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Pete
You’re listening to the Bible for Normal People, the only God-ordained podcast on the internet. I’m Pete Enns.
Jared
And I’m Jared Byas.
Intro
[Intro music begins]
Pete
Hey folks, we’re really excited to let you all know that John for Normal People, the newest book in our commentary series is coming out tomorrow, Tuesday, October 10th.
Jared
In this commentary, Jennifer Garcia Bashaw explores what we might learn about Jesus when we’re attentive to the text and the theological world of John’s gospel.
Pete
Yeah, absolutely. And the book unpacks issues of authorship, dating, redaction history, cultural and social context, historical background, and narrative criticism to uncover Jesus as the author of John’s gospel, understood him.
Jared
So you can get it wherever you get your books, but you know, support your local bookstore, buy it online from one of those places, bookshop.org or anywhere you get them, really. Just make sure you do it tomorrow, which is October 10th, and don’t forget to leave a review if you like it—if you don’t like it, don’t leave a review.
Pete
Well folks, it’s just me, Pete, today on the podcast, and welcome back to our walk through the Deuteronomistic History, namely, today, we’re going to focus on 1 Kings, which is the story of the beginning of the end for Israel’s monarchy.
Pete
[Teaser clip plays over music] “First and Second Kings are the work of some people who had access to, and were culling, the royal annals. But not just to repeat them, rather they crafted the story as they saw fit. First and Second Kings tells the story of the failed monarchy and most importantly, why it failed, and who the main figures were, who were responsible for that failure.”
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Pete
Now we left off in 2 Samuel with the story of David’s conflicted reign—you know, he was hardly a poster boy of faith in God. But there was one thing he did not do that his successors virtually all did, and that the writer here never tires of condemning, and that’s deviant worship of God. Like worshiping other gods or worshiping Yahweh the way the gods of Canaan are worshiped, like through high places rather than through a centralized temple. That is the central theme of First and Second Kings. This whole business of what these kings have done to not adhere to the strict regulations regarding the worship of Yahweh.
Pete
Now, you may recall that the Deuteronomistic History is an academic title given to the books of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, and First and Second Kings, because these books reflect certain theological themes that are present in…Well, the book of Deuteronomy, hence Deuteronomistic History. And namely, the theme that really is pushed is the importance of, as I just said, proper worship of God. So that means centralized in the temple rather than the high places scattered about the land, and in fact, that means eradicating the high places so nobody’s tempted to worship Yahweh or foreign gods on sacred land. So the king’s obligation is to uphold that ideal and lurking behind it all is a system really of rewards and punishments for Israel’s obedience and disobedience concerning worship. And those themes find their way prominently into the Deuteronomistic History.
Pete
Now, 1 and 2 Kings brings us to the conclusion of the Deuteronomistic History. And it’s safe to say that Israel’s kings, according to the evaluation, at least, of the Deuteronomistic historian—you know, the putative writer or editor of this collection of books—but these kings generally did a very poor job, indeed, of sticking with the program. And what we read is one after the other kings who just didn’t do their job in the whole worship category thing, and all this takes place in the context of a national tragedy. And that is the division of the united monarchy after the death of Solomon, which is part of the action of First Kings, and then the division of the monarchy into northern and southern nations, and then the eventual exile of both—and we’ll get to that part in Second Kings.
Pete
Now the author—let’s just call him the author, it’s really hard to tell sometimes where authorship begins and editing ends, but functionally, the person who compiled all this stuff, we’ll just have to call this person an author, alright?—so the author recounts the story here of the northern nation called Israel, among other things, which went into exile then in 722 BCE at the hands of the Assyrians, never to return. These are—you’ve heard the phrase—the lost tribes of Israel. This is the northern nation because they went to exile and they never returned, right?
Now the southern nation is the tribe of Judah, and therefore the nation is called Judah, and it met a similar fate but at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The big difference being that the Judahites did return to the land in 539 BCE, about 47 years later, and Second Kings ends with a scene from within Babylon itself: the release from prison of King Jehoiakim, which happened around 550 BCE, which tells us that First and Second Kings, as we know them, as we know these books sitting in our Bibles, these books were written at least after the onset of the Babylonian exile, if not some time perhaps long after.
