A little detective work is required to connect disparate pieces of evidence.
It can be a rewarding intellectual exercise BUT one must dismiss the bible bullshit stories at the outset. If you are going to insist on video evidence you are more or less stuck in the 20th century or later.
The Assyrians wrote about dealing with Hezekiah and Manesseh. We can date those Assyrian kings. It is not rocket science and it is not dependent on the bible at all. Archaeology has shown multiple destruction levels consistent with the Assyrian military campaign at the end of the 8th century which beat the shit out of Judah. One does not need the OT to tell us about Hezekiah. He would hardly have been the first ruler who tried a rebellion and got his head handed to him.
That archaeology dates the expansion of Jerusalem to the later 8th century and that Assyrian records place Hezekiah there are not dependent on the OT. However, all of the other pious bullshit about Hezekiah needs to be dismissed. For all we know he was just another Canaanite ruler, perhaps worshiping Yahweh along with Baal and El and all the rest. Only the OT claims he was a jew and without a single artifact to sustain that. (Xtians hate to hear that shit but...fuck 'em. I can't worry about them.)
I understand that some time this year Dever is coming out with a history of the region which is not based on the bible at all but strictly on archaeology. Dever is a bit pedantic but I'll read that one.
Have you read George Athas' The Tel Dan Inscription? Worth your time if you haven't although he is painstaking - to the point of PAIN - in his meticulous approach to the inscription itself.
It can be a rewarding intellectual exercise BUT one must dismiss the bible bullshit stories at the outset. If you are going to insist on video evidence you are more or less stuck in the 20th century or later.
The Assyrians wrote about dealing with Hezekiah and Manesseh. We can date those Assyrian kings. It is not rocket science and it is not dependent on the bible at all. Archaeology has shown multiple destruction levels consistent with the Assyrian military campaign at the end of the 8th century which beat the shit out of Judah. One does not need the OT to tell us about Hezekiah. He would hardly have been the first ruler who tried a rebellion and got his head handed to him.
That archaeology dates the expansion of Jerusalem to the later 8th century and that Assyrian records place Hezekiah there are not dependent on the OT. However, all of the other pious bullshit about Hezekiah needs to be dismissed. For all we know he was just another Canaanite ruler, perhaps worshiping Yahweh along with Baal and El and all the rest. Only the OT claims he was a jew and without a single artifact to sustain that. (Xtians hate to hear that shit but...fuck 'em. I can't worry about them.)
I understand that some time this year Dever is coming out with a history of the region which is not based on the bible at all but strictly on archaeology. Dever is a bit pedantic but I'll read that one.
Have you read George Athas' The Tel Dan Inscription? Worth your time if you haven't although he is painstaking - to the point of PAIN - in his meticulous approach to the inscription itself.
