Niels Peter Lemche

Niels Peter Lemche (b. September 6, 1945) is a biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen.

Biblical minimalism

Lemche is closely identified with the movement known as biblical minimalism, and "has assumed the role of philosophical and methodological spokesperson" for the movement.^[1]

In common with the general trend of modern scholarship, Lemche identifies the Persian and Hellenistic period (5th century to 4th century BC) as the most appropriate setting in which to seek the composition of the majority of the biblical texts, arguing that this is the single period that best explains the 'mental matrix’ for most Old Testament literature and "probably all of its historiography".^[1]

Lemche considers the traditional narratives of Israel's history as contained in the bible to be so late in origin as to be useless for historical reconstruction. His alternative reconstruction is based entirely on the archaeological record, and may be summarized as follows: From at least as early as the first half of the 14th century BC the central highlands were the habitation of the Apiru, "a para-social element ... [consisting] of runaway former non-free peasants or copyholders from the small city-states in the plains and valleys of Palestine," living as "outlaw groups of freebooters". When new settlements appear in the highlands over a century later, at the start of the Iron Age, they are evidence of new political structures emerging among those same groups. The Iron I settlements attest a return by those groups to a settled, agricultural lifestyle, and the beginning of a (re)tribalization process. Israel was the end-product of that process. Lemche's view has much in common with that of Israel Finkelstein, and forms part of a widespread re-assessment of Israel's origins and of the historicity of the bible.^[2]

Publications

• "Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy" (Brill, 1986)
• "The Canaanites and Their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites" (Sheffield Academic Press, 1991)
• "Ancient Israel: A New History of Israelite Society" (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1988)
• "The Israelites in History and Tradition" (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)
• "Israelites in History and Tradition", 1998, ISBN 0664220754
• "Prelude To Israel's Past: Background & Beginnings Of Israelite History & Identity" (1999)
• "Historical Dictionary of Ancient Israel" (The Scarecrow Press, 2003)
• "The Old Testament Between Theology and History: A Critical Survey" (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008)

See also

• Biblical minimalism
• Documentary hypothesis
• Biblical criticism
• Thomas L. Thompson

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Ziony Zevit, "Three Debates About Bible and Archaeology", Biblica, Biblica 83 (2002) 1-27
2. ^ Lemche's Evolutionary Israel, in John J. Bimson, "The Origins of Israel in Canaan"

External links

• Niels Peter Lemche, Conservative Scholarship–Critical Scholarship: Or How Did We Get Caught by This Bogus Discussion (September 2003)

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Name	Lemche, Niels Peter
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Date of birth	September 6, 1945
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