Update on Book Release Party

The book release party for Judge of Israel is now scheduled for 31 July 2010. It will be held in Sequim at 343 Community Lane from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Please join us on a journey back in time 3000 years, to an age of priests and prophets, hunters and heroes, an age when twelve tribes battled giants, merciless warriors and magic to preserve a nation surrounded by foes, a nation that guarded the most precious heritage ever known to mankind…

Judge of Israel is the thrilling sequel to Timothy S. Wilkinson’s acclaimed first novel, Prophet of Israel, and the second book in his Eternal Throne Chronicles. Pre-order the limited edition now and save $5.00 off the retail price of $29.95.

Join us for drinks, hors d'oeuvres, a presentation about life in ancient Palestine, and a reading from the new novel--and purchase a signed copy of the limited edition of Judge of Israel.

We hope to see you there!

Israelite Tribal Heraldry

            Our wide-range view of the history of Israel, taken with the perspective of passing millennia, gives us a picture of a single, united nation. That concept has become a prominent political theme since the Second World War. But when we narrow our focus to the ninth and tenth centuries B.C.E., a different picture emerges.

            It was at Mount Sinai in the year 1513 B.C.E. that Israel became a nation. It was comprised of an amalgamation of thirteen tribes and countless foreigners who joined themselves to those tribes (including entire peoples, such as the Gibeonites of Joshua chapter 9). It would be many centuries before Israel viewed itself as a single people. Tribal loyalty remained stronger than national until after Saul’s day, perhaps reinforced by divine edicts forbidding intermarrying between tribes and strict delineation of unalterable tribal territories. Throughout the period of the judges (the three hundred years between 1450-1117 B.C.E.) the tribes are primarily described as operating somewhat independently, and inter-tribal civil wars and conflicts break out more than once.

            Under these circumstances, over a period of over 700 years of tribal intermarriage, each tribe would have no doubt developed their own subculture as well as distinct genetic traits and characteristics. It was possible for an Israelite to identify a man of another tribe by his looks, dress, or accent (Judges 8:24, 12:1-6).

            The tribes also had unique military roles or specialties. Chaim Herzog (former President of the State of Israel) and Mordechai Gichon (Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University) have written a wonderful book entitled “Battles of the Bible” (Greenhill Books, Lionel Leventhal Limited, 1997). In it they describe the various tribes’ “military proficiencies.” The Benjaminites were ambidextrous missile warriors with sling and bow (1 Chronicles 12:2; Benjaminite boys had their dominant hands tied behind their backs for long periods of time to force them to develop ambidextrousness). Judges 20:16 says of the Benjaminite slingers: “They would not miss.” The Gadites were highly mobile “shield and buckler” warriors, ‘as swift as the roes upon the mountains’ (1 Chronicles 12:8). The Zebulunites were experts with all weapons and apparently known for their fearlessness—the writer of Chronicles says they could “keep rank” in the direst of circumstances (ibid., v.33). Judeans were rank and file spear and shield warriors (ibid., v.24), as were the men of Naphtali (ibid., v. 34). The tribe of Issachar is described as having an ‘understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do’—apparently indicating that they were specialists in military intelligence, logistics, and tactics.

            While Israel was traveling in the wilderness, their camps were organized by tribes, and each tribal encampment was marked with a ‘sign’ or ‘banner’ (Numbers 2:2). While the Bible does not give descriptions of these signs, it seems that they served a similar purpose to heraldic coats of arms in medieval times. Such designations would have been very useful in organizing a camp of upwards of three million people. Some scholars feel that these ensigns were likely based on the prophetic descriptions of each tribe given by the patriarch Jacob on his deathbed (Genesis Chapter 49): a lion for Judah, a ship for Zebulun, an ass for Issachar, a snake for Dan, a deer for Naphtali, a sapling for Joseph, and a wolf for Benjamin. 

The Philistines

Most modern scholars consider the Philistines of the Bible to have been one of the "Sea Peoples" that probably originated in Mycenae, Cyprus, and surrounding lands. Homer's Iliad was a battle involving the Mycenaean Greeks of this time period. It is entirely possible that Odysseus and the Warriors who sacked Troy were the forefathers of (or at least related to) the Philistines who eventually settled in Israel.They traveled south (likely to escape a period of crop failures and famine), conquering peoples as they went. They destroyed the Hittite empire in Anatolia, ransacking its capital Hattusas and sacking Ugarit in Syria and the Cyprian capital, Enkomi. Fighting alongside the Libyans at the Nile delta, they were defeated by Pharaoh Merenptah. Returning to Egypt in the eighth year of Rameses III, the Sea Peoples were again defeated, but Pharaoh allowed them to settle in the north--in Palestine (the name of which comes from Philistine).

