The circumscription of the King: Deuteronomy 17:16-17 in its ancient social context

Journal of Biblical Literature

Volumn 121, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 601-616

  Dutcher Walls, Patricia ^a  

^a KNOX COLLEGE   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 63149134377     PISSN: 00219231     EISSN: 19343876     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3268573     Document Type: Article

References (105)

1. Among other commentaries, see Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976)
2. A. D. H. Mayes, Deuteronomy (NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979)
3. Patrick D. Miller, Deuteronomy (IBC; Louisville: John Knox, 1990)
4. Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (AB 5; New York: Doubleday, 1991)
5. Eduard Nielsen, Deuteronomium (HAT; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1995)
6. Ronald Clements, "Deuteronomy," NIB 2:271-538
7. See also more specialized studies, e.g., on the law of the king: Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972; repr., Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992)
8. F. García López, "Le Roi d'Israel: Dt 17,14-20," in Das Deuteronomium: Entstehung, Gestalt und Botschaft (ed. Norbert Lohfink; Leuven: Leuven: University Press, 1985), 277-97
9. Gerald Eddie Gerbrandt, Kingship According to the Deuteronomistic History (SBLDS 87; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986)
10. Udo Rüterswörden, Von der politischen Gemeinschaft zur Gemeinde (BBB 65; Frankfurt am Main: Athenäum, 1987)
11. Gary N. Knoppers, Two Nations under God: The Deuteronomistic History of Solomon and the Dual Monarchies, vol. 1, The Reign of Solomon and the Rise of Jeroboam (HSM; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993)
12. idem, "The Deuteronomist and the Deuteronomic Law of the King: A Reexamination of a Relationship," ZAW 108 (1996): 329-46
13. Bernard M. Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (New York: Oxford, 1997)
14. J. G. McConville, "King and Messiah in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History," in King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East (ed. John Day; (JSOTSup 20; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 271-95
15. Gary N. Knoppers, "Rethinking the Relationship between Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History: The Case of Kings," CBQ 63 (2001): 393-415
16. Knoppers, Two Nations
17. McConville, "King and Messiah"
18. and Knoppers, "Rethinking the Relationship" and the literature cited in those works
19. See, e.g., Gerbrandt, Kingship, 103-8
20. Mayes, Deuteronomy, 270-71
21. García López, "Le Roi," 282-87
22. Rüterswörden, Von der politischen Gemeinschaft, 89-93
23. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, 55-57
24. Thomas C. Römer summarizes: "There may be quite a consensus in critical scholarship about the seventh century B.C.E. as the starting point of deuteronomism" ("Transformations in Deuteronomistic and Biblical Historiography," ZAW 109 [1997]: 2)
25. While the written text of Deut 17:16aα, 17aα, and 17b will be taken as an expression of Deuteronomic ideology, positing a written format for the expression of an ideology is not strictly necessary to the task
26. One could posit a group within Judah's elite classes in the seventh century that promoted such an ideology without a written expression of it because ideologies can be propagated through other material means, such as monumental architecture and ceremonial events. An examination of the role of literacy and writing in the expression of ideology, though beyond my task, is a significant, related topic. See Elizabeth DeMarrais, Luis Jaime Castillo, and Timothy Earle, "Ideology, Materialization and Power Strategies," in Agency, Ideology, and Power in Archeological Theory, Current Anthropology 37 (1996): 15-31
27. and Mogens Trolle Larsen, "Introduction: Literacy and Social Complexity," in State and Society: The Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and Political Centralization (ed. John Gledhill, Barbara Bender, and Mogens Trolle Larsen; London: Unwin Hyman, 1988), 173-91
28. For examples of articles that understand this type of expression of ideology in ancient Israel, see Carol L. Meyers, "Jachin and Boaz in Religious and Political Perspective," CBQ 45 (1983): 167-78
29. and Keith W. Whitelam, "The Symbols of Power: Aspects of Royal Propaganda in the United Monarchy," BA 49 (September 1986): 166-73
