Joshua to Kings: History, Story, TheologyThe Old Testament tells the story of a particular nation, ancient Israel, from its origins to its collapse in the face of foreign invaders. But what sort of story is this? How does it fit in with the findings of archaeological explorations of ancient Syro-Palestine? Joshua to Kings picks up the two aspects of the story told in the books from Joshua to 2 Kings, that of an actual historical society and that of a literary presentation of a nation, told from a religious perspective. By exploring the contents of these books the student is led into the use of basic tools for biblical study, such as historical criticism, narrative criticism and ideological criticism, in order to engage in a structured manner with the task of reading and interpreting biblical texts in a twentieth-century world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Contents | 2 |
Historical Issues | 11 |
Joshua and the conquest of Canaan | 13 |
Judges and the society of ancient Israel | 23 |
social and political leadership | 34 |
and 2 Kings and biblical archaeology | 47 |
History as Story | 57 |
Reading stories finding women | 83 |
History as Theology | 95 |
A constitution for Israel | 97 |
The character of | 108 |
The personhood of Israel | 120 |
Conclusion | 132 |
References | 134 |
| 145 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ancient Israel archaeological argues Assyrian Bathsheba biblical account biblical archaeology biblical Israel biblical text book of Joshua book of Judges Brueggemann Canaan Canaanite central century BCE chapter character conquest context covenant culture deity Delilah Deuteronomistic books Deuteronomistic Histories Deuteronomistic texts divine Egypt Elazar emerges evidence explored Exum focus Fritz God's Hebrew Bible historical Israel history of Israel human ideology instance interpretation Iron Age Israel and Judah Israel's identity Israelite issue Jerusalem Joshua Judah kingdom Kings kingship land Late Bronze Age linked literary Lord of Israel male material meaning modern biblical modern readers monarchy Moses narrative criticism narrator nation Old Testament Palestine particular past perspective picture political prophet reading religious role ruler Samson Samuel Saul and David Saul's scene scholars Sheffield Academic Press social Solomon story structure style Syro-Palestine term theme theological tradition tragedy tribal tribes verse Whitelam woman women worship writers YHWH