Getting prepared
Our teaching at this Year's Bible Week features the characters of Elijah and Elisha. Here's some background to the books of 1 & 2 Kings in which they appear.
Textual history
In the original Hebrew Bible, First and Second Kings were a single book, as were First and Second Samuel. When this was translated into Greek in the last few centuries (with some notable differences from the Hebrew text), Kings was joined with Samuel in a four-part work called the Book of Kingdoms. The Greek Orthodox branch of Christianity continues to use the Septuagint, but when a Latin translation of the Septuagint (called the Vulgate) was made for the Western church, Kingdoms was first retitled the Book of Kings, parts One to Four, and eventually Kings and Samuel were separated, but as two books each.
Together the books present a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years (c.960-560 BCE). It concludes a series of historical books running from Joshua through Judges and Samuel, the overall purpose of which is to provide a theological explanation for the destruction of the Jewish kingdom by Babylon in 586 BCE and a foundation for a return from exile.
Summary
Kings begins with the death of David, to whom Yahweh, the god of Israel, has promised an eternal dynasty, and the succession of his son Solomon. Solomon is praised for his wisdom and wealth, but he offends Yahweh by allowing other gods to be worshiped in Jerusalem. God therefore breaks the kingdom in two, with David's line reigning in the southern kingdom of Judah with a separate kingdom of Israel in the north. The kings of Israel are uniformly evil, allowing gods other than Yahweh to be worshiped, and eventually God brings about the destruction of the kingdom. A few of the kings of Judah are good, but most are evil, and eventually God destroys this kingdom also.
Themes and genre
Kings is "history-like," but it mixes legends, folktales, miracle stories and fiction in with the annals, and its primary explanation for all that happens is God's offended sense of what is right; it is therefore more fruitful to read it as theological literature in the form of history. The theological bias is seen in the way it judges each king of Israel on the basis of whether he recognises the authority of the temple in Jerusalem (none do, and therefore all are "evil"), and each king of Judah on the basis of whether he destroys the "high places" (rivals to the Temple in Jerusalem); it gives only passing mention to important and successful kings like Omri and Jeroboam II and totally ignores one of the most significant events in ancient Israel's history, the battle of Qarqar.
The major themes of Kings are God's promise, the recurrent apostasy of the kings, and the judgement this brings on Israel:
Promise: In return for Israel's promise to worship Yahweh alone, Yahweh makes promises to David and to Israel - to David, the promise that his line will rule Israel forever, to Israel, the promise of the land they will possess.
Apostasy: the great tragedy of Israel's history, meaning the destruction of the kingdom and the Temple, is due to the failure of the people, but more especially the kings, to worship Yahweh alone (Yahweh being the god of Israel).
Judgement: Apostasy leads to judgement. Judgement is not punishment, but simply the natural (or rather, God-ordained) consequence of Israel's failure to worship Yahweh alone.
Another and related theme is that of prophesy. The main point of the prophetic stories is that God's prophesies are always fulfilled, so that any not yet fulfilled will be so in the future. The implication, seen in the closing scenes of the book, with the release of Jehoiachin and his restoration to a place of honour in Babylon, is the promise to David of an eternal dynasty is still in effect, and the Davidic line will be restored.
The Deuteronomistic history
According to Jewish tradition the author of Kings was Jeremiah, whose life overlapped the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The most common view today accepts Martin Noth's thesis that Kings concludes a unified series of books which reflect the language and theology of the Book of Deuteronomy, and which biblical scholars therefore call the Deuteronomistic history. Noth argued that the History was the work of a single individual living in the 6th century, but scholars today tend to treat it as made up of at least two layers, a first edition from the time of Josiah (late 7th century), promoting Josiah's religious reforms and the need for repentance, and a second and final edition from the mid 6th century. Further levels of editing have also been proposed, including: a late 8th century edition pointing to Hezekiah of Judah as the model for kingship; an earlier 8th century version with a similar message but identifying Jehu of Israel as the ideal king; and an even earlier version promoting the House of David as the key to national well-being.
Source: Wikipedia
The evening teaching programme at the Bible Week is as follows:
Monday 22: On the anvil - Transforming a community (1 Kings 17)
Tuesday 23: Coming off the fence – A clash of Kingdoms (1 Kings 18)
Wednesday 24: Down but not out – Dealing with burnout (1 Kings 19)
Thursday 25: Passing the baton – Releasing leaders (2 Kings 2)