To gauge or assess the Hebrew Bible as an historical narrative that is true and accurate is problematic. A number of methodologies must be applied to arrive at a reasonable conclusion. The challenge of an academic consensus presents further complications. The presences of archaeological remnants that have been carbon-dated lend credence to some of the claims made regarding chronology. There are three historical schools of thought regarding the approach to historical reliability of the Hebrew Bible.

Biblical minimalism contends that contemporary archaeological material and the resulting evidence is of paramount importance. This approach is also known as The Copenhagen School and believes that all the stories and tales within the Bible are of an aetiological character. Biblical minimalism is a school of biblical exegesis that developed in the 1960’s to cope with constant contradictions that were recurring due to archaeological evidence and the Bible’s version of events that created a version of Israel that did not correspond with this
The biblical maximalist school believes that historical accounts of Exodus, Judges, and the United Monarchy, consisting of Kings Saul, David and Solomon are to be interpreted as accurate.
The non-historical method is taking the Bible as literal, meaning that archaeological evidence can be ignored.

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of several books, divided into three sections:
The Torah; which is made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Former Prophets, The Latter Prophets and the twelve Minor Prophets.
The first letters of these three sections form T, N, and K which the Jews have adopted Tanak as an alternative name for the Hebrew Bible. The Jews use Hebraic names for the books.

The other possible approaches to biblical history to determine authenticity are the history of theology, the relationship between God and believers, political history that tells of well known figures, prophets and kings. Narrative history, that together with archaeological can provides a narrative of events. Intellectual history that can catalogue definitive events that led to evolutionary development and new ways of thinking. Cultural and socio-cultural history that informs on the progress made in the political structure of the time, cultural evolution, population growth and transfer and the divisions of ethnicity and most importantly, material history that comprises of artifacts, tools, and other items that can be measured against progress for comparison. (Stanley pp27-30)
The danger of using the Hebrew Bible as an historical source is the controversial claims that can be made by quoting from it, especially Israel and her use of the Bible to lay claim to territory so she can occupy land illegally.
The illegally occupied West Bank is most at risk here because of the unusually large number of religious sites that focus the attention of Jews and Christians upon it. The Muslims also hold the West Bank in high regard and revere it for having Islam’s third holiest shrine. They also respect the same prophets that Christians and Jews do and honor the sites where miracles were performed.
The pitfalls of using the Hebrew Bible before Solomon’s time are many and accuracy being the main one because of an history of oral transmission. This would mean that mistakes would also be copied and a religious bias in favour of Judaism would prevail. However, the time of Jesus would be classed as reliable because of the number of multiple sources that recorded His life and miracles. (Blake, Dewney and Mitchell p39)


To gain a better understanding an insightful knowledge of Judaism would assist in this. Judaism is a 4,000-year-old religion and can be traced back to the time of Moses. According to historical tradition, the Torah was revealed to Moses as a guide to life and as a rulebook. Religious principles are determined by studying the Talmud that is an explanatory text that accompanies it. The Jews believe that they are the chosen people of God (Yahweh) and that would explain the huge bias in portraying them in a favorable light, “Thus, in the Hebrew Bible, whenever they fought against an enemy of Zion, Yahweh would fight on their side. In the first two centuries B.C.E. Jews waged war against the Canaanites who lived on the land that Jews believed God had intended for them, gradually capturing enough territory to establish the first kingdom of Israel…” (Ibid)
Jews preserved and perpetuated their traditions and beliefs in exile and kept their identity and religious convictions by adhering to religious law and practices. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls and the caves at Qumran vindicated their claims.
The Hebrew bible can be used as an historical source but an high level of caution must be used because of the bias that is heavily in favor of the Jews and the claims that Zionist propagate in their quest to occupy more land that is not theirs in the modern sense of applied law but use by employing historical biblical narrative.
The process that resulted in the final modern version of the Bible was the result of corroboration by countless scribes and translators over the years. “Even scholars who believe that the stories are based on historical records acknowledge that they were composed by an author or editor writing long after the event”. (Stanley p48)
The modern viewpoint that some contemporary scholars have arrived at is the difficulty of independent variation of biblical tradition, something they refer to as “non-biblical control evidence” (Provan & Longman p54) all the way from Genesis to Kings. They cast doubt on the historical reliability of Genesis to Joshua simply because there is no evidence and apply the same stringent criteria to Samuel. This casts aspersions on the narrative of Saul and David because there is no external verification and this hinders the application of a critical historiography. “It is indeed intriguing that biblical scholars are still working with the verification principle in mind over thirty years afterward…no one believes that historical judgments can be proved after the verification in the natural sciences (Ibid)
To believe in the veracity of the Bible, a minimalist approach is needed, as is blind faith. The alterative is to collect evidence and differentiate between “intentional” and “unintentional” evidence. The former is to be regarded with a higher degree of suspicion because of the propensity of the author to embellish and exaggerate details of battles and chronicles in their favor. Physical remains such as pottery, coins or legal agreements yield more.(Ramsey p4)

One of the earliest references to Israel is in the Merneptah stele of 1220BCE from Egypt that refers to a group called Israel (Ibid p14) Another method is to use common-sense and process of deduction by elimination. If the exodus of Jews from Egypt is taken as an example, Exodus 13:17 the author states “God did not lead the Hebrews out of Egypt by way of the land of the Philistines” This would be confirmation that the writing would have been from the time that Philistines existed in that part of the world. The Hebrew Bible and The Old Testament differ in many ways. The Hebrew Bible has three divisions, one of which, The Torah enjoys supremacy. In the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls no two are alike. The official Hebrew text is called Masoretic after the Masoretes who were known as traditionalists who embellished them in later years. The earliest that they date from is the ninth century, whilst the Old Testament in Greek (and New _ date from the fourth century CE. An example can be given by a Greek translation of the Torah. Seventy-two Jewish elders were commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 BCE) for a translation and is the origin of the word Septuagint (Seventy, abbreviated as LXX) It did not follow the Masoretic text and later Greek translations followed a newer variation of authorized Hebrew and is evident in the well known fact that the book of Jeremiah is totally different from the original. The same can be said for the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran; changes were made as they were copied. The Samaritans also had scriptures known as the Samaritan Pentateuch and shared the same Torah with the Judeans even though they had become estranged. The official Jewish text dates back over 2,000 years and it must be borne in mind that changes crept in over time. (Rogerson & Davies pp232-234)

The Bible has beautiful poetry, stories that are full of emotion but in the modern sense of the word it is not an accurate history of everything.. There are facts and events that it has missed out on including actual historical events. There is no in-depth account of the 400 years of captivity, “Here and there the Bible uses data gleaned from ancient texts or records…but only cites historical facts where they serve as grist for its many literary mills. The reason for this is simple. The Bible’s language is not an historical language. It is a language of high literature, of story, of sermon and of song. It is a tool of philosophy and moral instruction”.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gerald H Blake, John C Dewdney, Jonathan Mitchell. The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 1987.
Iain Provan, V Philips, Long Tremper Longman III A Biblical History of Israel Westminster John Knox Press London 2003
George W Ramsey The Quest for the Historical Israel. Reconstructing Israeli’s Early History. SCM Press. London 1982
John Rogersen and Philip R Davis The Old Testament World. T&T Clark International. London. 2005.
Christopher D. Stanley. The Hebrew Bible. A Comparative Approach. Fortress Press. Minneapolis 2010
Thomas L Thompson. The Bible in History. How writers create a past. Jonathan Cape. London. 1999