At this period in history, the Philistines become a significant problem for the people of Israel. Starting with the Battle of Aphek in the days of High Priest Eli and the childhood of Samuel the Prophet, Israel faced off against the Philistines repeatedly. Whether under the leadership of Samson, Samuel, or Saul, the Israelites could not gain a decisive advantage over these fierce coastal warriors.

It seems that a major reason for this was Philistine technological superiority--especially in the area of metalworking. In the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 13, Samuel reports that the Philistines had completely taken over the business of smithing in Israel. Samuel must have been referring here to iron working; archaeology substantiates the notion that the Philistines brought this technology with them from Anatolia, where the Hittites had been the first to master it.

The Philistines also owed their military greatness to their alliance with the most feared people of the eighth through the tenth centuries B.C.E.--the Rephaim. Although skeptics are quick to cry foul whenever "giants" are mentioned in ancient literature, there is solid, empirical data to support the notion that a race suffering/blessed with a form of gigantism was once prominent in ancient Palestine. Philistines used these super-warriors as champions, as in the famous case of Goliath.

"Philistine" has entered the English vernacular since the seventeenth century as a synonym for boorish or uncultured. Archaeology in recent decades has in many ways debunked this notion. the Philistines achieved high levels of artistic sophistication and a deep appreciation for aesthetic values. The fact that these qualities existed in a culture that also practiced child sacrifice, ritualized sex rites and barbarous military methods should not be surprising when one consider the obvious parallels in the "advanced" cultures of the world today.

The Deadliest Animal

The people of ancient Israel lived in a world filled with wild and dangerous creatures. Just as today you are statistically likely to be related to someone who has died of cancer, in Palestine in the 10th century B.C.E. you were statistically likely to be related to someone who had been killed by a wild animal.
Man-eating lions haunted watering holes (2 Samuel 23:20); Syrian brown bears ate children (2 Kings 2:23); cobras, scorpions, and pit vipers sent many unwary travelers to their deaths. Of the ten deadliest animals on earth today (in terms of numbers of people killed per year), eight of them (dogs, bears, hippos, crocodiles, lions, leopards, scorpions, and cobras) were common in Palestine in Bible times.
But the deadliest animal in ancient Israel hasn’t killed anyone in centuries. It has been extinct since Roman times, the last of them having been hunted down in Europe by the Gauls. It is the aurochs, (Hebrew re’em), the wild bull.
The aurochs stood over six feet at the shoulder and was over ten feet long. Massive and muscled, it weighed in at well over a ton. It’s razor-sharp horns spanned nearly six feet—and it is one of the few creatures in history that deliberately hunted men. As far as I know, the aurochs and the elephant are the only herbivorores to do so.
English archaeologist Austen Layard wrote: “The wild bull, from its frequent representation in the bas-reliefs, appears to have been considered scarcely less formidable and noble game than the lion. The king is frequently seen contending with it, and warriors pursue it both on horseback and on foot.” (Nineveh and Its Remains, 1849, Volume 2, page 326) Julius Caesar wrote the following description of them: “[They] are scarcely less than elephants in size, but in their nature, colour, and form, are bulls. Great is their strength, and great their speed: they spare neither man nor beast when once they have caught sight of them.”
Today, there are no non-domesticated strains of bovines left. Even the deadly water buffalo, while it may live in the wild in some areas, is descended from domestic ancestors. It is hard for us to imagine what it would have been like to face an animal of the size, speed, and ferocity of the aurochs with nothing more than sword, spear, and short bow. From the standpoint of a Bronze Age warrior, these creatures were unstoppable.
Researchers believe that the closest representation of the aurochs alive today is an Asian breed of cattle called Gaur. I have included pictures below--one of gaur, and one of a bull Photoshopped to be the size of an ancient aurochs.
I would rather face a lion any day.

The Home Stretch

Editing has entered the home stretch. I hope to order my final proof on 24 May. If all goes well, I will hold my release party on 19 June and the book will become available for sale on that day as well.

Today also begins my pre-marketing schedule. I intend to keep my blog and Twitter updated daily. I will be using Twitter to share information regarding life in Bible times and details about Bible verses that I have encountered in my research for The Eternal Throne Chronicles. I will also begin marketing to bookstores.

I hope to be invited to join the North Olympic Library System's Author Fair again this year on 22 May. (Unfortunately, this falls the day after Chelsey's and my sixteenth wedding anniversary--what were you thinking, NOLS?)

Thanks for following!