Israelite King Research Articles

The Literary and Theological Function of the Philistines and Arameans in Chronicles

The book of Chronicles is a well-known example of how theological developments in Judah during the Persian and Hellenistic periods played a role in reshaping the received literary traditions of the Hebrew Bible. This study focuses specifically on Chronicles’ narratives of violent conflicts between Israel/Judah and the Philistines and Arameans and their relationship to the portrayal of the Philistines and Arameans in Samuel–Kings. It discusses five case studies pertaining to violent encounters between Israelite/Judahite kings and the Philistines (Saul in 1 Chr 10; Jehoshaphat in 2 Chr 17; Jehoram in 2 Chr 21; Uzziah in 2 Chr 26; Ahaz in 2 Chr 28) and five pertaining to the Arameans (Asa in 2 Chr 16; Jehoshaphat in 2 Chr 18–19; Ahaziah in 2 Chr 22; Joash in 2 Chr 24; Ahaz in 2 Chr 28). Among other new findings, the study highlights how Chronicles repeatedly depicts the Philistine threat in tandem with conflicts with the Edomites (a phenomenon not found in Samuel–Kings) and, furthermore, casts the Arameans as an instrument of divine punishment not only against northern Israelite kings but also against Judahite kings.

David, Uriah, Jesus, and Judas: An Intertestamental Pattern of Betrayal

Abstract This essay is a study in typological exegesis across the testaments of the Christian Bible. Specifically, in light of early Christian conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is the anointed son of David, we seek to understand how the story of David’s violent murder of Uriah the Hittite and rape of Bathsheba figure within a canonical framework in which Jesus is presented as David’s heir and yet also as the one in whom the Davidic legacy of violent betrayal reaches fulfillment. Beginning with a literary reading of David’s sins and their legacy in Samuel–Kings, the essay moves to consider the under-studied reference to Uriah and his wife in the Matthean genealogy and its import for Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as a “son of David.” We suggest that in the gospel tradition, David’s violence concentrates in the obscure figure of Judas Iscariot, who, like Uriah the Hittite, appears last in the roll of individuals faithful to their Israelite king (Matt 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16; see 2 Sam 23:39). In contrast to Uriah’s fidelity to David—but in step with David’s betrayal of Uriah—Judas’s treachery demonstrates why typological readings of Jesus as the Davidic heir remain necessarily complex. The Gospels identify Jesus as a new son of David, and in so doing, they also present him as one who transforms that scriptural paradigm through his symbolic reversal of David’s sin.

A Sluice Gate in Hezekiah’s (Iron Age II) Aqueduct in Jerusalem: Archaeology, Architecture and the Petrochemical Setting of Its Micro and Macro Structures

As part of an important and unique engineering project to protect access to the only perennial source of water in Iron Age II Jerusalem, the engineers of the Israelite king Hezekiah (~715 - 686 BCE) excavated a 533-m-long-subterranean water conduit. His reign took place during a time when the Assyrian empire was consolidating its control of Palestine and Syria, and the threat to the city’s only major water supply was acute and immediate. The aqueduct was constructed to transfer water from the Gihon spring, on the western flank of the Kidron Valley in NE Jerusalem, into the Siloam pool—a water reservoir built during the Middle Bronze II (MB II) Period and located inside the southeastern edge of the city. Hezekiah’s engineers were well aware that such a diversion of water from the northern spring source south into the Siloam pool would lower the water level not only in the immediate environs of the Gihon spring cave but also from the main reservoirs and water conduits. It would thereby threaten the water sources supplying the city’s religious and political heart. To deal with the problem a “device” to control water level in the new aqueduct and thereby also the spring environ was designed and eventually constructed about 71 m from the tunnel’s southern exit. This was where the tunnel ceiling rises rapidly from a height of ~2 m and reaches almost 6 m at the tunnel exit. Two parameters were decisive in the design and choice of this location 1) a threat to the city’s security and 2) the necessity to exercise control of the sluice system from without. Prior to tunnel inauguration four iron bolts > 8 cm in length and up to 1.2 cm wide, were hammered at about waist height through wood panels into which a wooden gate (the sluice) was fitted. A cable, probably woven of wool fiber, raised and lowered the gate. We retrieved and studied two of the four iron bolts and discovered that they are partially enveloped with accreted slivers of (apparently) cedar wood, now petrified to iron hydroxide. We have studied the bolts by SEM-EDS and XRD and were able to unravel a long history of oxidation of metallic iron during which the phases goethite, lepidocrocite, magnetite and lastly akaganeite crystallized—in that order. Collectively these species testify to corrosion of nails during a long history of a fluctuating, occasionally unique, chemical environment within the microcosm of the bolts and probably along the full length of the aqueduct. The external morphology of the bolts and the chemical composition of the metallic iron imply smelted low carbon wrought iron, hand-hammered into desired shapes. The ceiling above the nails is covered with plaster carrying organic matter and fragments of calcified organic fiber. Along nearby fracture zones pozzolanic mortar applications encircle hand-carved circular depressions, thereby collectively providing testimony to unique anthropogenic efforts invested specifically into this segment of the aqueduct.

