Table Of Content

The Books of Kings Supplements to Vetus Testamentum Edited by the Board of the Quarterly h.m. barstad – r.p. gordon – a. hurvitz – g.n. knoppers a. van der kooij – a. lemaire – c.a. newsom – h. spieckermann j. trebolle barrera – h.g.m. williamson Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature Editors craig a. evans and peter w. flint VOLUME 129 The Books of Kings Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception Editors André Lemaire and Baruch Halpern Associate Editor Matthew J. Adams LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The books of Kings : sources, composition, historiography and reception / edited by Andre Lemaire and Baruch Halpern; associate editor, Matthew J. Adams. p. cm. — (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum; v. 129) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17729-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Bible. O.T. Kings—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Lemaire, Andre. II. Halpern, Baruch. III. Adams, Matthew J. (Matthew Joel) BS1335.52.B66 2010 222’.506—dc22 2009051492 ISSN 0083-5889 ISBN 978 90 04 17729 1 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints BRILL, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Preface ................................................................................................. ix Terms, Sigla, and Abbreviations ..................................................... xi PART ONE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF THE BOOK OF KINGS The Septuagint in the Text History of 1–2 Kings ........................ 3 Adrian Schenker Qumran Fragments of the Books of Kings ................................... 19 Julio Trebolle The Text of 1–2 Kings Used by Josephus ...................................... 41 Étienne Nodet PART TWO KINGS AS A LITERARY WORK Theories of the Redaction(s) of Kings ............................................ 69 Gary N. Knoppers Characterization in Kings ................................................................ 89 Robert L. Cohn The Literary Structure of Kings ....................................................... 107 Robert L. Cohn The Composition of Kings ............................................................... 123 Baruch Halpern and André Lemaire Books and Writing in Kings ............................................................ 155 Alan R. Millard PART THREE KINGS AND ITS NEAR EASTERN MILIEU The Book of Kings and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography 163 Mario Liverani vi contents Kings and External Textual Sources: Assyrian, Babylonian and North-West Semitic .............................................................. 185 Alan R. Millard PART FOUR THE PEOPLE OF KINGS The Moabites ...................................................................................... 205 Paul-Eugène Dion and P. M. Michèle Daviau Edom and the Edomites ................................................................... 225 André Lemaire Ammonites and the Books of Kings .............................................. 245 Walter E. Aufrecht Hiram of Tyre and Solomon ........................................................... 251 Edward Lipiński The Aramaeans of Syria: Some Considerations on Their Origin and Material Culture .................................................................... 273 Hélène Sader Philistines in the Books of Kings .................................................... 301 Seymour Gitin External Textual Sources – Neo-Hittite States ............................. 365 Kenneth A. Kitchen External Textual Sources – Egypt ................................................... 369 Kenneth A. Kitchen External Textual Sources – Early Arabia ....................................... 381 Kenneth A. Kitchen PART FIVE DETAILED ISSUES OF KINGS “The Prophets” – References to Generic Prophets and Their Role in the Construction of the Image of the “Prophets of Old” within the Postmonarchic Readership(s) of the Books of Kings ........................................................................................... 387 Ehud Ben Zvi Priesthood and the Development of Cult in the Books of Kings 401 Wolfgang Zwickel contents vii Dates and Calendars in Kings ......................................................... 427 Gershon Galil Law in Kings ....................................................................................... 445 Raymond Westbrook Officialdom and Society in the Book of Kings: The Social Relevance of the State ................................................................... 467 Izabela Eph‘al-Jaruzelska Institutions of Trade in 1 and 2 Kings .......................................... 501 Daniel M. Master Archaeology and the Question of Sources in Kings .................... 517 William G. Dever PART SIX RECEPTION IN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY Kings in Josephus .............................................................................. 541 Silvia Castelli The Books of Kings in the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers ............................................................................................. 561 Magnus Zetterholm Elijah and the Books of Kings in Rabbinic Literature ................ 585 Karin Hedner-Zetterholm Cumulative Bibliography .................................................................. 607 Indices Selected Subject Index .................................................................. 667 Biblical Source Index .................................................................... 680 Author Index .................................................................................. 700 PREFACE The Books of Kings present one of the most difficult units for analysis in all of the Hebrew Bible. Like the Pentateuch, they have multiple sources and a complex history of assembly. Unlike the Pentateuch, however, they lack, for the most part, anything even remotely resembling ongoing parallel narrative sources by which the history of composition may in some measure be controlled. In addition, Kings treats a truly international cast of agents in contexts where, for the most part, the authenticity of the characters and of their contact with one another can be confirmed or at the least reasonably inferred. There is history in the book, as well as theology and judgments and indeed a whole historiographic theory. Most scholars have for more than a century regarded Kings as the culmination of a history beginning either with Joshua or with Deuteronomy. Kings also presents perhaps the most varied cast of characters in the Hebrew Bible. These include individuals, both named and unnamed, and classes of human beings, from foreign kings and functionaries and neighbors to commoners in Judah, whose graves are desecrated toward the end of the books. In the circumstances, the scope for thematic and substantive analysis is wider than in most other cases. This variety is reflected in the content of the present collection. We have attempted to arrange coverage of detailed topics, including the books’ reception and the roles of the characters in it, essentially alien to other Biblical works. Even the closest parallel, Chronicles, is a mere epigone when it comes to the complexity of the source and authorial layering as well as the detail furnished in the book. Non- synoptic elements of Chronicles certainly offer an interesting subject in themselves. Yet, for all its advantages in lateness and exposure to a wider historiographic tradition, Chronicles remains far more simple and less intellectually challenging than Kings, more dogmatic and less supple, more a comic-book version, however self-aware, of a work whose existence it presupposes. The editors wish to express their gratitude, thus, to the contributors to this volume, whose work both exposes and evokes the subtleties and the vast complexity of its subject. We trust that readers will find the information included in the text of value, and that the authors’