Pete
Now remember also from previous episodes, that these two books were originally one book but got divided into two after the Israelites adopted the Greek language—which is around 300 BCE—and eventually also the coming into existence of what is called the Codex, which is a book form rather than a scroll form. And for these reasons, the Book of Kings became too bulky and was split into two. Anyway, these two books take us from the end of David’s life and the rise of Solomon, all the way to the release of Jehoiachin, so from about the 960s BCE to the 550s BCE, roughly 400 years.
Pete
Now, of course, you know, today we’re gonna focus on first Kings, like I keep saying, so let’s get to it, right—which ends around 850 BC, that’s where First Kings, that’s where the action ends. And so it covers about a hundred years, the first quarter of the divided monarchy. Now, as you know, I love outlines of books and First Kings is pretty easy to outline. The first 11 chapters cover the events leading up to the end of the united monarchy. So we read here about David’s death, and then the succession of Solomon and his reign and how that went. So that’s 1-11. The second half—chapters 12-22—the second half covers the first 73 years, roughly, of the divided monarchy. And the storyteller typically does this in First and Second Kings, he weaves back and forth between the accounts of northern and southern kings. By the way, this is why a Bible with subheadings, [Hums], I can’t say this strongly enough, folks—especially if you’re new to this—a Bible with subheadings, like little headings inside the chapters themselves, is very helpful because it can make it a bit easier to skim these chapters and see who all is being talked about. If you know, coming across 40 names in two books is confusing, and it should be [Chuckles], especially if a lot of the kings start with J or M or A. Alright, so it’s just a lot to take in.
Pete
Anyway, after Solomon’s death in the 920s BCE, the Northern/Southern kingdoms arose. And with each nation sporting a total of 20 kings. Which is a suspiciously neat number for both nations, but let’s leave that to the side here. Each nation had 20 kings, even though the North lasted a mere two hundred years—remember they’re exiled in 722—whereas the Southern nation hung on for about another 130 years to 586. So the Northern kings generally reign for—call me Captain Obvious—a shorter period of time, in part because there were numerous violent coups in the North. So in First Kings, we meet eight Northern kings, which comprises four dynasties, four dynasty shifts because of these coups, but only four Southern kings.
Pete
Now, another fun fact about these kings, which I just alluded to, is that the Southern kings were all of one lineage, the house of David, meaning descended from David. The North, however, had its share of military coups, resulting in no fewer than nine dynasties, the longest being about a hundred years in length, and the shortest literally about a week. So a lot of political turmoil in the North, and much less in the South, which claimed the Davidic, united sort of Davidic lineage. And recall, David is from what tribe? Well, he’s from the tribe of Judah, and that’s the name by which the nation is referred to.
Pete
Now, as we’re getting into a more detailed look at the book, let me just mention here a bit more about its production. Its authorship, who wrote First Kings exactly, and when, are questions that I believe can’t really be answered with great confidence, although as I mentioned, the person or persons responsible are very much on Team Deuteronomy, right? They’re espousing that theology, and they lived after the Babylonian exile begin, at the very least, right. The story of Jehoiachin around 550 BCE, and that scene that ends the book of Second Kings. So to write their history, these editors and authors, what they did is they—and this is very clear in the text itself—they drew on some early texts that are not known to us, except for they’re being mentioned in first and second Kings. And these texts are court annals, the documentation of the goings on at court and the three court annals that are mentioned in First and Second Kings are “The Book of the Acts of Solomon,” and other is “The Books of the annals of the Kings of Israel,” and then a third “The Books of the annals of the Kings of Judah.” So each nation had their own court stenographer copying down what people are doing, what’s happening. And of course, we do that today, America does this, you know, we have tapes the Presidents get into trouble with anyway. And “The Book of the Acts of Solomon,” clearly, that’s concerning Solomon’s reign. So these are sources of information for the writers of the Deuteronomistic history. And now with that, what we’ll do, is we’ll see—I mean, we won’t see, but if you read the books themselves, you will see—that some of the narratives of the kings end was something like, you know, I’m paraphrasing, obviously, but, “Well, that’s all I’m gonna say about this guy. And if you want to know more, please consult “The Books of the Annals of the Kings of Israel,” etc.”
