Absolutely fascinating ! Thanks a lot, professor, for this lecture. It resembles a lot the discussion about 1989 in my country: was it unification or annexion. The same goes for the discussion in the US about the Civil War. Or the discussion between England and Scotland in the UK or the discussion in France about frank France (northern the Loire) ans southern/south-western France (the Langue d'Oc/Occitaine). Same situations - same behaviour.

thanks for uploading

20 minutes max, huh?

The way he and his "intelligencia" treated Adam Zertal with contempt over Zertal's discovery of Joshua's altar on Mt. Eibal is inexcusable.

Israel Finkelstein's outdated view of David (as merely a village chieftain) and Solomon has been disproven by, ironically, his universityTel Aviv University''s recent research on donkey dung found in Timna near King Solomon's mines. ​@t​

He fails to mention that seals from the divided kingdom period of King Hezekiah, carried symbols identical to those seen in the Amarna period. .Finkelstein doesn't like the idea of anything in the bible being a record of anything earlier than the divided kingdom. How does he explain the fact that Psalm 104 paraphrases the Great Hymn to the Aton dated to the 14th century BCE.Certainly the Joshua -style invasion was an invented story, but there was an influx of newcomers in the northern hill country in the late 12th century BCE, which almost certainly reflects the Exodusees entry into the land. How can he explain the different styles of pottery and terracing, typical of Egyptian practice. He makes the same mistakes as other scholars in assuming mention of Israel in the Merneptah stele refers to a fixed location and that the Israelites were therefore in Cannaan by 1207 BCE, whereas unlike mention of Gezer, Yanoam, and Ashkelon, the hieroglyphs clearly distinguish between a place and a people, potentially being in transit. He blithely dismisses the unique design of 4 room houses as also occurring elsewhere than in the hill country- completely ignoring the fact that the same design first appeared in Egypt in the delta region where the Israelite group must have originated from. He predicates many of his statements as assumptions and there is little sound evidence for most of the speculations he makes.

this was way before islam

Someday, he will have no choice but to give David and Solomon their due. The evidence unearthed will continue to weigh in their favor. 100 years from now, Finkelstein will be remembered unfavorably, if at all, in the current maximalist/minimalist debate.