30. For works that focus on Assyrian influence through figurative and cultural forms, see Jane M. Cahill, "Rosette Stamp Impressions from Ancient Judah," IEJ 45 (1995): 230-52
31. and Christoph Uelhinger, "Figurative Policy, Propaganda und Prophetie," in Congress Volume: Cambridge 1995 (ed. J. A. Emerton; VTSup 66; Leiden: Brill, 1995)
32. Miller, Deuteronomy, 147
33. Clements, "Deuteronomy," 418, 427
34. see also Knoppers, "Deuteronomist," 331-34
35. Lohfink, "Distribution"
36. Preuss, Deuteronomium, 137
37. and Clements, "Deuteronomy," 417
38. Again, although these authors differ on redactional issues, see Craigie, Deuteronomy, 253-54
39. Lohfink, "Distribution," 348
40. Knoppers, "Deuteronomist," 332
41. and Clements, "Deuteronomy," 425-26
42. Lohfink, "Distribution," 349
43. García-Lopez, "Le Roi," 292-93
44. and McConville, "King and Messiah," 276
45. and Social-Scientific Old Testament Criticism (ed. David Chalcraft; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997)
46. For a review of the field, see A. D. H. Mayes, "Sociology and the Old Testament," in The World of Ancient Israel (ed. R. E. Clements; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 39-63
47. See, e.g., Gerhard Lenski, Patrick Nolan, and Jean Lenski, Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology (7th ed.; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995)
48. On dual-processual evolution, see especially Richard E. Blanton, Gary M. Feinman, Stephen A. Kowalewski, and Peter N. Peregrine, "A Dual-Processual Theory for the Evolution of Mesoamerican Civilization," in Agency, Ideology and Power in Archaeological Theory, Current Anthropology 37 (1996): 1-14
49. and Thomas Fillitz, "Intellectual Elites and the Production of Ideology," in Ideology and the Formation of Early States (ed. Henri J. M. Claessen and Jarich G. Oosten; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 67-83
50. Edward M. Schortman and Patricia A. Urban, "Core/Periphery Relations in Ancient Southeastern Mesoamerica," in Living on the Edge, Current Anthropology 35 (1994): 401-13
51. Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World (ed. Michael Rowlands, Mogens Larsen, and Kristian Kristiansen; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
52. A variety of definitions of "ideology" have been used in sociological literature, and a number of conceptual debates have arisen. See, e.g., the discussion in Henri J. M. Claessen and Jarich G. Oosten, "Introduction," in Ideology, ed. Claessen and Oosten, 1-23
53. Gerhard E. Lenski, Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 211
54. and Keith Whitelam, "Israelite Kingship: The Royal Ideology and Its Opponents," in World of Ancient Israel, ed. Clements, 121
55. For the notion that "kingdom" is the appropriate term for ancient monarchies, see Paul Garelli, "L'État et la Légitimité Royale sous l'Empire Assyrien," in Power and Propaganda: A Symposium on Ancient Empires (ed. Mogens Trolle Larsen; Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1979), 319
56. or as the struggles of rulers versus commoner communities (John Gledhill, "Introduction: The Comparative Analysis of Social and Political Transitions," in State and Society, ed. Gledhill et al., 1-29)
57. Blanton et al., "Dual-Processual Theory," 1
58. Reinhard Bendix, Kings or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 219
59. Lenski, Power and Privilege, 237
60. Gideon Sjoberg, The Preindustrial City (New York: Free Press, 1960), 149
61. This dynamic was explored without the use of sociological theory in Jon D. Levenson and Baruch Halpern, "The Political Import of David's Marriages," JBL 99 (1980): 507-18
62. T. F. Carney, The Shape of the Past: Models and Antiquity (Lawrence, KS: Coronado Press, 1975), 61
63. Benedikt Otzen, "Israel under the Assyrians," in Power and Propaganda, ed Larsen, 251-61
64. Ehud Ben Zvi, "Prelude to a Reconstruction of Historical Manassic Judah," BN 81 (1996): 31-44
65. and Roy Gane, "The Role of Assyria in the Ancient Near East during the Reign of Manasseh," Andrews University Seminary Studies 35 (1997): 21-32
66. Also see such varied studies as Mario Liverani, "L'Histoire de Joas," VT 24 (1974): 438-53
67. Moshe Weinfeld, "Zion and Jerusalem as Religious and Political Capital: Ideology and Utopia," in The Poet and the Historian: Essays in Literary and Historical Biblical Criticism (ed. Richard Elliott Friedman; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983), 75-115
68. Antti Laato, "Second Samuel 7 and Ancient Near Eastern Royal Ideology," CBQ 59 (1997): 244-69