Acedia, ‘Bourgeois Ennui’, and Kingship in the Hebrew Bible and The Epic of Gilgamesh

Abstract This article first discusses the concept of acedia/restlessness in Christian monastic and scholastic thought, as well as modern philosophy. Using it as a heuristic tool, it then proceeds to examine this phenomenon in relation to ANE kingship, arguing that a monarch’s unfocused and unchecked energy (one of the manifestations of acedia) could be personally and communally damaging. Focusing on two well-known kings, Gilgamesh and David, it shows how their ‘restless’ rules led to severe repercussions for their subjects. These kings have already been compared in scholarship, but this discussion analyses them specifically through the lens of acedia/restlessness. This line of investigation is prompted by similarities in the depiction of these kings in their respective literary corpora. Thus, The Epic of Gilgamesh casts Gilgamesh, a Babylonian king, as being burdened by a restless heart from the gods; one of the outcomes of this condition is his sexual exploitation of the people of Uruk. 2 Samuel in turn deals with David, an Israelite king, who neglects his duties, becomes restless, and violates Bathsheba, one of his subjects (2 Sam. 11–12).

Goliath among the Giants: Monster Decapitation and Capital Display in 1 Samuel 17 and Beyond

A single verse near the conclusion of 1 Samuel 17 mentions that after defeating Goliath, David took the giant’s severed head to Jerusalem (1 Sam. 17.54). The present paper argues that this text’s communicating of David’s preeminence through his act of decapitation draws on the widespread understanding of heads as uniquely powerful and vulnerable, while triumph over a giant or monstrous body casts the future Israelite king as uniquely dominant over monstrous enemies at the physical extreme. Narratives of monster-combat that center an adversary’s head and its subsequent display are widespread; the present paper discusses the Gilgamesh/Ḫumbaba and Perseus/Medusa narratives, with their corresponding visual art manifestations, to show how the biblical allusion to monstrous capital display functions socially and literarily to constitute David’s power.

Jeroboam II’s Temples

AbstractIn this article I deal with the geographical pattern of the North Israelite temples during the first half of the 8th century BCE. The Israelite temples can be divided into two groups: 1) Those located in the heartland of the kingdom, at least some of which celebrated important traditions of the North. 2) Those located on the borders of the kingdom according to its ideology, that the two Hebrew kingdoms should be ruled by a (North) Israelite king. I then review two themes in which the system of Northern temples could have influenced the cult of late-monarchic Judah.

