Kings - Isaiah and Kings - Jeremiah Recensions (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fuer Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

136 Pages·1997·6.039 MB·English

by  Raymond F. Person

Raymond F. Person, Jr.
The Kings — Isaiah and Kings — Jeremiah Recensions
W
DE
G
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Herausgegeben von
Otto Kaiser
Band 252
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
1997
Raymond F. Person, Jr.
The Kings — Isaiah and Kings —
Jeremiah Recensions
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
1997
® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI
to ensure permanence and durability.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publuation Data
[Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft / Beihefte]
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. -
Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter.
Früher Schriftenreihe
Reihe Beihefte zu: Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Bd. 252. Person, Raymond Franklin: The Kings - Isaiah and
Kings - Jeremiah recensions. — 1997
Person, Raymond Franklin:
The Kings - Isaiah and Kings - Jeremiah recensions / Raymond
F. Person. — Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter, 1997
(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ;
Bd. 252)
ISBN 3-11-015457-9
ISSN 0934-2575
© Copyright 1997 by Walter de Gruyter & Ca, D-10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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sion in writing from the publisher.
Printed in Germany
Printing: Werner Hildebrand, Berlin
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer-GmbH, Berlin
Preface
The movement of a scholarly work from one's desktop to published
monograph involves certain challenges concerning presentation and this work
is no exception. In fact, this monograph by its very nature complicated this
movement.
While writing this work, I often had various sections in front of me so that I
could more easily refer backwards and forwards. Now that these pages are
bound into one volume my readers cannot so easily refer to different sections
of the work. I have tried to keep this problem ever before me as I wrote and
revised; however, I may not have always been successful in enabling my
readers to relate the various sections as easily as I could when the pages
remained loose. Therefore, some of my readers may find it helpful to copy
sections of the work to keep before them as they read, especially the Hebrew
synopses.
This work is also written as two self-contained parts. These parts,
however, are methodologically and structurally the same. One simply
concerns the Kings/Isaiah recensions and the other the Kings/Jeremiah
recensions. Since it is likely that many of my readers will be most interested
in only one part, there remains a lot of repetition between the parts
concerning, e.g., how the information is presented. I hope that those who
read the entire work will forgive me for such repetition.
As I have faced the challenges of moving this work from my desktop to a
published monograph, various individuals have been tremendously helpful.
To each of them I am sincerely grateful.
The earliest stages of this project began as a paper for a LXX seminar
taught by Dr. Melvin Κ. H. Peters. Because of his encouragement, I revised
and submitted the paper for publication. Dr. Otto Kaiser made some
additional suggestions and accepted it for ZAW. When I proposed to expand
the article into a monograph, Dr. Kaiser again expressed interest in the work.
I greatly appreciate his accepting this manuscript for inclusion into BZAW.
Various individuals have provided financial, technical, and emotional
support that enabled this project to come to fruition. I want to thank Vice-
President Anne Lippert and Dean Byron Hawbecker of Ohio Northern
University for awarding me Summer Faculty Development Grants for 1995
and 1996. I was also capably assisted by Ohio Northern students, Allen
Lefkovitz and Megan Shaw.
Having such good mentors, colleagues, and students makes the technical
aspects of research more enjoyable. Even more important, though, is the
vi Preface
emotional support the researcher receives. Therefore, I want to thank my
good friends, Jason McCurry, Dan Hall, Sandy Beach, and Stan Pomerantz
who made me feel at home during my summer research trips. I especially
want to thank Elizabeth Kelly, my wife, who always makes my homecomings
from such research trips something to look forward to.
