Sunday, November 12, 2023

An Introduction to I Kings

We have finished Book I of the Psalms and so, at this time, I plan to return to the history books of the Old Testament and look at 1 & 2 Kings.

In the first five books of the Old Testament, a nation arises out of the descendants of Jacob. That nation, Israel, then moves into the land of Canaan and for centuries is loosely ruled by judges. The ancient scroll of Samuel (1 & 2 Samuel in modern Bibles) describes the transition to a monarchy, with first king Saul and then the charismatic and powerful king David. David unites the twelve tribes and builds a capital in Jerusalem. The death of David is suggested at the end of the scroll of Samuel but David's death and the crowning of his son Solomon is described in more detail in the first two chapters of 1 Kings.

The scroll of 1 & 2 Kings begins with the glorious characteristics of the kingdom of Israel in 970 BC and ends in a dark time, with the captivity in Babylon, in 586 BC. The final verses describe the existence of a deposed Judean king now residing in Babylon, c. 550 BC. (This Wikipedia page on the Kings of Israel and Judah is useful for keeping the kings organized, along with providing tentative dates for their reigns.) 

Historians believe David's death occurred about 970 BC. The scroll of Kings then covers, rather rapidly, four centuries, from the death of David to the destruction of the southern kingdom by the armies of Babylon. At the end of the book, the descendants of Jacob have been dispersed across the ancient Near East, many of them to Babylon. 

Outline

1 Kings breaks into roughly three pieces: Solomon's reign (40 years), then the break up of the kingdom  of Israel into two pieces and the contrasting dynasties that follow (60 years), followed by the reign of Ahab (20 years) and his confrontation with the prophet Elijah. Here are more details:

Solomon's Reign, chapters 1-11
  • 1-2, Solomon's ascension
  • 3-4, Solomon's wisdom and wealth
  • 5-8, Solomon builds the temple
  • 9-11, The slow downfall of Solomon
The Division of the Kingdom of Israel, chapters 12-17
  • 12-14, The kingdom breaks up
  • 15, Nadab, Baasha (Israel) vs. Abijah, Asa (Judah)
  • 16, Elah, Zimri, Omri (Israel) 
The Conflict between Ahab and Elijah, chapters 18-22
  • 17-19, Battle with Baal
  • 20-22, Final confrontations with Elijah

Elijah's conflict with Ahab continues into the first few verses of 2 Kings and chapters 1 through 10 of 2 Kings shift the focus to a new prophet, Elisha. 2 Kings 11-17 carry us from a bloody revolution by Jehu to the complete destruction of the northern kingdom (Israel) in 722 BC. The rest of 2 Kings (chapters 18-25) describe the remaining 136 years during which the northern kingdom is gone and the southern kingdom faces destruction, destruction which finally comes at the hands of Babylon. 

Author

The last event in the scroll of Kings is the release of Judean king Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25: 27-30.) That event occurs about 561 BC. The scroll emphasizes the punishment of Israel and Judah due to their persistent denial of the covenantal agreement with YHWH, as described in Deuteronomy, yet the scroll does not cover the return of exiles to Judah in 538 BC and so scholars believe that 1 & 2 Kings was completed sometime between 561 BC and 538 BC. (Hubbard suggests 550 BC.)  

The scroll not only emphasizes devotion to YHWH, as required in Deuteronomy, but also emphasizes the roll of prophets in confronting the kings. Rabbinical tradition gives the author as the prophet Jeremiah. Indeed, at one point (2 Kings 10: 15-16) the author briefly mentions, without explanation, Jehonadab, a son of Rekab and then the story moves on. Jehonadab does not show up again. The descendants of Rekab return to the Old Testament in Jeremiah 35, when Jeremiah addresses the descendants in Jerusalem. Does Jehonadab briefly show up in 2 Kings because the author is Jeremiah, who records there the early involvement of the Rechabites?

There are good arguments for identifying Jeremiah as the author of 1 & 2 Kings. His knowledge of the various kingdoms, along with prophesies against idolatry, are consistent with the book of Jeremiah itself, which also includes some historical information. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr.,  dates the beginning of Jeremiah's ministry to 627 BC and so suggests that Jeremiah wrote most of 1 & 2 Kings but the last few events, occurring 90 years later, may have been recorded by a later editor, preparing the scroll for the exiles in Babylon.

Questions about Dates

The events of 1 & 2 Kings are close enough to known external events of the ancient Near East, events in Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, that we can provide rough dates to the events in Kings. In addition, the scroll of Kings itself provides quite a number of internal dates. The scroll covers the division of Israel into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.  The accession of a king in one kingdom is dated by the year of reign of the king in the other kingdom. However, with these internal dates, certain questions arise. 

If one king reigns 20 years and his son reigns 30 years, what are the total years of their reigns? 

This simple question may have a number of different answers, depending on how accession is recorded and whether or not there is a coregency, a period in which the son reigned while the father was still alive. There were two different practices in the ancient Middle East and both were apparently used at one time or another during this period in Israel. In one case, if a king took power during the middle of a year, that year counted as Year #1 in his reign.  In other cases, that year did not count and Year #1 was the first full year of his reign. This means that the a reign of 20 years followed by a reign of 30 years might duplicate a year common to both monarchs or exclude a year in the count, leading to totalities of 49 or 51 years between the two kings. And if there was a coregency of 5 years, we might need to subtract 5 years from the total. Add in the fact that traditionally the year began in the spring but apparently, under the influence of outside nations, the year might began in the fall, and we then have a fair amount of confusion about the internal dating. Without an awareness of these issues, the internal dating is inconsistent (say commentators) and this inconsistency does not seem to bother the author. There are some commentators who are very concerned about these issues but I have ignored the issues in my own reading.

Resources and References

My practice is to read through the text from the New International Version (NIV), copied into the blog and italicized in blue.  At the head of each blue paragraph of text I place a short title; after the text I place my thoughts or comments in black.  I begin this process with my own reactions and thoughts and then supplement these comments with gleanings from a commentary or two.

The real goal of this blog is to force me to read every verse thoughtfully. I hope that you, too, read the passages thoughtfully!   Feel free to disagree -- or to react in other ways! (I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if you wish!)

For the book of 1 Kings, I have found two commentaries especially helpful. 
Both of these sources cover both 1 and 2 Kings. In addition to the two commentaries above, there are also:
  • Amongst the online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, is an online commentary on 1 Kings.  (The Easy English Bible commentaries are easy to read, with deliberately simple language intended for those for whom English is a second language. The Old Testament text is included in the commentary.) 
  • The Gospel Coalition now has a set of online commentaries.  Here is their commentary on 1 Kings.
  • I have also used A Synoptic Harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles: With Related Passages from Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezra, edited by James Newsome. Another harmony of those books is available as an online pdf here.
  • A Bible Project video on 1 & 2 Kings is here.
Onward to the remarkable (and sad) history of Israel in the first half of the first millenium BC!

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