The Bible is the only book which contained a part of history of Israel. However, the authors of the Bible recorded Israel in a religious point of view rather than a historical point of view. They always mentioned that if the readers want to know more ...
The Bible is the only book which contained a part of history of Israel. However, the authors of the Bible recorded Israel in a religious point of view rather than a historical point of view. They always mentioned that if the readers want to know more about achievements of kings then see the book of "annals of the kings of Israe"l. Unfortunately, this book does not exist at present and it is hard to complete the history of Israel from an overview. Recently, historians have been working on archiving archaeological, literary, and historical sources in near eastern area in order to study the history of Israel. By such studies, we have been able to follow the political movements of the kings of Israel in "normal history", not "invented history" made by the emphasis on religious achievements. These are kings who will be dealt in this study: David, Omri, Ahab, Jehu, Hezekiah, and Josiah. In the case of David, his existence will be discussed through the Tel Dan stele and the remains recently discovered in the city of David. Omri and Ahab, two representative kings of northern kingdom of Israel, will see how they achieved central power through various artifacts found in Samaria, Mesha stele found in the land of Moab, and the stables. In the case of Jehu, the Black Obelisk, found in Assyria, will deal with his historical achievements, not his religious achievements, how he made the northern kingdom of Israel disappear from the history of its neighbors. In the case of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, the historical truth will be revealed through the towers and waterways he built to survive the war with Sennacherib king of Assyria and the wall reliefs of Nineveh where the record of the war was left. Finally, the archaeological traces of Josiah, who lighted the last candle of the southern kingdom of Judah, will unearth how Judah reached the last climax in the historical record.