The History of Israel

All the information at our disposal serves to establish the 'Israel' was a historical reality with its own historical period, during which it was intimately involved in the multifarious life of the surrounding world. It can there fore be adequately understood only by historical research. Knowledge of the sequence of events which constitute the history of Israel within a definite period of time and of their relationship with one another and with the oriental history of the same era, which was so surpassingly rich in personalities and events, is in part readily available since it has come down to us directly; though, as in every other sphere of history, where the evidence is more indirect, the never-ending concatenation of cause and effect must be construed intuitively. In a history of 'Israel' the whole field has to be explored with the utmost thoroughness from every possible angle and by all the methods open to historical scholarship, precisely because 'Israel is without question a historical reality.