Pete
Now, I’m raising this to make a hopefully clear point, but I think an important one. First and Second Kings are the work of some person or group of people, who had access to and were culling the royal annals, but not just to repeat them, rather, they crafted the story as they saw fit for their needs. They were telling a story, not the only story one could tell of the monarchy, mind you. But their story, which to pare it down comes down to this: First and Second Kings tells the story of the failed monarchy, and most importantly, why it failed, and who the main figures were, who were responsible for that failure.
Pete
Now, one thing that’s so confusing about First and Second Kings is that they mentioned a lot of names and it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. You know, especially if you have 40 kings, and literally, I counted 24 that begin with the letter A or J. And sometimes kings from the different nations have the same name, that happens a couple times. So let’s just bring this under a bit of control here, because I like trying to make order out of chaos when I read some of these things. But First Kings orbits really around the actions of four main figures, and then part one—again, that’s chapters 1-11—that main figure there is Solomon. And he’s the last king, the third and last king of the united monarchy. And it talks about his contribution to the division, things started off pretty well but then they went sour pretty quickly, as well. And then there’s Jeroboam, he’s the first Northern king. And he’s greatly maligned by this biblical writer. And he is introduced in part one, and he gets some important airtime also in part two. Now, David, who’s a big name in the Bible, he dies in chapter two, but he’s really a minor character in First Kings. His main job is to sort of pass on the monarchy to Solomon, somehow, that’s his only role, and then he dies.
Now, in part two, the main figures are—there are two main figures—a king and a prophet. That’s King Ahab, and his nemesis, his thorn in the side, the prophet Elijah, one of the more popular characters, I think, in the Hebrew Bible. And this writer, he clearly has a major problem with Ahab, and along with Ahab and Elijah are two minor figures Naboth and Micaiah—I say minor, not because they’re unimportant, they’re all important from what the author tries to say, but I’m not sure if we’re gonna have the time to explore those narratives. Maybe that’s a time. There’s a podcast for that at some future time. We’ll see.
Pete
Anyway, let’s turn to part one, and walk through some of the key moments. Right, here we go. So first, let’s talk about David for a moment, even though he’s a minor character. He’s very old. So old, in fact—this always gets me—that a Shunamite woman named Abishag is assigned the role of keeping him warm at night. Now, the writer makes it clear that David did not know her sexually and she’s really mentioned, I think, to set up what comes next in the narrative which is Adonijah’s attempt to succeed David—Adonijah was one of David’s sons and he wanted the throne for himself. And in all fairness Adonijah is the eldest remaining son of David, at least that seems to be the case in the narrative. But Solomon is apparently the one chosen by David and by God, which predictably doesn’t sit well with this other brother, Adonijah. Now I don’t want to get into sort of thick weeds here but in previous podcasts, we’ve talked about how the Hebrew Bible has this very interesting theme that begins all the way with the Cain and Abel story about God’s preference for the younger siblings, sort of leapfrogging over the elder siblings. And you see that with Moses and with Joseph, and here we see it with, we saw it with David actually, when he was the youngest of seven and yet he was able to become king. And here too, Solomon is not the elder son but he’s the younger son. So there it is, again, the same theme of God preferring the younger over the elder, which is sort of bucking the system a bit.
