Rethinking the 'exilic' book of kings

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

Volumn 22, Issue 75, 1997, Pages 21-42

  Linville, James ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 60950487898     PISSN: 03090892     EISSN: 14766728     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030908929702207502     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Space forbids surveying the history of scholarship here. Surveys can be found in H. Weippert, 'Das Deuteronomistische Geschichtswerk: Sein Ziel und Ende in der neueren Forschung', TRu 50 (1985), pp. 213-49
2. H.D Preuß, 'Zum deutero-nomistischen Geschichtswerk', TRu 58 (1993), pp. 229-64, 341-95
3. S.L. McKenzie and M.P. Graham (eds.), The History of Israel's Traditions: The Heritage of Martin Noth (JSOTSup, 182; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994)
4. Only a sample of such work can be given here. For a single 'exilic' edition: M. Noth, The Deuteronomistic History (trans. J. Doull, J. Barton, M D. Rutter, D.R. Ap-Thomas; JSOTSup, 15; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1981)
5. B.O. Long, I Kings, with an Introduction to Historical Literature (FOTL, 9; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984)
6. 2 Kings (FOTL, 10; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991)
7. T.R. Hobbs, 2 Kings (WBC, 13; Waco, TX: Word Books, 1985)
8. Proposing multiple 'exilic' editions: W. Dietrich, Prophetie und Geschichte: Eine redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk (FRLANT, 108; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972)
9. Monarchic and exilic editions theories: F.M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973)
10. R.D. Nelson, The Double Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History (JSOTSup, 18; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1981)
11. R.E. Friedman, The Exile and Biblical Narrative: The Formation of the Deuteronomistic and Priestly Works(HSM, 22; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981)
12. I.W. Provan, Hezekiah and the Books of Kings: A Contribution to the Debate about the Composition of the Deuteronomistic History (BZAW, 172; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1988)
13. G. Hölscher, 'Das Buch der Könige, seine Quellen und seine Redaction', in H. Schmidt (ed.), Eucharisterion: Studien zur Religion und Literature des Alten und Neuen Testaments. I. Teil zur Religion und Literature des Alten Testaments(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1923), pp. 158-213
14. R. Smend, Die Entstehung des Alten Testaments (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1978), pp. 124-25
15. idem, 'Der Ort des Staates im alten Testament', ZTK80 (1983), pp. 245-61 (256-58)
16. H.-D. Hoffmann, Reform und Reformen: Untersuchungen zu einem Grundthema der deuteronomistischen Geschichtsschreibung (ATANT, 66; Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1980)
17. N.P. Lemche, 'The Old Testament - A Hellenistic Book?', SJOT1 (1993), pp. 163-93
18. His specific example is Samuel, although his comments are applicable to any biblical book. See too, P.R. Davies, In Search of 'Ancient Israel' (JSOTSup, 148
19. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), who looks to the Persian Period, and G. Garbini, 'Hebrew Literature in the Persian Period', in T.C. Eskenazi and K.H. Richards (eds.), Second Temple Studies. II. Temple Community in the Persian Period (JSOTSup, 175; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), pp. 180-88
20. Dating by reference to the evolution of the Hebrew language does not figure prominently in the arguments for the date of Kings, but see Nelson, Double Redaction, pp. 26-27
21. Davies, In Search, pp. 102-105, argues that biblical Hebrew may have been an exclusive scribal language. A.G. Auld, Kings without Privilege: David and Moses in the Story of the Bible's Kings (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994); pp. 9-10
22. questions the relative age of Kings language vis-à-vis Chronicles, citing A.J.C. Verheij, Verbs and Numbers: A Study into the Frequencies of the Hebrew Verbal Tense-forms in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (Studia Semitica Neerlandia, 30; Assen/Maastrich: Van Gorcum, 1990)
23. Recognizing the importance of later additions to the book as a whole is A. Rofé, 'The Vineyard of Naboth: The Origin and Message of the Story', VT 38 (1988), pp. 89-104
24. S.L. McKenzie, 'The Book of Kings in the Deuteronomistic History', in McKenzie and Graham (eds.), The History of Israel's Traditions, pp. 281-307 (299)
25. His study of the compositional history of Kings is The Trouble with Kings: The Composition of the Book of Kings in the Deuteronomistic History (VTSup, 42; Leiden: Brill, 1991)
26. The addition/redaction distinction must be seen as a part of a larger problem including the differentiation between the authorial and scribal roles, and the textual history of the book. On textual criticism see, E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992)
