dence

are

the

In the early Judean narratives the kingship is regarded as so desirable Evithat Samuel persuades Saul to assume the leadership, and in the late pro- that phetic or Deuteronomic as a necessary institution, the abuses of which must they be carefully guarded against (Dt. 1714-20). In I Samuel 8 and 12, how- from ever, it is absolutely condemned in almost the same terms as were the kings Ephraof his day by the Ephraimite prophet Hosea (cf. I Sam. 8 and Hos. 84, imitol 13). Many other minor indications, as for example, the reference to a sacred stone or pillar (I Sam. 712), still regarded as legitimate in the Ephraimite narratives (Vol. I, p. 40), but sternly forbidden in the late prophetic, leave little doubt that this peculiar conception of the history and the work of Samuel originated in the Northern prophetic guilds.

tents

history

These narratives are found in I Samuel 1'-51, 72-822, 1017-25, 12 and 15. Their The interest throughout is religious rather than political. The purpose is cont didactic rather than historical. The whole is a popular biography of Samuel and rather than a parallel history of the period. It begins with the account of his birth, consecration, early life at Shiloh, and call to be a prophet; but throughout the stories, the attention is focussed on Samuel, the man of God, rather than on Samuel, the individual. That all Israel was led by a prophetic representative of Jehovah, as in the days of Moses, is assumed. The supernatural is prominent. The same peculiar conceptions and point of view reappear in the Elijah and Elisha stories of I Kings 20-II Kings 15. The kinship of these three groups of traditions is clearly very close. They were undoubtedly cherished in the same prophetic circle in the North-probably many of them at the sanctuary of Gilgal near Shiloh, which appears to have become the inheritor of its traditions when the older shrine was destroyed by the Philistines (Jer. 193, cf. note § 3).

date

Some time after the days of Hosea and before Josiah's reformation in Their 621 B.C. the cycle of Samuel stories, together with kindred products of the later Ephraimite prophetic school, was committed to writing. Whether or not it originally existed independently for a period is a question which can never be absolutely decided, and which is of only secondary importance.

3. Very Late Popular Prophetic Traditions

acter

date of

pro

tradi

In I Samuel 1535b-1613, 1918-201, I Kings 1233-1334, 2035-43, II Kings 19-16 Charare found certain stories which are related in many ways to the preceding ties groups. They illustrate the later belief in the dominant, almost supernatural and position assumed by the earlier prophets in the life of the nation. They the late were evidently retold for generations in prophetic circles. While related, popular this group evidently reflects a still later conception of the prophets than phetic the Samuel cycle. Their real ethical and religious work is almost forgotten tions and the men of God are conceived of as mere wonder-workers. Thus for example in I Samuel 1918-24 the messengers of Saul, and later the king himself, fall down in ecstasy before Samuel, or in II Kings 19-16 the military companies sent by Ahaziah are consumed by fire from heaven at the command of Elijah. Evidently the popular imagination has contributed much to the stories. They recall the midrashim or late Jewish didactic tales (cf. p. 26).

Contents

of the

David

While it cannot be maintained that they are all from the same school or date, they reflect the same very late point of view.

4. Popular Judean David Stories

From the lips of the people also doubtless came the variant versions of and the more important incidents in David's early life, as for example, his conhistory test with Goliath, his marriage with Saul's daughter, the king's futile attempt popular to kill him, and his magnanimity in sparing Saul's life. A comparison shows Judean that they are clearly duplicates of the corresponding early Judean narratives, stories but here the stories are told with slight variations; details and names are usually forgotten, the coloring is heightened, and the language illustrates the effects of their having been retold from generation to generation. The same love and admiration for David are revealed, only he has been so completely idealized that his faults and sins have been forgotten. The scenes are most of them laid in Southern Judah. It is difficult to conceive that they originally came from any other source than the memories of his fellowclansmen in the South. The popular version of the story of his contest with Goliath, which was probably added to the Hebrew text at a very late date, since it is not found in the earliest Greek version, may well have been cherished at Bethlehem in Judah.

