Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

94 THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
turned into modern "history" and "sociology." The Jewish historian devoted
separate, detailed chapters to David's "great" and Solomon's "mighty" kingdoms,
because "writing and literature were especially developed in the reigns
of the two great monarchs, David and Solomon. They both had 'scribes' and
clerks' who recorded everything that needed writing down in the administration
of government, and certainly also wrote down all the events of their
time." 53 As for David's son and royal successor, Dubnow had no doubt that
the entire ancient world was aware of "the personality of Solomon, who did
the same as the kings of Egypt and Babylon, and built magnificent buildings
and perpetuated his name in stone edifices." 54 Dubnow had not seen this
magnificent architecture but was apparently convinced that it would soon be
discovered. However, at this stage of his work he was more concerned about
the national predicament in which the ancient unified kingdom found itself
following the traumatic split after the demise of Solomon.
Dubnow preferred to call the kingdom of Israel "Ephraim" to avoid confusion,
because the biblical authors gave the name "Israel" to the entire people
that came out of Egypt. He fully adopted the position of the ancient authors
who demonized the secessionist northern kingdom, and even expressed some
anger with it for building temples in addition to the ones in Judea. Despite this
persistent sacrilege, he naturally preferred the kingdom of Ephraim, which was
"almost Jewish," over Edom, Amnion and Moab, the other Canaanite powers
in the region (though he quotes almost in full the stela inscription of Mesha,
king of Moab). 55 Summing up Ephraim's sad plight when it was destroyed and
the Assyrian rulers settled it with foreign deportees, Dubnow writes:
And the Israelites who remained in their land mingled with the new settlers
who had been exiled there, and lost their pure national type. Nevertheless,
many of the Israelites retained their religion and nationality, moved to the
southern kingdom of Judah and joined the salvaged core of the nation ...
Following the great destruction, the forces began to concentrate in Judah, and
this assured, amid the political upheavals in the east, the continued survival
of the kingdom of Judah for nearly 150 years, and, later, of the Jewish nation. 56
The later fall of Judah is painted in vivid, tragic colors, and the Russian-Jewish
historian's optimism is restored only by the "Return to Zion," although many
of the exiles refused to return to their homeland from Babylonia. The building
53 Ibid., 148.
54 Ibid., 85.
55 Ibid., 109.
56 Ibid., 127.