69. The bibliography is extensive, including such representatives works as William L. Moran, "The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy," CBQ 25 (1963): 77-87
70. R. Frankena, "The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon and the Dating of Deuteronomy," OtSt 14 (1965): 123-54
71. Weinfeld, Deuteronomic School
72. idem, "The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient Near East," UF 8 (1976): 379-414
73. A. D. H. Mayes, "On Describing the Purpose of Deuteronomy," in The Pentateuch: A Sheffield Reader (ed. John W. Rogerson; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996)
74. See Gary N. Knoppers, "Ancient Near Eastern Royal Grants and the Davidic Covenant: A Parallel?" JAOS 116 (1996): 670-97 and bibliography there
75. William Hallo, "Jerusalem under Hezekiah: An Assyriological Perspective," in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (ed. Lee I. Levine, New York: Continuum, 1999), 36-50
76. Bernard M. Levinson, "Textual Criticism, Assyriology, and the History of Interpretation: Deuteronomy 13:7a as a Test Case in Method," JBL 120 (2001): 211-43
77. Eckart Otto, Das Deuteronomium: Politische Theologie und Rechtsreform in Juda und Assyrien (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1999)
78. Chase-Dunn and Hall, Core/Periphery Relations
79. Christopher Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall, "Comparing World-Systems: Concepts and Working Hypotheses," Social Forces 71 (1993): 851-86
80. Eisenstadt, "Observations and Queries," 21-33
81. K. Ekholm and J. Friedman, "'Capital' Imperialism and Exploitation in Ancient World Systems," 41-58
82. Mogens Trolle Larsen, "The Tradition of Empire in Mesopotamia," 75-103
83. J. N. Postgate, 'The Economic Structure of the Assyrian Empire," 193-221 - all in Power and Propaganda, ed. Larsen
84. Eisenstadt, "Social Aspects of Imperialism," 22
85. Jana Pecirková, "The Administrative Methods of Assyrian Imperialism," ArOr 55 (1987): 162-75
86. For discussion and details, see J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986), 314-406
87. Larsen, "Tradition of Empire," 97
88. and Tadmor, "World Dominion," 56-60
89. Larsen, "Tradition of Empire," 100
90. Moshe Elat, "Phoenician Overland Trade within the Mesopotamian Empires," in Ah, Assyria: Studies in Assyrian History and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography Presented to Hayim Tadmor (ed. Mordechai Cogan and Israel Eph'al; ScrHier 33; Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1991), 21-35
91. J. P. J. Olivier-Stellenbosch, "Money Matters: Some Remarks on the Economic Situation in the Kingdom of Judah During the Seventh Century B.C.," BN 73 (1994): 90-100
92. th Century B.C.E.: The Impact of Economic Innovation and Foreign Cultural Influences on a Neo-Assyrian Vassal City-State," 61-79
93. A. Kirk Grayson, "Akkadian Treaties of the Seventh Century B.C.," JCS 39 (1987): 127-60
94. Simo Parpola, "Neo-Assyrian Treaties from the Royal Archives of Nineveh," JCS 39 (1987): 161-89
95. Bustenay Oded, War, Peace and Empire: Justifications for War in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions (Weisbaden: Reichert, 1992)
96. Parpola, "Neo-Assyrian Treaties," 161
97. The ideology of the Assyrian empire has been studied extensively in recent years. See, e.g., A. Leo Oppenheim, "Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires," in Propaganda and Communication in World History, vol. 1 of The Symbolic Instrument in Early Times (ed. Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Hans Speier, East-West Center; Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1979), 111-44
98. Mario Liverani, "The Ideology of the Assyrian Empire," 297-317
99. Paul Garelli, "L'État et la Légitimité sous l'Empire Assyrien," 319-28
100. and Julian Reade, "Ideology and Propaganda in Assyrian Art," 329-43, all in Power and Propaganda, ed Larsen
101. Machinist, "Assyrians on Assyria"
102. Liverani, "Ideology," 306-7
103. Oppenheim, "Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires," 120-21
104. This is an extension of my earlier work, "The Social Location of the Deuteronomists: A Sociological Study of Factional Politics in Late Pre-Exilic Judah," JSOT 52 (1991): 77-94. The issues of defining the faction on the basis of Deuteronomy, the Deuteronomistic History, or Jeremiah remain to be settled, given the somewhat different approaches to kingship within these bodies of literature. See the sources cited in n. 2 above. These issues also clearly relate to the idea of "dual loyalty," which is explored below
105. See Lanfranchi, "Consensus to Empire," 84-85