Kingship Ideology According To The Hebrew Bible PDF Download

Despite the complexity of the book of Samuel, the current explanation for the tensions in regards to kingship (due to conflicting early/late pro/anti-monarchical sources) is unsatisfactory. That a number of interpretations start from this binary choice leads to an oversimplification of the complex views surrounding the ideology of kingship within the Hebrew Bible as a whole, as well as within the book of Samuel. It is the view of the author that the tensions within the text are not the result of conflicting early/late sources, but rather a witness to the formative period of Israelite royal ideology. The thesis of this study is that the book of Samuel preserves a historic reality behind the integration of the office of kingship into ancient Israel, and that this integration of kingship conflicted with Yahwistic theology until the royal ideology of early Israel reached a palatable form within that theological framework. For this reason, this study seeks to understand kingship within the book of Samuel through the lens of royal ideology and the way in which it interacted with Yahwistic theology. Given the position of this dissertation that royal ideology within the book of Samuel did not arise in isolation, a survey was conducted of those texts which might be considered as the “prolegomena to kingship” within the book of Samuel. In addition to showing the high degree of competence of the Biblical authors to represent complex imagery surrounding kingship in their own culture as well as those around them, this survey also showed that a consistent narrative thread that runs through a majority of these texts is that the role of Yahweh as Divine Warrior is foundational to His kingship within early Israel. Several texts thought to have early dates of composition that would predate the institution of the monarchy or coincide with its beginnings (Exod 15, 1 Sam 4-6, 2 Sam 22, etc.) highlight this aspect of Yahweh. As a result, we are able to understand the rejection of Yahweh in 1 Sam 8 not along simple pro- or anti-monarchical grounds as critical scholarship traditionally has, but as an ideological conflict arising during the formative period of the monarchy. We therefore see the authorial intent of the author/authors of the book of Samuel to highlight this tension during the reigns of Saul and David, all the while articulating an ideology of human kingship that would ultimately find acceptance in the subordination to Yahweh as Divine Warrior. This form of kingship perhaps reaches its pinnacle of expression in the ideology portrayed in the song of deliverance by David in 2 Sam 22, as well as the Davidic covenant made in 2 Sam 7.