Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Joe Baker <joebaker AT cygnus.uwa.edu.au>]

Hi Peter

Maybe Huldah was literate, maybe not - we lack information (but the
profession would have required some literacy skills). However, she was a
women and given the overwhelming number of males in the surviving
inscriptions and literature of that period the chances of her composing such
a major literary work are remote. Besides the style of the work is radically
different from the works of contemporary prophets.

Yes, Kings contains a discontinuous prophetic series of narratives (mostly
of northern origin) which is attached to a continuous historical sequence of
extracts from various chronicles and temple archives all glued together with
deuteronomic rhetoric and evaluation. And although the author holds the
prophetic material as a better source than the annals, it is the
deuteronomic material which is paramount (as it is with the Samuels).

For me the author was someone in the royal court who was heavily influenced
by the deuteronomic circles that seems to have held sway within the court at
this time. His position gave him ready access to court documents . Material
like king lists, the Chronicles of Israel and of Judah (which I do not think
he used very much - being content to say - Well if you want more, go and
read these books) and a separate temple record which recorded events centred
on the temple and its treasures (and unlike some of the other annals this
one dated temple events by regnal years).

The author is definitely not of the priestly school (and given the theology
of P and D, I often wonder how the two schools avoided quite violent
confrontations). And I wonder about the role of Hilqiah in "discovering"
core Deuteronomy - which I see as being placed in the Temple archives midway
through the reign of Manasseh. Did the economic advantages of a centralised
cult override theological differences? Or, when he was unable to influence
or change the mind of Josiah, did he do a "Sir Humphrey" (of the Yes
Minister series) and congratulate Josiah on an excellent initiative and then
set about promoting those parts which gave the best deal for his priestly
circle but blocking any proposals he opposed (as cryptically noted in
Kings).

I suspect that the composing of the deuteronomic history was supervised by
Shapan the scribe (and in Kings he is the only other person of this period
to whom is attached a three generation genealogy - even given that this was
a common practise of the time). His position in court would probably
preclude him from writing the entire history but such an important project
(as testified by its survival) must surely have born his editorial stamp
(and I see different authors working on different parts with the Book of
Kings being assigned to one particular person).

So I thought to myself, if the deuteronomic history was composed in the
latter part of Josiah's reign (and I accept this), then could the particular
author of Kings write himself into the book? So which person in the later
part of Josiah's reign is shown as having strong associations with both
prophetic and court circles? Answer - Shallum. (Speculation - yes of course,
but it does provide one explanation as to why Shallum's name occurs in the
text - and at a position which does not require his presence).

Regards
Joe Baker ===========\
Perth                |
Western Australia ===/