27. For a critique of Tov, see P. Hayman, 'The "Original Text": A Scholarly Illusion', in J. Davies, G. Harvey and W.G.E. Watson (eds.), Words Remembered, Texts Renewed: Essays in Honour of John F.A. Sawyer (JSOTSup, 195; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), pp. 434-49 (440-42)
28. Some works recognizing the importance of LXX for the composition of Kings: McKenzie, Trouble; J. Trebolle-Barrera, 'The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in the Books of Kings', in C. Cox (ed.), VII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies: Leuven 1989 (SBLSCS, 31; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991), pp. 285-99
29. Auld, Privilege R.F. Person, 'II Kgs 24.18-25.30
30. and Jeremiah 52: A Text-Critical Case Study in the Redaction History of the Deuteronomistic History', ZAW 105 (1993), pp. 174-205
31. On the manifold uses of 'Deuteronomistic' see, R. Coggins, 'What Does "Deuteronomistic" Mean?', in Davies, Harvey and Watson (eds.), Words Remembered, pp. 135-48
32. I.B. Gottlieb, 'Sof Davar: Biblical Endings', Prooftexts 11 (1991), pp. 213-24 (215)
33. P.R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration: A Study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century BC (OTL; London: SCM Press, 1968), p. 80
34. See too, T.R. Hobbs, 'Some Remarks on the Structure and Composition of the Book of Jeremiah', CBQ 34 (1972), pp. 257-75 (272-73)
35. Noth, Deuteronomistic History, p. 98
36. J. Gray, I & II Kings (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), pp. 769-74
37. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB, 11; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984), pp. 324, 328-30
38. G. Von Rad, 'The Deuteronomistic Theology of History in the Books of Kings', in idem, Studies in Deuteronomy (London: SCM Press, 1953), pp. 74-91
39. J.D. Levenson, 'The Last Four Verses In Kings', JBL 103 (1984), pp. 353-61
40. C.T. Begg, 'The Significance of Jehoiachin's Release: A New Proposal', JSOT 36 (1986), pp. 49-56
41. B. Becking, 'Jehoiachin's Amnesty, Salvation for Israel? Notes on 2 Kings 25.27-30', in C. Brekelmans and J. Lust (eds.), Pentateuchal and Deuteronomistic Studies (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990), pp. 283-93
42. Dietrich, Prophetie, pp. 143-44
43. E.T. Mullen, Narrative History and Ethnic Boundaries (Semeia Series; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), pp. 12-13, 38, 286
44. E.H. Carr, What Is History? (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 2nd edn, 1984), pp. 60-61
45. C.C. Torrey, 'The Exile and Restoration', in idem, Ezra Studies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1910), pp. 285-335, had already disputed the historicity of the Exile
46. A good modern discussion can be found in Ackroyd, Exile, pp. 20-38
47. Against the recent advice of P.R. Davies, 'God of Cyrus, God of Israel: Some Religio-Historical Reflections on Isaiah 40-55', in Davies, Harvey and Watson (eds.), Words Remembered, pp. 207-25 (219)
48. A recent assessment of scholarly debates on the relevant biblical literature and historical sources is L.L. Grabbe, Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian. I. The Persian and Greek Periods (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992). On the alleged Persian documents in Ezra and Nehemiah, see pp. 32-36
49. Grabbe, Judaism, p. 121
50. Lemche, 'Hellenistic', pp. 181-82
51. R.P. Carroll, 'So What Do We Know about the Temple: The Temple in the Prophets', in Eskenazi and Richards (eds.), Second Temple Studies, pp. 34-51 (49-50), points out that the 'Second Temple Period', was actually a time of contested temple projects
52. This is accepted by many scholars, see the bibliography in J.M. Scott, 'Philo and the Restoration of Israel' (SBLSP; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), pp. 553-75 (esp. pp. 563-66 and nn. 61-64)
53. D.L. Smith, The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile (Bloomington, IL: Meyer-Stone, 1989), p. 63
54. P.R. Davies (ed.), Second Temple Studies. I. Persian Period (JSOTSup, 117; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991)
55. Eskenazi and Richards (eds.), Second Temple Studies, II
56. A recent two-part study, with a brief, but useful summary of different views is that of R.E. Winkle, 'Jeremiah's Seventy Years for Babylon: A Re-Assessment. Part I: The Scriptural Data', and 'Part II: The Historical Data', AUSS 25 (1987), pp. 201-14, 289-99. He takes a very literal view of the period
57. The ancient question of the appropriate time of restoration is discussed in regards to other biblical books in P.R. Bedford, 'Discerning the Time: Haggai, Zechariah and the "Delay" in the Rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple', in S.W. Holloway and L.K. Handy (eds.), The Pitcher is Broken: Memorial Essays for Gösta W. Ahlstrom (JSOTSup, 190; Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), pp. 71-94
58. H.M. Barstad, A Way in the Wilderness: The 'Second Exodus' in the Message of 'Second Isaiah' (Manchester: University of Manchester, 1989), p. 108, considers it a 'major oversimplification' to assume that the Exile ended in 538 BCE, commenting on the inadequacy of the conception of the Exilic Period. Yet he does not here advise its abandonment
