First Israel, Core Israel, United (Northern) Israel

The author deals with three issues related to ancient Israel. In the first, he reconstructs an Iron I territorial formation that was centered in the area of Shechem and Shiloh, and asks whether this early entity can be described as “Israelite.” In the second, he deals with the area that was seemingly conceived in the Northern Kingdom as the core territory of Israel and the Israelites. Finally, he discusses what he views as a United Israel ideology in the Northern Kingdom of the eighth century BCE, an ideology that was the origin of the United Monarchy and conquest concepts in the Bible.