Pete
So anyway, Adonijah, he’s not really happy. So what does he do? Well, he holds a very public spectacle to make himself king, which makes the pro-Solomon faction a little bit nervous. So David makes it quite clear to Bathsheba—Solomon’s mother—that “No, no, Solomon will be king,” and then he dies. This opens the door for Adonijah and so he approaches Bathsheba—again, the Queen and his stepmother—with, you know, an innocent request. He’d really like to take Bathsheba as his own consort, concubine, whatever. And not just to keep him, you know, platonically warm at night, as it was with David, by claiming the king’s concubine [Hums], he is laying claim to the throne. Yes, sir. That’s what he’s doing. And so Bathsheba, for some reason, just doesn’t get it. She doesn’t detect this bit of subterfuge and political savviness on the part of Adonijah. So she consults with Solomon to get his opinion. And his opinion [Chuckles] was to get a little bit upset of the very thought that Adonijah would request of Bathsheba that he be given David’s concubine and Solomon gets a little bit snarky, here he says, you know, basically, “Sure, mom, great idea. You know, why don’t you just give him the crown while you’re at it? Because that’s what he’s asking for.” So Solomon says, “I’ll handle this,” and he sends his general Benaiah to kill his half-brother and the general Joab. Getting his opposition out of the way, and he banishes—doesn’t kill—but he banishes the priest who supported Adonijah, so that’s Abiathar. So you have the general killed, but the priest is exiled, you just don’t kill priests, but you have to get the opposition out of the way. And the two main areas of opposition would be military and religious. So you got to get a handle on that. Right. So Abiathar was banished and Joab is killed and this is real Game of Thrones stuff here, folks. And long story short, all opposition has been dealt with in Solomon is now in the clear.
Pete
So despite these violent beginnings, Solomon’s reign began on a helpful note. He’s famously known for his wisdom, and you can see this in chapter three of First Kings and the very famous story of, remember, the two women who each claim that the baby was theirs and so Solomon said, “Well, let’s cut it in half so you can each have him,” [Chuckles] Right? Knowing that this would make the true mother beg for his life. So that’s a real show of wisdom to solve a real life problem and kings are known for their wisdom in the ancient world. So a wise king is exactly what you want. And that’s how Solomon’s reign begins. It’s marked by wisdom, a primary characteristic of all good kings, biblical, and elsewhere in the ancient world, right. In fact, as you may recall, Solomon famously chose wisdom over wealth. Likewise, in chapter three, he was given a choice by God, he says, “I want to choose wisdom, because if I have wisdom, wealth will come with it. But if I just choose wealth, I don’t have wisdom and I can’t be a good king.” So very well done. Solomon, you are a promising guy, so good to get to know you. Let’s see where this goes.
Pete
Okay. Here’s the problem, unlike Saul and David before him—remember, Saul was the first king then David, and then Solomon—unlike those two guys who are more military leaders… They weren’t- They were kings, but not really, not in the full-blown sense of a king over a nation. They were more military leaders. Solomon was really the first real king, meaning he has an administration—you can read about that in chapter four if you want—he has a standing army, he has levied taxes, and other things. And here’s the point: these are the very things that we were warned about all the way back in First Samuel, chapter eight. When the people—right, this is right after the period of the Judges and Samuel is there and the people wanted a King like every other nation, and Samuel read them the Riot Act by telling them the kinds of things that kings will impose. Well, here with Solomon, the narrator is sort of saying it quietly, but he’s demonstrating that we’re seeing, at least at this point, some of those, let’s say excesses are part of Solomon’s reign. So much so, again, I don’t want to get into this, it’s a little bit… It can get a bit hairy. But I really do think First Samuel, chapter eight, and the condemnation of these bad things that kings do, I think they mirror so closely Solomon’s deeds, especially later on, as we’ll get to it, that I don’t think it’s an accident. I think the story of First Samuel was written in light of the reign of Solomon, and what happened there. Remember, this is the Deuteronomistic History and we’re reading traditions of stories that were compiled, and then spun, for lack of a better word, put together in a certain way to make a certain point. So already signaling in First Samuel chapter eight that Solomon is going to be a problem is part of the design of these books, it’s to get you thinking.
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Pete
So anyway, like I said, we’re getting clues early on to where all this is headed. Again, in chapter four, we read a very boring list of Solomon’s administrators, and skip it if you will, but just know that Solomon has a list of administrators. That’s new, right? That’s because he’s the king. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with a building full of administrators, right? [Hums]
Next—and we’re still in chapter four—we read of Solomon’s blessed rule, right? The writer introduces this section by saying the following, he says, “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand of the sea; they ate and drank and were happy. Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” This is probably an exaggerated account of Solomon, but you know, it’s not a bad compliment. And I think leaders are supposed to take that seriously and say, yes, Solomon was awesome.
