omy, and its transportation. Throughout the different historical periods, Canaan was a permanent host to Egyptian envoys, diplomats, military commanders, spies, and merchants. All those individuals provided continuous reports on everything going on in Canaanite cities and in their environs. The pharaohs themselves also recorded in writing on stone their own victories and achievements, real and imagined.
Hence, there exists a rich body of contemporaneous documentation of events in virtually every city and at all times. And lo and behold: there is no exodus, no conquering of Canaan, no Kingdom of David, no Kingdom of Solomon. None of those ever happened or could have happened, since all the reports from the country of Canaan reveal an entirely different state of affairs in that land at the time when those events are purported to have taken place there.
Only during the period of the two Kingdoms-Israel and Judeadoes the Biblical story begin to match the historical one. Everything prior to this period-from the Book of Genesis through the Book of Samuel II-is legend.
There is no escaping the conclusion-one accepted by virtually every serious scientist in the world-that the Hebrew Bible, written after the Babylonian exile by religious preachers with stunning literary skills, is not a history book. And because the archaeologists proved it, they are hated by the orthodox.
Does this detract from the greatness of the Bible? Of course not. It has always been, and still remains, a work of literary, cultural, and linguistic magnificence, surpassed by nothing else among the cultures of the world. Its stories influenced billions throughout the ages. Even if Joshua never really conquered Canaan, and King David never really ruled in Jerusalem, and neither even existed-still they have influenced our lives and our spiritual world more than any historical figures.
And as for the archaeologists-they reveal what really happened, beyond the myths. That's their job.
July 4, 1998
When you are 50 years old, you should know already who you are. The State of Israel does not. What is it? A "Jews' state," as the founder of the Zionist Movement called the future state? A "state of the Jewish people," as defined in one of Israel's laws? A state that belongs to its citizens? Or a "Jewish and democratic state," as the official doctrine, endorsed by the Supreme Court, announces? And how can a state whose every fifth citizen is a non-Jew be Jewish and