Abstract
This slim book, part of the SOTS / T&T Clark Study Guides to the Old Testament, offers an informative and easily accessible introduction to 1–2 Kings. Grabbe chooses to focus on historical issues: to what extent do the biblical narratives portray history? He opens his discussion with a comparative study—in dialogue with Greek historians—of what defines history-writing as a genre. He then explores the different literary genres extant in 1–2 King, asking what characterizes each one of them, and to what extent they can be treated as historical sources.
The main part of the book, falling into three main chapters, is devoted to the historical issues that the text raises. Grabbe begins each chapter with a useful overview of the structure of the material. He then examines systematically the depiction of each monarch. In every case, Grabbe brings extra-biblical texts and archaeological data into the discussion, in order to explore and evaluate the historicity of the biblical portrayal. He often differentiates between material borrowed from a presumed (yet now no longer existing) Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, legendary material, and material composed by the Deuteronomistic redactor(s). He further comments on the issue of narrative space. Some kings are given very brief descriptions in the Bible but are mentioned in extra-biblical material; others, like King Josiah, are given much narrative space in 1–2 Kings but are never referred to in ancient Near Eastern texts.
Grabbe further discusses the Hebrew text of 1–2 Kings and how it compares with the text of the Septuagint. He also provides a useful overview and evaluation of scholarly commentaries devoted to the books. Grabbe ends his study with a succinct analysis of the theological message of Kings and how a focus on the material as a ‘story’ rather than as ‘history’ opens up new ways of interpreting these biblical texts.
Grabbe’s focus on historical issues means inevitably, given the limited size of the Guide, that other areas are given less attention. The material about the prophetic figures, for instance, is mentioned but never examined in any detail. Literary issues, such as how the different narratives function as stories, are also hardly touched upon. These observations are not meant as a critique; rather Grabbe’s book is best read as an excellent introduction to the history of Israel and Judah during the ninth to the sixth century