Royal Messianism and the Jerusalem Priesthood in the Gospel of Mark

This book is a slightly revised version of a doctoral thesis completed at the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh in 2016 under the supervision of Matthew Novenson. Bernardo Cho investigates how Jewish messianism from the mid-second century BC to the late first century AD envisaged the proper relation between the Israelite king and the Jerusalem priests in the ideal future, and then attempts to describe how the Gospel of Mark addresses this issue in depicting Jesus. Cho’s argument comprises two major sections. The first section is a synchronic analysis of how the Israelite king was expected to interact with the high priest in the ideal future (chs. 1–2). In the second part of this book, Cho offers a close reading of the passages in Mark that are relevant for his purposes (chs. 3–5).Chapter 1 examines important passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls under the headings “Davidic Branch” and “Prince of the Congregation” (4Q252, 4Q174, 4Q285, 4Q161, 1QM, and 1QSB) and the “Messiahs (or Messiah) of Aaron and Israel” (1QS, CD, 1QSa). Cho concludes that, despite the preeminence of the messiah of Aaron in cultic procedures, kingship and priesthood are regarded as complementary in the messiah texts from the Scrolls. Chapter 2 focuses on texts from the Pseudepigrapha including Ps. Sol. 17, the Son of Man in the Similitudes of Enoch, and the Messiah in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. Cho claims this literature also takes it for granted that the Jerusalem priesthood would occupy a prominent place in the messianic kingdom, as the end-time royal ruler would bring about the purification of Zion.Cho argues in ch. 3, against recent critics, that Mark portrays the messiahship of Jesus in royal terms. According to Cho, the Markan Jesus fulfills the role of a royal messiah—he is the Son of God in the pattern of Ps 2 and the Israelite king in the patterns of Pss 109 and 117. Jesus in Mark does not achieve his goal by means of military force, but he is nonetheless the royal messiah, the one who brings about the kingdom of God.Chapter 4 examines three relevant passages in Mark 1–10 in which Mark portrays Jesus’s stance toward the Jerusalem priesthood prior to his climactic arrival into the Holy City. Cho begins with a preliminary discussion on Jesus and the chief priests in Mark. He then examines the Baptism of John (1:1–8), the healing of the leper and the witness to the priests (1:40–44), and the example of King David and Abiatha the High Priest (2:23–28). Despite the paucity of direct references to the temple establishment in Mark 1–10, there is an aggregation of passages that evince the hope for the priests to recognize the authority of Jesus.Chapter 5 analyzes five key passages in which Jesus interacts with the temple rulers in Jerusalem (Mark 11:15–18; 11:27–33; 12:1–12; 14:55–64; 15:33–39). According to Cho, what motivates Jesus’s clash with the priestly leaders is not his rejection of the Israelite worship but rather their obstinate refusal to acknowledge him. Mark tells us that it is because the priests repudiate the royal messiah that they, along with the temple itself, are doomed to face divine judgment. The priests could have secured their place in that vision, but, by rejecting the royal messiah, they put themselves outside the kingdom.In the concluding chapter, Cho draws some implications for the study of Jewish messianism in Mark and suggests the reasons Mark depicts Jesus vis-à-vis the Jerusalem priesthood the way he does. The book contains a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, an index of references, and an index of authors.Cho demonstrates a scholarly command of Second Temple Judaism and Markan studies. He engages in detailed exegesis of multiple passages. Cho also provides notes on the textual criticism of a passage. All translations from the ancient sources are done by Cho unless otherwise indicated. Cho considers and evaluates alternative points of view in the exegesis of passages. Some of Cho’s interpretations seem forced to converge with his thesis. As the author readily admits, Ps. Sol. 17 does not mention the priests as ruling alongside the king (p. 68). Cho also seems to suggest there were priests from Jerusalem present during the ministry of John the Baptist (p. 121) even though none are mentioned in the narrative (cf. Mark 1:5). In the final analysis, the author makes a plausible case for his thesis that Mark is concerned with the relationship between Jesus and Jerusalem priests. This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of both messianic expectations in Second Temple Judaism and the Christology of Mark’s Gospel.