Pete
But you gotta read carefully, and sometimes just a little bit between the lines, because a few verses later, as we read about all the stuff Solomon has, we read this, “Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. Those officials supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one on his month; they let nothing be lacking.” Now, if we harken back to another passage that I mentioned periodically as we talk about the Deuteronomistic History, and that’s Deuteronomy 17, right? And when we harken back to that, one thing kings are not supposed to have is a lot of horses. Pretty explicit there, of all the things to mention, that’s what’s mentioned. Solomon’s acts here are bringing him into tension with Deuteronomy, chapter 17. Further, these twelve thousand horsemen had the job of bringing to Solomon needed supplies for Solomon and his guests. The question is, how did they get them? Stopping off at the grocery store? Probably not. Doing some farming on the side? Probably not. Asking people politely if they would mind giving their hard earned stuff to Solomon? Probably not. My money is on there having simply taken what they needed—which is the very thing that Samuel warns about in First Samuel, chapter eight.
Pete
Now Solomon’s slide into infamy, which is what’s happening, it gets a bit clearer as we continue reading. Now, just the highlights here, because there’s a lot to do, but just to get the gist of it—first, Solomon makes provisions for building the temple, which is great and promising and by all counts, the temple winds up being quite beautiful—and one would not be faulted, however, for asking, “Yeah, it’s beautiful, but when does beauty cross over to opulence?” See, another thing Deuteronomy 17 warns about is amassing too much gold and silver. But still, we can let that slide for now. He’s got a nice template, a lot of gold and silver over there. But let’s just let him slide. Let’s just keep going. So we’ll see where this goes.
At the end of chapter six, we are told it took Solomon a whopping seven years to build the temple, which is all fine and good. But in the very next verse, chapter seven, verse one, we are told that he took 13 years building his palace. Now, again, let’s give the guy a break, you know, the palace probably has to be bigger than the temple with all those administrators and the court and all that kind of stuff. But still, it’s almost twice as long taking care of his own house rather than the house of God. And it’s really, really opulent. Now, again, I’m sympathetic because we all know that, you know, a CEO can’t be driving a Chevy Chevette and be taken seriously right? A king needs nice digs, but still, the thought is being planted into the reader’s head is “is this getting out of hand?” And I think by chapter seven, the readers need to be asking themselves that question. [Hums]
Pete
So after the temple is dedicated, which is topped by a very long and pious prayer by Solomon, God appears to him again and reminds him that he’s expected to lead Israel in all righteousness, namely the proper worship of God and if not, well, guess what? There will be consequences, namely exile. What follows next is the famous story of the Queen of Sheba, and her visit of Solomon. And she wants to see if the rumors are true, right. “I heard this guy’s amazing, he’s fantastic.” And you know, and the rumors are true, she finds what a great king this is. Solomon has a lot of stuff. And he just couldn’t help but brag about it to her. See, the tension here of the story is that kings again, have to look the part. See, I think there’s something inevitable about kingship in the mind of the Deuteronomistic Historian, that makes it a problem. Because you have to look the part, kings can’t be dressed as peasants. They have to have staff, they have to have a standing army, they have to have taxes, and kings have to look the part. And that includes primarily having stuff, so the writer sort of drops hints. But there were also praises for Solomon for having all this stuff. Like it’s a sign of God’s favor.
Pete
So is it right or is it wrong for a king to have stuff? And I think the answer is it depends. But it probably doesn’t end well at the end of the day. But you know, such is the ambiguity of wealth in the Bible as a whole, sometimes it’s a snare. And sometimes it’s a blessing. You can read all about that in Proverbs. But as we reach the story of the Queen of Sheba and the aftermath, I think ambiguity, I think it begins to clear up a little bit. In chapter 10, we get a long list of Solomon’s stuff. And you can read about this in chapter 10, verses 14-29. And there, the author claims it’s a sign of God’s blessing. But for anyone who has read Deuteronomy 17, and First Samuel eight, this list can’t help but make you a bit nervous. It’s almost as if the writer is putting us in a position of seeing the tension, and asking us to make our own minds about how Solomon is doing.
