A Guest Post by Rafael Frankel: “Shishak and the United Kingdom”

Shishak and the United Kingdom – A note Rafael Frankel

In the numerous recent discussions as to the character of the United Kingdom ( e.g. Finkelstein and Silberman 2006) the full significance of one phrase in the Biblical description of Shishak’s military campaign in the Southern Levant has been underestimated. The importance of Shishak’s campaign (campaigns?) that appears both in the Bible (1 Kings 14 25-26; 2 Chronicles 12 2-12 see also 1 Kings 11 40) and in the famous relief in the temple of Amun at Karnak that contains the names of about 180 places that he captured (Aharoni 1967: 285-290-) has been stressed and analyzed frequently (e.g. Bright 1960:213-215; Finkelstein & Silberman 2002:161-162, 231- 232; 2006: 71-81 ) especially as it is the earliest event in the Bible to be referred to in an extra Biblical source However the phrase:-” and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord —and he took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their stead bronze shields” (1 Kings 14 25-26,see also 2 Chronicles 12-9-10 ) could almost certainly only have derived from the archives of the temple and if that is so it shows that in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign there was a temple in Jerusalem with an archive. This not only confirms that Solomon built the temple but shows that this temple was significant enough to have an archive and that there was a royal regime in Jerusalem important enough and strong enough to build such a temple.

Bibliography

• Aharoni, Y. 1967 The Land of the Bible A Historical Geography London: Burns & Oates
• Bright, J. 1960,A History of Israel London SCM Press
• Finkelstein.I & Silberman. N.A.2002 The Bible Unearthed Archaeoogy’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Text. New York etc. Free Press
• Finkelstein I. & Silberman, N.A. 2006 David and Solomon In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition , New York etc.: Free Press.