Author Description

A number of factors in recent years have made a new full-scale commentary on Kings a 'must" for scholars and theologians. One of the most important of these is the discovery and publication of the Qumran manuscripts. These in their variants, certain of which support readings in Lucians' recension of the Septuagint, compel a new respect for that text, which because of its tendency to smooth out difficulties had been viewed with considerable suspicion. Moreover, the discovery of the cuneiform texts of Mari and of Ras Shamra has stimulated philological study and borne rich fruit in a fuller understanding of Hebrew. Many suspicious passages in the Masoretic text are now emended in the light of this new knowledge, and many other passages that require no emendation are now more correctly understood. The author takes particular account of the theological interests of Kings as he lays emphasis upon such institutions as prophecy, the king who is the representative of the people before God, and the divine covenant with Israel and the Davidic house. He relates the histories of the surrounding nations, for example, to that of Egypt, which was then on the decline, and to Assyria and Babylon, which were then weak. He correlates them with the narratives of other canonical and noncanonical books. He compares his conclusions with those of other notable scholars, e.g. Von Rad and Noth, who have treated closely associated themes. In his introduction he discusses the authorship and sources of Kings, the probable date of composition (compilation and redaction), the problems of the text, and the chronology of the narrative -- about 400 years, from the death of David to the fall of Jerusalem.