Omri van Israel: 'n Poging tot historiese rekonstruksie

Omri of Israel: An attempt at historical reconstruction

Abstract

Historians usually use the Old Testament as their source of information in writing contemporary works on the history of ancient Israel. This information is usually merely paraphrased in writing a history of Israel, in spite of the non-primary historical and rather ideological character of the Old Testament. The application of Biblical material about Omri and his house in modern history books is no exception: Information extracted from the Old Testament enjoys preferential status in spite of the fact that extra-Biblical information on Omri also exists, as seen in the Mesha inscription as well as in Assyrian inscriptions. 

The question investigated in this article, is how the available information, if at all possible, can be used to recontruct a picture of the reign of Omri.

This article reaches the following conclusion after the Old Testament evidence, the Mesha inscription, archaeological information on Omri and also a number of modern historians' treatment of the available information on Omri have been evaluated. In attempting to reconstruct Omri's reign, not only the Old Testament, but all available sources should be used. This includes Deuteronomist, the Mesha inscription, Assyrian inscriptions as well as archaeological information.

Precedence, as is common practice in modern historical versions, should not be given to Old Testament information, at the expense of extra-Biblical evidence.