1–2 Samuel and 1 Kings

Abstract

The semihistorical dramas in 1–2 Samuel and 1 Kings reflect complex and sometimes competing perspectives on the past, woven together into a large textured statement about human character, social change, and political division. They also explore the ambiguity of God’s role in those social processes. The account of Saul’s rejection should be read on multiple levels—political, theological, and symbolic. David’s story is told with a measure of skepticism, and the account of Solomon likewise prompts a fresh appraisal of his reputation for wisdom. Yet the text points to their lasting legacy in the worship tradition and Zion theology associated with the temple and the book of Psalms. Narratives in Kings—stories of Elijah and also the anonymous man of God who confronted Jeroboam at Bethel—focus on prophets and YHWH’s word itself as primary shapers of history. The YHWH-alone movement in ninth-century Israel, associated with Elijah, bears some resemblance to the spread of indigenous African Christianity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.