David in the Desert: Tradition and Redaction in the "History of David's Rise" ed. by Hannes Bezzel and Reinhard G. Kratz

Abstract

Reviewed by: David in the Desert: Tradition and Redaction in the "History of David's Rise" ed. by Hannes Bezzel and Reinhard G. Kratz Leonardo Pessoa da Silva Pinto hannes bezzel and reinhard g. kratz (eds.), David in the Desert: Tradition and Redaction in the "History of David's Rise" (BZAW 514; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021). Pp. vii + 353. $114. Edited by Hannes Bezzel and Reinhard G. Kratz, this volume is a collection of papers presented at the symposium "David in the Desert," held at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, in September 2018, focusing on the tradition and redaction criticism of the so-called "History of David's Rise." Written in English and German, the papers are authored both by renowned veterans in the field and by a younger generation of scholars. In the introduction to the volume (pp. 1–8), the editors explain that the idea of a powerful empire under David has been criticized by recent scholarship. The same fate happened to Leonhard Rost's proposals on the source known as the "History of David's Rise," which are now challenged by the view that these stories aim, instead, to connect the Saul and David traditions. Therefore, the papers in this book focus on the textual development of the stories between 1 Samuel 16 and 2 Samuel 1. Owing to space limitations, I can give here only the outline of the topics treated in each contribution. In "David in the Judean Desert: Beobachtungen an ausgewählten Qumrantexten" (pp. 9–34), Peter Porzig analyzes 1 Sam 16:14–23, David as a musician in Saul's court, in light of David's image as a musician and a warrior in the nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls. In the second essay, "Saul, David und die Entstehung der Monarchie in Israel: Neubewertung des historischen und literarischen Kontexts von 1Sam 9–2Sam 5" (pp. 35–64), Omer Sergi maintains that the traditions about Saul are not northern, as is often claimed, but are from circles in Jerusalem. Sara Kipfer's contribution, "The Land 'from Telam on the Way to Shur and on to the Land of Egypt' (1 Sam 27)" (pp. 65–102), studies the political and geographical landscape of Philistine territories, concluding that David's "bandit" activities met a vacuum of power in that region. In her essay, "All the of Israel (1 Sam 27:1): Israel's 'Boundaries' in David's wanderings" (pp. 103–26), Mahri Leonard-Fleckman discusses the dating of 1 Samuel 27 and the possibility that it belongs to a phase earlier than scholarship generally supposes. Walter Dietrich's "Der Mann, mit dem Gott war: Kompositions- und quellenkritische Überlegungen zur Darstellung des Aufstiegs Davids in den [End Page 365] Samuelbüchern" (pp. 127–44) proposes that the court narrator of the eighth or seventh century used two existing narrative cycles, one focusing on the story of the Saulides, the other on the bandit activities of David. In the sixth essay, "David and His Alter Ego in the Desert" (pp. 145–58), A. Graeme Auld explains some recent developments concerning his ideas on the "Book of Two Houses," a source at the base of the synoptic chapters in Samuel–Kings and Chronicles. Hannes Bezzel devotes his analysis in "Saul and David – Stages of Their Literary Relationship" (pp. 159–80) to the connection between a Samuel-Saul cycle and the David narrative. In his essay, "On a Redaction Technique in 1 Sam 19:18–21:1" (pp. 181–92), Ronnie Goldstein maintains that the mentions of the "Great Cistern" were added to connect the stories of David and Jonathan's farewell to Saul's prophetic frenzy in Naioth. In his contribution, "David and the Priests of Nob: Collusion or Illusion" (pp. 193–24), Jeremy M. Hutton suggests that the Nob episodes in 1 Samuel 21 and 1 Samuel 22 originally constituted two distinct traditions. Georg Hentschel's "David's Flight to the King of Gath" (pp. 225–34) focuses on the stories of David with King Achish and maintains that they reflect an early layer of stories of David as leader of an Apiru band. In "David and Achish: Remembrance of Things Past, Present, or Future?" (pp. 235–48...