Building a nation: The Jeroboams and the creation of two Israels

This article represents a short reflective essay in honour of the Old Testament scholar Eben Scheffler. It focuses on the writing of the history of ancient Israel texts; examines different approaches to address the history of texts: minimalist and maximalist; and illustrates a minimalist approach in reference to the figure of the Israelite king Jeroboam II.

Conflict, Order and Societal Change in Max Weber's Ancient Judaism: Substantive and Methodological Implications

Although Max Weber never formulated a theory of societal change, his study of Ancient Judaism was primarily concerned with understanding and explaining such change; especially the development of a disenchanted, this-worldly monotheistic faith having significant social and characterological consequences. Implicit in Weber's understanding of societal change is a dialectical relation between conflict and an order in which each serves both to reinforce and to transform the other. Conflict among Israelite social strata forms a consistent theme throughout Weber's discussion in Ancient Judaism, particularly the conflict between the patrimonial Israelite kings and the charismatic Hebrew prophets. This dynamic focus on conflict and change has methodological consequences which Weber illustrated with particular clarity in Ancient Judaism, especially in his application of the ideal types of traditional, charismatic, and legal Herrschaft. Presented in ‘Basic Sociological Concepts’ as terminologically precise and logically distinct, the flexibility and adaptability evident in Weber's application of these types to the empirical context of ancient Israel shows that he considered them to be profoundly interrelated.

Naaman’s Healing and Gehazi’s Affliction: The Magical Background of 2 Kgs 5

Abstract Scholars tend to view the healing of Naaman and the subsequent affliction of Gehazi in 2 Kgs 5 as polemic against magic and non-Israelite ideas about disease and healing. However, in analyzing the motif of צרעת as literary device it can be demonstrated that 2 Kgs 5 is not opposed to magic. My paper will show instead how the consultation between the Aramean and the Israelite kings, the depiction of Naaman’s healing, as well as the circumstances of Gehazi’s affliction draw from generic ideas about magic to bring into sharper focus the power of the prophet and the presence of Yahweh in the land of Israel.

"My Father, My Father! Chariot of Israel and Its Horses!" (2 Kings 2:12 // 13:14): Elisha's or Elijah's Title?

Among the prophetic narratives in the book of Kings, the stories about the "men of God" Elijah and Elisha are by far the most elaborate. Elijah and Elisha are presented as closely connected; they even carry the same title: "chariot of Israel and its horses." In 2 Kgs 2:12 Elisha cries out to Elijah using the appellation; later the Israelite king expresses his despair at Elisha's death (2 Kgs 13:14) by addressing him in the same way. In the current narrative sequence, the title is one of the features that present Elisha as the successor of Elijah. Second Kings 2 depicts Elijah's ascent to heaven in a fiery chariot and explains why Elijah carries the title. While no similar explanation is given in the case of Elisha, the tradition history of the images shows that the title is more easily connected with the Elisha narratives than with the Elijah stories. Elisha is seen as a supporter of various Israelite kings in military conflicts, and the Elijah narratives show a dependency on the Elisha material. It is likely, therefore, that the title "chariot of Israel and its horses" originated in the Elisha tradition and was later transferred to Elijah. Accordingly, 2 Kgs 2 was intended not only to present Elijah as Elisha's predecessor but also to provide an explanation why Elijah carries the title.

The reign of Yahweh through the 'priest-king' - The Interpretation and Application of Psalm 110

This paper attempts to interpret and apply Psalm 110. Psalm 110, which is the most frequently cited Old Testament text in the New Testament, has drawn much attention since the age of the early Church Fathers. This psalm was interpreted as a text that predicts the ministry and activities of Jesus Christ, thus forming a firm foundation of the messianic thought. In particular, the references to the ‘sitting on the right side of the throne of God’ and the ‘eternal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek’ were the main texts that enable Psalm 110 to be read as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. However, it cannot be confined to a messianic prophecy of Jesus Christ. Originally, it was a psalm that had been used as a so-called “Royal Psalm” in the situations of ancient Israel. In such a current, in the New Testament time it could be understood as a psalm with prophetic meanings about Jesus Christ. Further, it can be understood as a text that refers to Christians as “priest-kings,” who are admitted by faith as children of God and people of the covenant. In that sense, Psalm 110 has the following three dimensions: First, Psalm 110 is a psalm about the ancient Israelite king of Zion, who fulfills the reign of Yahweh. Second, Psalm 110 is a prophecy of Jesus Christ performing the duties of a priest-king on the right side of the throne of God. Third, Psalm 110 is a promise to Christians who participate in Gods reign with Christ.