Table of Contents
Preface V
Introduction 1
Review of literature 1
Purpose and method of the present study 5
Overview of Conclusions 7
Part I: The Kings/Isaiah recensions 8
Chapt 1: A synopsis of the Kings/Isaiah recensions with notes 10
Synopsis 11
Notes for the retroversion of KG 38
Notes for the retroversion of IG 39
Chapt 2: Textual and literary relationships among the texts of the
Kings/Isaiah recensions 43
Some brief remarks concerning the character of each text 43
The relationships among the texts 45
Chapt 3: The Urtext for the Kings/Isaiah recensions with notes 47
Urtext 47
Notes for the reconstruction of the Urtext for Kings/Isaiah 54
Chapt 4: Text critical implications for the redaction history of
KH 18:13-20:19 75
Variants between KH and the Urtext 75
Text critical evidence against the Stade-Child hypothesis 76
Text critical evidence for two deuteronomic redactions 77
Text critical evidence for a postexilic setting for KH 78
Text critical evidence for downplaying Hezekiah as model king.... 79
Part II: The Kings/Jeremiah Recensions 80
Chapt 5: A synopsis of the Kings/Jeremiah recensions with notes 81
Synopsis 82
Notes for the retroversion of KG 91
Notes for the retroversion of JG 91
viii Table of Contents
Chapt 6: Textual and literary relationships among the texts of the
Kings/Jeremiah recensions 95
Some brief remarks concerning the character of each text 95
The relationsips among the texts 96
Chapt 7; The Urtext for the Kings/Jeremiah recensions with notes 100
Urtext 100
Notes for the reconstruction of the Urtext for Kings/Jeremiah 103
Chapt 8: Text critical implications for the redaction history of
KH 24:18-25:30 109
Variants between KH and the Urtext 109
Text critical evidence for two deuteronomic redactions 109
Text critical evidence for a postexilic setting of KH Ill
Conclusions 114
Works Cited 117
Author Index 126
Introduction
Review of Literature1
Since Martin Noth's influential work,2 most research on the Deuteronomic
History (DtrH)3 has focused upon the question of sources and redactional
layers.4 The majority of redactional studies of DtrH can be roughly divided
into three schools: 1) those who maintain the unity of DtrH, 2) those who
argue for a dual-redaction, and 3) those who argue for a trito-redaction.5 All
Literature for each of the recensions is reviewed in the introduction to each part of the
study.
Martin Noth, Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1943);
Martin Noth, The Deuteronomistic History, JSOTSup 15 (Sheffield: JSOT Press,
1981).
I have chosen to consistently use "Deuteronomic" to refer to the school of
scribes/redactors responsible for DtrH, except where I am summarizing the thought of
others who use "Deuteronomistic." Since both terms have a diversity of meanings (see
Richard Coggins, "What Does 'Deuteronomistic' Mean?" in Words Remembered,
Texts Renewed: Essays in Honour of John F. A. Sawyer, JSOTSup 195 [Jon Davies,
Graham Harvey, and Wilfred G. E. Watson, eds.; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1995], 135-48), the following clarifies what I mean by the term "Deuteronomic." The
Deuteronomic school was a scribal guild which was active in the exilic and postexilic
periods (and possibly the preexilic period) and had its origins in the bureaucracy of the
monarchy. The Deuteronomic scribes/redactors preserved and reinterpreted earlier
material (e.g., proto-Deut, "the chronicle of the kings of Judah," Jeremianic poetry)
within their particular theological and literary tradition. The literature produced by this
school and the particular theology and language found in their literature are
"Deuteronomic." This understanding is developed more fully in Raymond F. Person,
Jr., Second Zechariah and the Deuteronomic School, JSOTSup 167 (Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), esp. 24-32, 146-75. See also Norbert Lohfink, "Gab
es ein deuteronomistische Bewegnung?" in Jeremia und die "deuteronomistische
Bewegung" (Walter Groß, ed. Weinheim: BELTZ Athenäum, 1995), 313-82.
For recent reviews of scholarship on DtrH, see the essays in Steven L. McKenzie and
M. Patrick Graham, eds., The History of Israel's Traditions: The Heritage of Martin
Noth, JSOTSup 182 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994).
