is Professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of Leuven.

Um trecho da introdução

The Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 b.c.e. was a “world event,” both historically and historiographically. The encounter drew together the actions of disparate groups whose fate was bound together by Assyria’s empire: Babylonia, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and Nubia were all affected by it. Just as importantly, the event formed the kernel for later literary traditions both east and west: in the Hebrew Bible, in Aramaic folklore, and in Greek and Roman sources about the East; in medieval Syriac tales, in Arabic antiquarianism; and even in the cultural politics of nineteenth century c.e. Europe and America. Thus the historical event formed the basis for ongoing and divergent interpretation in multiple cultural forms from antiquity to modernity. This rich material is fertile ground for historical scholarship: the event is not only important for biblicists and Assyriologists, but also for studies in ancient literature, diplomacy, folk tradition, imperialism, cult practice, epidemiology, military intelligence and com munication, class and politics, and the role of language in society. What is more, since the “siege” of Jerusalem also ironically has the distinction of being historically amplified from a non-event (no actual fighting, as such, occurred at Jerusalem), it excites philosophical and theological questions about the importance of “the event” as a historical category. The third campaign of Sennacherib to the west—in general, with specific reference to Judah and Jerusalem—has been well researched in historical and literary terms. However, it has not yet been much ­investigated from the point of view of historiography or reception history; the appearance of the subject in so many varied literatures is a phenomenon worthy of study. This volume intends to fill these gaps without covering every possible aspect of “Sennacherib studies” [sublinhado meu].The essays herein offer some novel historical approaches, such as psychohistory, mytho-history, and the integration of text, image, and archaeology, and build a bridge between the historical traditions of the ancient and late-antique worlds. The work also attends throughout to how deeply historiographic issues pervade our interpretations of historical events. When, indeed, does “historiography” begin to be relevant to the interrogation of sources we usually think of as “historical?” (…)

The volume comprises three major sections. The first section (“I Will Defend this City to Save It”) mainly concentrates on early sources— biblical, Assyrian and Egyptian texts and archaeological finds in the Land of Israel—concerning the events of 701 b.c.e. The second section (“The Weapon of Aššur”) focuses on the broader Assyrian political and military history forming the background of the campaign. The third section mainly traces the “after life” (Nachleben) of Sennacherib’s campaign as it was interpreted and transformed in the wide range of postbiblical literature, including Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Aramaic and rabbinic literature, New Testament and the early Christian sources.

Como o livro é bastante caro, recomendo aos interessados consultar alguns capítulos disponíveis aqui. Procure pelos nomes dos autores.