History and Historical Writing in Ancient Israel: Studies in Biblical Historiography.

• Author: Seters, John Van
• Position: Review

History and Historical Writing in Ancient Israel: Studies in Biblical Historiography. By TOMOO ISHIDA. Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East, vol. 16. Leiden: BRILL, 1999. Pp. xiv + 219. Hfl 127, $75.

This book is a collection of previously published essays spanning the years 1973-93 with a brief five-page introduction on the current state of historical and historiographical studies and some minor updating with bibliographic additions. It maintains a conservative position on the material covered against the current trend, especially as it has to do with the historiography of the pre-monarchy and United Monarchy periods. The introduction levels a general criticism against contemporary skepticism (including the work of the reviewer) and regards it as inappropriate. Ishida asserts at the outset that such late writings as the Deuteronomistic historians and Priestly writers "originated in ancient traditions," and this apparently allows him to consider the content of biblical books, such as Judges, Samuel, Kings, and even Chronicles as virtually contemporary with the events portrayed. His conservatism is justified by "the conservatism inherent in the very nature of tradition" (p. 4). This conviction underlies th e basis of his approach and allows for no further discussion or argument.

The book is divided into two parts. The first half contains studies of various terms that reflect, in Ishida's view, important political entities from the earliest period of land settlement, through the time of the judges and tribal league, to the monarchy. These include a study of the lists of pre-Israelite nations (chapter 1); the use of the term sopet as a way of understanding the political institutions of pre-monarchical Israel (chapter 2); the term nagid as a designation for the legitimation of kingship in the early monarchy period (chapter 3); the suggestion that it was the military who made someone king in the early monarchy period at the start of a new dynasty (chapter 4), whereas in the late monarchy period the "people of the land" who placed monarchs on the Judean throne, usually after an assassination, were a more representative "democratic" element of the population (chapter 5); and finally a short note on the "house of Ahab (chapter 6). The second half of the book is a group of six studies on the Succession Narrative (SN). The common thesis of these chapters is the view that SN is a legitimation of Solomon's succession by his...