Pete
But then next, the lid is blown off. And it’s just, you can see things for what they really are and where all this has taken Solomon. Right there, Solomon does the worst thing he could have done. He amassed seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, which, of course, is an exaggeration, but I think that’s the point [Chuckles] that the author is trying to make. This is a really bad dude at this point. He’s got seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, who led Solomon astray. Why? Because to appease his foreign wives, he began building high places, not tearing them down, but building high places in Israel, so his foreign wives could worship their gods. So much for the king upholding the Deuteronomistic ideal of centralized worship to Yahweh alone. And that settled the score for God. For these acts, what we read is that God promises to tear the kingdom away from Solomon and give it to someone else. We’ll get to him in a minute. But it’s for David’s sake, because David was so awesome. What made him awesome? He didn’t advocate false worship. He didn’t do anything like that, right. So for David’s sake, Solomon, despite his problems, Solomon will retain the one tribe of Judah as his kingdom. And this is where the nations of Israel and Judah were born.
Pete
So this is the theological explanation for the division of the monarchy promoting false worship. This is why the division of the monarchy occurred, because of that act of false religious worship.
Now, this follows however, this story follows with another explanation, a second, a dual explanation and this one is much more political in nature. And it concerns a guy by the name of Jeroboam, a certain Jeroboam, a Northerner and in charge of Solomon’s laborers, who are disproportionately Northern, by the way, and he rebels against Solomon and is promised by the prophet Ahijah that he will receive the bulk of the kingdom for his own. So Jeroboam, he’s going to be the first king of the Northern kingdom, right? So at this point, Solomon dies and his son, Rehoboam—try not to get too confused here, folks [Chuckles]—by the way, a little mnemonic, you know Jeroboam and Rehoboam, they’re the first kings of the North and the South, the divided monarchy. Rehoboam of the South and Jeroboam of the North and it would be really nice if a Jeroboam with a J were the king of Judah, but he’s not. Because the Bible just wants to confuse us. So just think that you know, “Is Jeroboam north or south?” Well, it would be nice if he were from Judah, but he’s not. So Jeroboam is North, Rehoboam is South, okay, that was just a PSA for you.
Pete
Anyway, Jeroboam, in a politically tactful move, and I would say a rather mature move, he has an audience with Rehoboam, who is still the king of the united monarchy. Right, the split hasn’t quite happened yet. And he goes to Rehoboam and he says, in effect, you know, “Your dad, Solomon was really harsh with us Northerners, so how about we figure this out? Let’s make a deal, that if you treat us better, we will work hard for you.” So Rehoboam, apparently he’s a young king, he consults with the elder counselors, who tell him, in no uncertain terms, to take the deal. Keep peace, take the deal, don’t be a jerk. Unfortunately, [Hums] Rehoboam thought he’d ask his buddies what they thought he should do, and they counseled that this would be a great time to throw his weight around by telling Jeroboam, “You thought my dad was mean? You haven’t seen anything yet.” Actually, what they told him to say was, “My little finger is bigger than my father’s loins,” which is a Hebrew idiom for basically—and you know, young children should leave the room now, on the count of three to one—it means my penis is bigger than my dad’s. Not a wise response, trusting his frat buddies rather than seasoned elders of the court. So predictably, that didn’t go over well. Jeroboam said, “Fine, I gave you a chance, so I’m going to take all the other tribes which were promised to me by the prophet, and which outnumber you greatly, by the way, and we’re just gonna go do our thing. Good luck, hopefully don’t have too many battles.” And they do.
Pete
Now, alert listeners here, as I’m telling the story, will have noticed that in bringing up Jeroboam and the division of the monarchy, we have slid over to Part Two of First Kings, where the main characters are Ahab, a king of Israel in the line of Omari, and his nemesis, Elijah. But before we get there, we’re sort of in part two—Jeroboam straddles both—we see something in chapters 12-14 that will color the rest of the story.