Recent studies on the book of Kings which do not fall into these three schools include
the following: A. Graeme Auld, Kings without Privilege: David and Moses and the
Story of the Bible's Kings (Edinburgh: Τ. & T. Clark, 1994); Marc Brettler, "Ideology,
History and Theology in 2 Kings XVIII 7-23," VT 39 (1989), 268-82; Ansgar
Moenikes, "Zur Redaktionsgeschichte des sogenannten Deuteronomistischen
Geschichtswerks," ZAW 104 (1992): 333-48; Mark A. O'Brien, The Deuteronomistic
History Hypothesis: A Reassessment, OBO 92 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag Freiburg,
1989); Iain W. Provan, Hezekiah and the Book of Kings, BZAW 172 (Berlin: Walter
2 Introduction
three schools have extended or adapted Noth's original thesis that DtrH was
the product of a exilic redactor, the Deuteronomistic Historian.
The proponents of the "unity" school continue to support Noth's original
thesis.6 They draw upon literary analyses to demonstrate the overall unity of
DtrH. What inconsistencies and tensions remain in DtrH are the result of the
various sources used by the Historian or later textual corruptions. However,
some differences within this school remain—e.g., in contrast with the widely
accepted exilic date for DtrH, Hoffmann dates it to the postexilic period.7
The dual-redaction school was founded by Frank Moore Cross.8 He
assumed that Noth was correct in locating the final redaction of DtrH in the
exilic period; however, he found it odd that there was not a strong theme of
restoration in this exilic work. Therefore, he argued that, if the majority of
DtrH comes from a preexilic redaction, one can easily explain this oddity—
i.e., a restoration theme is not expected in a preexilic work whereas it is in an
exilic work. Many of Cross's students and some other scholars, primarily
Americans, have refined Cross's hypothesis of two redactions.9 These
de Gruyter, 1988); Alexander Rof6, The Prophetical Stories (Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 1988); Martin Rose, Deuteronomist und Jahwist: Untersuchungen zu den
Beruhungspunkten beider Literaturwerke, AthANT 67 (Zurich: Theologischer
Verlag, 1981); John Van Seters, In Search of History (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1988); Helga Weippert, "Die 'deuteronomistischen' Beurteilungen der Könige
von Israel und Jusa und das Problem der Redaktion der Königesbücher," Bib 53 (1972),
301-39. Noth's influence continues strongly in these works—see especially Brettler's
discussion of his last redactional level as exilic ("Ideology," 281-82) and Van Seter's
exilic date for his "Deuteronomistic Historian" (In Search of History, 230, 359).
The following list of works on Kings belonging to this school is not exhaustive, but
representative: T. R. Hobbs, 2 Kings, WBC 18 (Waco: Word Books, 1985), xxii-xxvi;
H.-D. Hoffmann, Reform und Reformen. Untersuchungen zu einem Grundthema der
deuteronomistischen Geschichtsschreibung, ATANT 66 (Zurich: Theologischer
Verlag, 1980), 316-20; Helen A. Kenik, Design for Kingship: The Deuteronomistic
Narrative Technique in 1 Kings 3:4-15, SBLDS 69 (Chico: Scholars Press, 1983), 1-
26; Burke O. Long, 2 Kings, FOTL 10 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991).
Hoffmann, Reform und Reformen.
Frank Moore Cross, "The Themes of the Book of Kings and the Structure of the
Deuteronomistic History," in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1973), 274-89.
The following list of works on Kings belonging to this school is not exhaustive, but
representative: Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings, AB (Garden City:
Doubleday & Company, 1988); Richard E. Friedman, The Exile and Biblical
Narrative: The Formation of the Deuteronomistic and Priestly Works, HSM 22
(Chico: Scholars Press, 1981); Francolino J. Goncalves, L'expedition de Sennacherib
en Palestine dans la litterature hebra'ique ancienne, Ebib 7 (Louvain: Universite
Catholique de Louvain, 1986); Baruch Halpern, The First Historians: The Hebrew
Bible and History (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988); Gary N. Knoppers, Two
Nations Under God: The Deuteronomistic History of Solomon and the Dual