You shall not kill them: Reading 2 Kings 6:8-23 in the context of the conflict in the African Great Lakes Region

The African Great Lake Region, specifically, Burundi, Rwanda and the Republic Democratic of Congo, is a region renowned across the globe for its history of persistent conflicts. A pattern observable especially in Rwanda and Burundi is a succession of political regimes where each time a new regime indicted its predecessor for failing to end the spiral of deadly ethnic conflicts. When previously oppressed any social group that finally snatches power resolves to neutralize the rival social group for good. To achieve this, the new powerful, formerly oppressed, becomes the new oppressor. The attitude of the leaders of the African Great Lakes countries find echo in that of the Israelite king mentioned in 2 Kings 6:8-23. Traumatized by the oppression that his people had suffered from the Arameans, and now in a position of strength, the king would not want to miss the opportunity to put off the threat for good by annihilating the enemy. But Elisha had a different solution, not to kill the now weak enemies but to show them the alternative way of relating. The present paper draws attention to one of many voices in Old Testament texts that are opposed to violence that focuses on Elisha’s approach of pacifism; Elisha’s approach of pacifism in the narrated conflict is found to be in tune with some pacifist approach usually grounded on Jesus’ teaching in the gospels. The essay argues that the pacifist perspectives find in the Old Testament find support in the New Testament and explores the relevance of such pacifist approach to modern conflicts such as those experienced in the African Great Lakes Region.

A Matter of Time: Writing Jewish Memory into Roman History

The Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds preserve fascinating stories about the origins of Roman festivals, through which they attempt to connect Roman history with Jewish history. This paper offers contextual readings of these narratives (Y. Avodah Zarah 1:2 [39c] and B. Avodah Zarah 8b) in light of Greek and Roman texts, epigraphical material, and numismatics, and places these rabbinic narratives within broader debates about cultural memory, Jewish historiography, calendars, and time. In one story, the idolatrous sins committed by a series of Israelite kings are blamed for the geological, mythical, and historical origins of the city of Rome, and a series of Roman imperial motifs and figures (the Tiber River, Remus and Romulus, Numa) are inverted. In another, the Romans are said to draw on the power of the Torah in order to defeat their Greek rivals. The rabbinic stories of Roman festivals and their Jewish origins can be understood as examples of what James C. Scott has called “a hidden transcript”—texts that bring to light an alternative perspective, that of the rabbis, within a Roman imperial context that they often interpreted as hostile or threatening.

"Forget Your People and Your Father’s House": The Core Theological Message of Psalm 45 and Its Canonical Position in the Hebrew Psalter

Abstract In Ps 45, the bridegroom king and the bride are portrayed notably alike. Illustrating their similarities, this article also tries to explain these similarities in light of the speech that the bride hears in vv. 11–13. The bride, whom this article will argue is from Tyre, is advised to forget her people and her home and submit totally to her husband-to-be. This counsel to “forget,” as I will show, is an allusion to God’s promise to Abraham in Gen 12:1–3 and also explains why a foreign bride may share the glory and splendor that an Israelite king enjoys. I will then examine the canonical position of Ps 45 in the Hebrew Psalter. While all four psalms in Pss 45–48 promulgate the universal reign of the divine, both Pss 45 and 47 allude to the same Abrahamic promise.

