Can Judges Survive Without Sources?: Challenging the Consensus

Abstract

This paper argues that the evidence for early source material within Judges can be seriously challenged on archaeological and literary grounds. It is suggested that the interconnecting tapestry of the judge stories derive solely from the hand of one writer who produced a well-crafted work for the specific purpose of creating a crafted 'period of the judges'. For a redactor to supply such interconnections, the level of redaction would be of such an extent that any pre-existing source material would practically have been entirely re-written. It thus becomes increasingly likely (and more simple) to say that the hand of the 'redactor' is actually the hand of the author. It is therefore concluded that the book of Judges does not offer a showcase for the historian's craft, but in fact may provide a crafted 'history' of a judges period.