On Prophets, Warriors, and Kings

Former Prophets through the Eyes of Their Interpreters

George J. Brooke, Ariel Feldman, George J. Brooke, Ariel Feldman

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9783110392913
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

While recent decades have seen a plethora of studies exploring the complex processes that shaped biblical books traditionally designated as Prophets, much remains to be done in order to uncover the rich history of their interpretation throughout the ages. This collection of essays aims at filling this gap by exploring different aspects of the exegesis of the Former and Latter Prophets in contexts both ancient and modern, Jewish and Christian. From the inner-biblical interpretation of the Prophets to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, Patristic writings, and contemporary rhetoric, this volume sheds light on how key figures in those books were read and understood by both ancient and not so-ancient readers.

Footnotes

1	Solomon, of course, appears in 1 and 2 Chronicles as well. However, the Chronicler’s account relies on the 1 Kings material and does not much influence the picture of Solomon-Qohelet in Ecclesiastes. I leave aside as well the brief mention of Solomon in 2 Sam 5:14 and 12:24.
2	All translations of the biblical texts are from the NRSV, unless otherwise noted.
3	I say “non- or pre- deuteronomistic” (here and throughout) because I do not argue for the chronological priority of various passages in Kings that do not betray deuteronomistic concerns or rhetoric in relation to passages that do. Although I take most non-deuteronomistic passages to be pre-deuteronomistic, others have identified some non-deuteronomistic passages as “late” and “post-deuteronomistic.” Yet even potentially “late,” non-deuteronomistic passages would surely have been available to the Hellenistic writers of Ecclesiastes (see below).
4	I use the terms “largely” and “obvious” above because I am not concerned to discern precisely all possible levels of hypothetical deuteronomistic redactions in 1 Kgs 1–11, a sometimes tedious and uncertain task that others have ably taken up. However, the passages I note clearly, and by wide scholarly agreement, deploy deuteronomistic language and represent key deuteronomistic concerns. Cf., for example, the similar identification of deuteronomistic and non-deuteronomistic passages by Richard N. Nelson in First and Second Kings, Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox, 1987), 28. Much material in what is now called the Deuteronomistic History surely existed in some written form prior to being taken up into an initial 7th century Josianic deuteronomistic work, later redacted in the exile. However the extent to which possible earlier pre-Josianic historical collections (such as the Hezekian, Jehu, and Solomonic editions of the Deuteronomistic History identified by, among others, Marvin A. Sweeney) are properly called “deuteronomistic”—reflecting the rhetoric and ideology of Deuteronomy—is not entirely clear. Cf. Marvin A. Sweeney, I & II Kings: A Commentary, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 4.
5	See David M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
6	Rebecca Flemming, “Empires of Knowledge: Medicine and Health in the Hellenistic World,” in A Companion to the Hellenistic World, ed. Andrew Erskine (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003): 449–63 (esp. 455).
7	Cf. Nelson, First and Second Kings, 30; Simon J. DeVries, 1 Kings, Word (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 43.
8	Cf., most famously, Martin Noth’s view of the anti-Solomonic character of the so-called Throne Succession Narrative, including 1 Kgs 1–2. See his Könige, BKAT (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1951), 39–41 (cited by DeVries, 1 Kings, 43).
9	Marvin A. Sweeney, for instance, attributes the criticism of Solomon in 1 Kings almost exclusively to deuteronomistic framing (especially 1 Kgs 11) of what he regards as earlier, firmly pro-Solomon material. For Sweeney, “Although many elements” of the narrative about Solomon “serve as the basis for later critique of Solomon in the Josianic DtrH,” they also appear as positive “indications of his great power and wealth.” See I & II Kings, 19; cf. 72–73, 78, 81, and often.
10	For one articulation of this point, see Yvonne Sherwood, Biblical Blaspheming: Trials of the Sacred for a Secular Age (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), ch. 10.
11	Sweeney, I & II Kings, 19, 31.
12	For traditional wisdom’s complex view of royal-political power, cf. the positive view in Prov 14:28; 16:10, 13; 20:8, 26; 22:11; 30:29 and a critically aware perspective in 17:7; 20:2; 23:1; 25:15; 29:12, 26. Other verses such as 20:28; 25:5; 28:16; 29:4, 14; 31:4–5 both affirm royal power, while implicitly and critically insisting on the just rules of kings; cf. 28:2–3 which may suggest the same, especially if רשׁis emended to .שׂר
13	1 Kgs 9:20–22 (cf. 9:15), where Solomon uses only non-Israelites for forced labor, seems to be an attempt to soften the picture of Solomon in 5:27 [5:13], where “all Israel” (perhaps exempting Judahites) is conscripted for such work.
14	These initial allusions to Pharaoh’s daughter in 1 Kings likely preserve a non- or pre-deuteronomistic tradition, since Solomon’s marriages to other foreign women in 1 Kgs 11:1 appear secondarily related to his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter.
15	The verse, however, makes clear that prior to Pharaoh’s actions Gezer was a Canaanite city. Cf. Josh 16:10; Judg 1:29.
16	Although a clear deuteronomistic voice introduces the account of Solomon’s reign in 1 Kgs 2 (vv. 2–4), from v. 5 on deuteronomistic rhetoric is sparse, appearing perhaps only in vv. 24, 27, and 45. Cf. DeVries, 1 Kings, 30; Mordechai Cogan, 1 Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 181.
17	Cf. the similar understanding of many commentators, for example, Choon-Leong Seow, “The First and Second Book of Kings,” New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 3:34; Sweeney, I & II Kings, 73. Although sapiential rhetoric is absent, Solomon’s shrewd political wisdom is perhaps also evident in his dealing with Adonijah, whom he assassinates (1 Kgs 2:25), and later with Jeroboam, whom he attempts to assassinate (1 Kgs 11:40), though this last effort appears at the end of a long deuteronomistic passage. Related too, perhaps, is Hiram’s praise of Solomon’s wisdom in 1 Kgs 5:21–26 (7–12). Although parts of the passage betray deuteronomistic influence, Solomon’s wisdom is clearly associated with his practical ability to increase his splendor by executing the plans of his building projects.
18	See William P. Brown, Character in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), ch. 2; Timothy J. Sandoval, “Revisiting the Prologue of Proverbs,” JBL 126 (2007): 455–73.
19	See Timothy J. Sandoval, The Discourse of Wealth and Poverty in the Book of Proverbs (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
20	Cf. DeVries, 1 Kings, 57–59.
21	Ibid., 93.
22	Many commentators have acknowledged the non-deuteronomistic character of these lines. DeVries, following an important ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Reconfiguring Solomon in the Royal Fiction of Ecclesiastes
• The Comeback of Comebacks: David, Bathsheba, and the Prophets in the Song of Songs
• Killing the Father: Gender and the Figure of Solomon in Ben Sira’s Hymn to the Fathers
• The Book of Judges in Early Jewish Interpretation: The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Zedekiah, Covenant, and the Scrolls from Qumran
• Dethroning David and Enthroning Messiah: Jewish and Christian Perspectives
• Probing the Former Prophets with a New Online Tool for the Study of Biblical Quotations and Allusions in the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Septuagint Joshua and Matthew’s Jesus: Salvation and Land Wars?
• Elijah, Ezekiel, and Romulus: Luke’s Flesh and Bones (Luke 24:39) in Light of Ancient Narratives of Ascent, Resurrection, and Apotheosis
• King Manasseh of Judah in Early Judaism and Christianity
• “A Running Thread of Ideals”: Joshua and the Israelite Conquest in American History
• Index of Names and Subjects
• Footnotes