59. As per the general thrust of the arguments in Davies, In Search
60. P.R. Ackroyd, 'Israel in the Exilic and Post-Exilic Periods', in G.W. Anderson (ed.), Tradition and Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 320-50 (324-25)
61. I consciously exclude the 'Pre-monarchic Period', any concept of which engages the very heated debate about the history of the rise of monarchic Judah and Israel. For a recent opinion, see M.M. Gelinas, 'United Monarchy-Divided Monarchy: Fact or Fiction?', in Holloway and Handy (eds.), The Pitcher is Broken, pp. 227-37
62. E. Ben Zvi, 'Inclusion in and Exclusion from Israel as Conveyed by the Use of the Term "Israel" in Post-Monarchic Biblical Texts', in Holloway and Handy (eds.), The Pitcher is Broken, pp. 95-149 (121-22). As Ben Zvi notes, it is not surprising that other narratives told the stories of non-royal representatives of 'Israel', such as Ezra and Nehemiah within other historical settings (pp. 121-25)
63. M. Billig, 'Collective Memory, Ideology and the British Royal Family', in D. Middleton and D. Edwards (eds.), Collective Remembering (London: Sage Publications, 1990), pp. 60-80 (78)
64. A.D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), pp. 196-97
65. P.A. Viviano, '2 Kings 17: A Rhetorical and Form-Critical Analysis', CBQ 49 (1987), pp. 548-59
66. M.J. Aronoff, 'Myths, Symbols, and Rituals of the Emerging State', in L.J. Silberstein (ed.), New Perspectives on Israeli History: The Early Years of the State (New York: New York University Press, 1991), pp. 175-92 (178-79)
67. See too: S.F. Moore, 'Epilogue: Uncertainties in Situations, Indeterminacies in Culture', in S.F. Moore and B.G. Myerhoff (eds.), Symbol and Politics in Communal Ideology (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp. 210-39 (236)
68. L.E. Goodman, 'Mythic Discourse', in S. Biderman and B.-A. Scharfstein, Myths and Fictions(Leiden: Brill, 1993), pp. 51-112(99)
69. A.P. Cohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community (London: Routledge, 1985), pp. 15-19. 'Something to think with' recalls the comments above on periodi-zation as a tool for thought
70. D. Sperber, Rethinking Symbolism (trans. A.L. Morton; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), contests interpretations of symbolism based on a linguistic metaphor. Evocation of complex sets of memories is a major facet of the symbolic mechanism (pp. 115-49)
71. Billig, 'Memory', p. 61
72. McKenzie, 'Book of Kings', pp. 23-25
73. For major figures in the monarchic-exilic editions proposal, see n. 3 above. Friedman, Exile, pp. 1-13 offers a concise argument on these lines. Some, such as Provan, Hezekiah, argue for Hezekiah's reign as the original climax of the book
74. Recently, L.K. Handy, 'Historical Probability and the Narrative of Josiah's Reform in 2 Kings', in Holloway and Handy (eds.), The Pitcher is Broken, pp. 252-75
75. Limited assent is granted by N. Lohfink, 'The Cult Reform of Josiah of Judah: 2 Kings 22-23 as a Source for the History of Israelite Religion', in P.D. Miller, P.D. Hanson and S.D. McBride (eds.), Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), pp. 459-75
76. On the need for meta-critical reflection, C. Conroy, 'Reflections on the Exegetical Task: Apropos of Recent Studies on 2 Kings 22-23', in C. Breckelmans and J. Lust (eds.), Pentateuchal and Deuteronomistic Studies: Papers Read at the XHIth IOSOT Congress, Leuven 1989 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990), pp. 255-68
77. Long, 1 Kings pp. 16-17
78. Hobbs, 2 Kings pp. xxiv-xxv
79. L. Eslinger, House of God or House of David: The Rhetoric of 2 Samuel 7 (JSOTSup, 164; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), p. 7
80. J. Van Seters, In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History (London: Yale University Press, 1983)
81. Hoffmann, Reform, pp. 192-97, supports a single edition model based on a pattern of positive and negative cult reforms, and also looks to Josiah's story as the true goal of the book
82. Palestine and Babylon are the major scholarly alternatives on the provenance of the 'exilic' editions; G.H. Jones, 1 and 2 Kings I (NCB; London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1984), pp. 44-45
83. R.E. Friedman's work, however, attends to a major theme largely ignored in other researches, the great emphasis on Egypt. He considers it possible that Dtr 2 was a member of the Egyptian community; 'From Egypt to Egypt: Dtr1 and Dtr2', in B. Halpern and J.D. Levenson (eds.), Traditions in Transformation (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1981), pp. 167-92 (189-92)
84. Egypt has also been suggested by N.P. Lemche, The Canaanites and their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites (JSOTSup, 110; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), pp. 166-69
85. For an overview of the Elephantine documents and a bibliography, see B. Porten, 'Elephantine Papyri', ABD, II, pp. 445-55. On the communal archive, p. 449
86. H.W. Wolff, 'Das Kerygma des Deuteronomistichen Geschichtswerks', ZAW 73 (1961), pp. 171-86