Ideology, Geography, and the List of Minor Judges

Abstract

This article proposes that the list of the minor judges found in Judg. 10.1-5 and 12.7-15 originated as an anti-monarchic scribal construction composed in the territory of the Northern Kingdom. The list reflects an anti-monarchic ideology and was modeled on the scribal conventions for summarizing royal succession that appear in the regnal formulas in the book of Kings. It locates the minor judges in the territory of the northern tribes outside of Ephraim.