Their

date

and place in the

of

The popular David stories are found in I Samuel 1712-31, 41. 50. 55-58, 181-5. 10. 11. 17-19. 29. 30, 2110-15, 2316-2422, II Samuel 15-10. Most of these were evidently committed to writing before the late prophetic editor compiled his books history of the period-that is before the first capture of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. Samuel In his zeal to preserve everything known regarding David, he made the early Judean narratives the basis of his history from I Samuel 16 on, and then supplemented them by the popular traditions, not welding the duplicates closely together as is often done by early editors in the first seven books of the Old Testament, but giving each a different setting. The one exception to this rule is found in I Samuel 17 and 18, and is clearly the work of a still later editor.

The

literary

omon's

reign

5. The Book of the Acts of Solomon

With the reign of Solomon a new era in Hebrew history opened. The activity alliances with neighboring peoples, and especially the Phoenicians, introin Sol duced foreign culture. The ambition of the king was to bring his people and kingdom into line with those of contemporary Semitic potentates. The emphasis was placed on the development of his court and capital rather than upon conquest. Literature, as well as art, was probably encouraged by him. In addition to the chancellor or recorder, two scribes were counted among the important officials of his court (I Kgs. 43). Their duty was probably primarily to conduct the royal correspondence, but for diplomatic reasons, if for no other, a record of the most important events of each reign would also be needed for reference. Hence from the days of Solomon it appears that the Hebrew historians were not dependent upon popular memory and tradition, but had access to brief contemporary annals for the more

important political facts. Here, therefore, the Judean prophetic history properly ends, for the task of its authors was to collect and put in literary form the inherited traditions regarding the period antedating that of contemporary records. At the same time it is clear that the connection was very close between the work of the southern annalists and that of the Judean historians, for the one was the virtual successor of the other.

early

his

The compiler of Kings refers his readers for further details to what ap- Referpears to have been three distinct historical works. They must have been ences to extant and accessible in his day, and, we may infer from the form of his Hebrew references that they were well known. They are the Book of the Acts (or tories Events) of Solomon (I Kgs. 11"), the Chronicles (lit., Book of the Acts of Days) of the Kings of Israel, and the corresponding Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. It is reasonable to conclude that these histories, to which he frequently refers, were also among the chief sources from which he himself drew his political facts regarding the earlier periods. The character and aim of his work and the form of his allusions to them further indicate that he simply quoted from them that which was adapted to his more distinctively religious and pragmatic purpose.

char

acter

That these older histories were more than mere annals is clearly indicated. Their The reference in I Kings 11" is to the point: Now the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did and his wisdom, are they not recorded in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? The same inference is confirmed by the allusions to the contents of the Chronicles (cf. p. 16). The term Book in this connection also implies a continuous, more or less expanded history. The Chronicles recorded the events of many different centuries. Their historical value depended upon the fact that they were compiled from older sources. The work of other authors appears to have been simply to combine and expand the earlier material. The state annals appear to have been the basis of their work and the expansion at important points to have been accomplished by introducing long quotations from existing histories of important kings and reigns like those of Jeroboam, Ahab, and Jehu.

sources

in the

Solo

mon

For the Book of the Acts of Solomon, two and possibly three sources ap- Earlier pear to have been utilized. The detailed, annalistic material, for example incorin 41-19, 22. 23. 26-28, 51-712, 910-29, 1011, 12-1125, was presumably taken from the porated annals of his reign. Only written records would preserve many of the rec- Acts of ondite facts there found. From the same source may have come the detailed data regarding the ornamentation, furnishing, and dedication of the temple in 713-813, but they would more naturally be kept in the temple records, citations from which appear later in Kings (cf. p. 17). With these may be compared the Babylonian temple accounts which come from a very early period (cf. Johns, Bab. and Assyr. Laws, Contracts, and Letters, p. 295). Finally there are found in I Kings 34-28 and 101-10, 13 certain popular traditions, evidently of early origin, which illustrate Solomon's wisdom. If the reference to the record of the king's wisdom in 11" is original it would strengthen the conclusion that those traditions were found in the Book of the Acts of Solomon, although these, like the popular David stories, may well have been added by the late prophetic editor.

Its char

acter

and

date

Character of

the royal chron

icles

Their

contents

In I Kings 3-11 are found also many late prophetic passages evidently not from the Book of the Acts, but the original quotations from it suggest its general character. It was a reasonably comprehensive history dealing with the political and religious events of Solomon's reign. Its primary aim was not religious but rather to record facts. The tendency, however, to idealize Solomon and his reign, which became very marked in later generations, is apparent. The author was evidently a Judean and probably lived not earlier than 800 B.C. He may well have belonged to the early Judean prophetic school. His purpose was to carry the Judean history down to the division of the Hebrew kingdom. Repetition of the same notices in different settings further suggests that his work was supplemented and possibly rearranged before it was used by the late prophetic editor.