The poor in the Psalms: A variety of views

Since the psalms are religious, poetic, existential expressions of life, entailing both extreme joy and intense suffering, it stands to reason that poverty (in its literal sense and otherwise) would receive considerable attention. Focussing on material poverty and challenging the idea of a homogeneous view on poverty (e.g. Armenfr�mmigkeit) in the psalms, the diversity of views on poverty in the psalms is explored. Attention is paid to YHWH or God caring for the poor, the (Israelite) king as champion for the poor, the gods (heavenly assembly) (non)caring for the poor, caring for the poor in Zion theology, God as crusher of the poor and mutual human charity. The article concludes with some remarks regarding the possible present-day appropriation of the views in the psalms.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges the traditional notion on Armenfr�mmigkeit in the psalms. This is important for contexts where identifying with the poor are fed by selfish interest and actually feeds exploitation. It also propounds that various views on poverty exist, demanding creative and contextual applicable measures to combat poverty in the present-day world.

A Proskynesis do Rei Israelita Yěhû ao Rei Assírio Šulmānu-ašaridu no “Obelisco Negro”: Uma Apresentação Contextual do Relevo

This research aims to reconstruct some structural fundamentals Israelite king submission generators Yěhu to Assyrian king Sulmānu-asaridu in the 9 th century BC. Starting from the hypothesis that the campaign in the Levant is the most important international policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the meeting between the “great King” Assyrian and the “little King” Israelite should be seen as a demonstration of regional leadership of the ancient Israel, Yiśrā’ēl . Our goal is to demonstrate this political context.

Joshua 13–21 and the Politics of Land Division

Joshua 13–21 makes the remarkable claim that the Lord conquered, possessed, and gave the land as a gift to Israel. Although these chapters likely originated in political concerns of Israelite kings, the theological cast of the material outstrips any political motivations that gave rise to the material. The enduring role of this section of Joshua is to shape a society devoted to and dependent on God.

The Non-Eternal Dynastic Promises of Jehu of Israel and Esarhaddon of Assyria

AbstractThree Israelite kings receive promises of a dynasty continuing indefinitely (David, Solomon and Jeroboam I), but Jehu of Israel is the only ruler in the Hebrew Bible with a non-eternal dynastic promise. While many Assyrian rulers claim divine election and speak of “eternal” dynasties, the dynastic promise of Esarhaddon is unusual because of its modest nature. The dynastic promises of Jehu and Esarhaddon are therefore unique within their ANE context because of their lack of hyperbolic language, guaranteeing only four or two generations of continuity. Since both rulers assume the throne in the midst of a political crisis their reigns would have been reasonable times for promises legitimizing their dynasties. A comparison of these two oracles will not only allow the interesting parallels between the two promises to be clearly seen, but also reveal the crucial role that non-eternal dynastic oracles can play in establishing royal legitimacy.

Nocturnal Intrusions and Divine Interventions on Behalf of Judah. David's Wisdom and Saul's Tragedy in 1 Samuel 26

AbstractA literary strand of narratives about Saul in 1 Samuel emerged in a process of rewriting Israelite-Judean history. 1 Sam 26* and a number of other episodes (1 Sam 10:8; 10:17-27; 13:7a-13a; 14:24-46; parts of 1 Sam 9; 1 Sam 16:1-13; 16:14-23; 17*; 1 Sam 28*, 31*; 2 Sam 1*) present the first Israelite king as a figure that was informed by Greek tragic heroism. More specifically, the themes and the formation of the characters in the story of David's nocturnal intrusion in 1 Samuel 26 are set side by side with the post-classical drama Rhesus. 1 Sam 26 is understood as a narrative comment on Saul's destiny in prophetic tradition. Saul's tragic heroism is described with skl “to act foolishly” 1 Sam 26:21b. Also, Qohelet's royal travesty in Eccl 1:12-2:26 alludes to this notion of Saul as a tragic king who acts foolishly (skl). He is contrasted with his glorious opponent David who succeeds (śkl) in all his endeavours.