The Growing Schism Between Bible Scholars and Israeli Nationalists

Not so, however, outside their narrow academic circle. Within Israel, the Zionist narrative of ancient history is still widely taught. “[Israeli education] wants to be very progressive … and it is free, and critical, until you get to … the land of Israel,” said Nurit Peled-Elhanan, an Israeli philologist and outspoken critic of Israeli education. “There, critical thinking doesn’t work anymore.” Today, she said, “most Israelis don’t believe in God, but they are sure he gave them the land.… They treat it as scientific fact.”

This has been the case, too, in the growing body of scholarship referencing the history of Israel emanating from conservative theological colleges and other institutions in Israel and the United States. “Historiography tends to go like a pendulum,” Pfoh said. “Now, the pendulum is going to the right, into a more conservative reading of the Bible.

“You find it harder to get critical opinions, or funding, or grants,” said Pfoh, “because the pendulum is back to people want[ing] to know about ancient Israel, not ancient Palestine.”