6. The Israelitish and Judean Royal Chronicles

The author of the present book of Kings always refers to the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah as if they were distinct books. Their titles also suggest that they were originally independent. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the same events, as for example the campaign of Hazael (II Kgs. 102, 133, cf. 1217. 18), are recorded twice in quotations apparently taken from these histories, each describing the invasion as it affected one of the two Hebrew kingdoms and ignoring its effects upon the other. The character and contents of the Chronicles appear to have been very similar to those of the Book of the Acts of Solomon. Their exact title, Book of the Acts of Days of the Kings, suggests that they were histories containing detailed records of events, arranged in chronological order, and that their chief sources were the older annals of the two kingdoms. The thirty-one references which the editor of Kings makes to them and their contents and the quotations which he evidently cites from them establish their character. In the first place they included a continuous and complete history of all the different reigns. In the case of all the kings except Jehoram, Ahaziah, Hoshea, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, who met untimely fates, the editor explicitly states that the Chronicles recorded the deeds of each.

For twenty-three distinct items the reader is referred for information or fuller details to the Chronicles. Some of these facts are: Jeroboam's wars, the mighty deeds of Baasha, the treason of Zimri, Ahab's ivory house, the cities built by Asa, Hezekiah's construction of the pool and conduit, and Manasseh's sin. They deal chiefly with secular subjects, such as the wars, building enterprises, successes, and the material splendors of each reign. Their attitude toward most of the kings appears to have been commendatory-in striking antithesis to the adverse judgment passed upon them for religious reasons by the author of Kings. The implication of his references to these histories is that they contained many more details than he saw fit to introduce in his brief summaries. Like the Acts of Solomon, they doubtless contained quotations from older sources. These were, as in the Acts of Solomon, the independent annals of the two kingdoms. The citations

were probably in most cases transcribed verbatim and, having been again quoted by the editor of Kings, found a place in our present books. They can be recognized by their brief sententious form and by their use of certain expressions, as then or at that time, and the peculiar use of the personal pronoun (for the corresponding Babylonian synchronistic chronicle, compare Appendix X).

sources:

The author of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah appears also to have Their had access to temple records. Extracts from these are found in II Kings 11, temple 12, 1610-18 and 223–2323. In these passages the attention is focussed not on records the king and the fortunes of the kingdom, but upon the temple and its ritual. As in ancient Babylonia, many of the priests were probably scribes, and that they would keep a record of the more important events in the temple history was most natural. The desire to expand these brief records into fuller narratives would also later be felt. They represent the antecedents of the much later temple and institutional history found in Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. That quotations from the temple records had already been incorporated in the Chronicles, to which the editor of Kings refers as his main source, is at least probable, although not certain. It is also significant that the citations in II Kings 16 are joined immediately to material taken from the state annals, with no trace of the harmonistic or introductory clauses which the editor usually adds when he himself unites quotations from different sources.

The authors of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, on the other hand, Also appear to have drawn from the older private histories of important kings private like Jeroboam (I Kgs. 1128-31, 40, 121-25), Ahab (201-34, 221-37), Jehu (II Kgs. tories 9-1027). These personal histories correspond very closely to the early Saul and David histories in Samuel. They were probably not written during the lifetime, but a generation or two after the death of the given king. They give a natural and at the same time sympathetic and favorable portrait of him and the events of his reign. The resulting picture is often in striking contrast to the very different estimates found in the prophetic sources and in the epitomes of the editor of Kings.

covered

icles

Quotations from the Chronicles and references to them cease with the Period reign of Jehoiakim (II Kgs. 245). They contain none of the expressions by the and ideas peculiar to the late prophetic school which dominated the thought Chronof the exile. It would seem, therefore, that they were composed some time not long after 597 B.C., between the first and second captivities. Possibly the work was begun earlier, and the data regarding the later reigns added as appendices by subsequent writers. The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel probably attained their final form shortly after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. Together they carried the two great histories of the North and South practically down to the final destruction of both kingdoms.

7. The Early Ephraimite Elijah Stories

With I Kings 17 is suddenly introduced a unique form of narrative. The brief quotations and annalistic style of the preceding chapters are supplanted