Pete
Now, Jeroboam rightly realizes that for his kingdom to have a chance, they need their own form of Yahweh worship, which is a problem. Why? Because the temple is in judahite country. But Jeroboam needs an alternate cult, as it’s called, now, that’s got nothing to do with how we think of cults. It’s a technical term when you’re studying religions, especially of antiquity. And cult means anything having to do with worship, like a temple, pre sacrifices, symbols, sacred relics, things like that. So of course, that move, to set up an alternate cult in the North, that move will run afoul of the Deuteronomistic Historian who is, as I’ve mentioned many times, is dead set against any sort of alternate cult.
See, the Deuteronomistic Historian has Jeroboam in a bind. Jeroboam needs an alternate cult to form the nation that God gave to him. See, you don’t have a cult-less nation in the ancient world. But he’s not allowed to establish an alternate cult, because that violates the ideology of those who are writing the story. I mean, do you follow me? This is a horrible situation. We’re getting sort of a strong arm version of the story, it seems, as told by the Deuteronomistic Historian who’s on the side of Judah because he was a Southerner. Jeroboam may have been given most of Israel as a gift from God, but by golly, it has no chance but to fail. And this will not end well for Jeroboam in the North. In fact, the Deuteronomistic Historian keeps evaluating the Northern kings as having followed in Jeroboam’s sinful footsteps.
Pete
So there’s a tension here, where Jeroboam is given these 10 tribes as a northern nation, and when he tries to be king over them, it can’t help but fail, and everything he did was sinful. And there’s a reason why people refer to these stories as having a propagandistic element to them, which is something we’ve talked about in another episode. So anyway, to establish this alternate cult, what does he do? He sets up two calves of gold, one in Dan, which is the northernmost city of the North, and then Beth-el, the southernmost city of the North. Why two? Well, he’s marking the nation’s territory, saying these golden calves represent the northern Yahweh territory.
Pete
And we should be careful here, you know, we read about someone setting up calves and we conclude, “Well, this is false worship.” Well—which it is, according to the prophets and the Deuteronomistic Historian, but don’t think he’s setting up an alternate religion with an alternate God. See, the calves represent Yahweh’s presence in the North. Now, hopefully, this will remind some of you of another story involving Yahweh and a calf and that is the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32. Now in both stories, the calves do not represent foreign gods, but they are representations of Israel’s God in animal form, which is a very common thing in the ancient world. But there is a more significant overlap between these two stories and I need to mention it because it gives us a sense of the intricacies of the editing of the Hebrew Bible.
Pete
According to First Kings 12—this is in verse 28—when Jeroboam set up the two calves, he says to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Obviously “gods” is plural, because there are two of them. The odd thing is that in Exodus 32, remember, that’s the golden calf episode, when Aaron builds the calf while Moses is up on Mount Sinai. He says to the people, not “This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” He says, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Note the plural, which in this story doesn’t fit because there is only one calf. People have pondered this and this is a very common conclusion people come to: these stories are connected in some sense. As if the Bible’s editors wanted their readers to have an “aha” moment here reading Exodus, where something is stated that makes no sense grammatically, which would point them toward the story of Jeroboam’s calves. Okay, I hope that makes some sense. Let me- I can put this a different way: Jeroboam’s act is tied by the Deuteronomistic Historian to the golden calf story. Jeroboam’s act is as bad as that disastrous incident in Moses’s day that almost derailed the entire nation. And the editors, they get that idea across by putting awkward grammar into Aaron’s mouth, that echoes First Kings chapter 12.
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Pete
There’s another moment in the Jeroboam story—which by the way, spans chapters 11-14—and there’s another element though, that’s occupied biblical scholars and this is the incident with the quote, “man of God,” which is a way of talking about a prophet. And this man of God from Judah, David territory, right. This prophet tells Jeroboam that one day, Josiah, from the line of David will defile these altars that Jeroboam had built. Josiah lived about 300 years after the time of Jeroboam and so some read this as an amazing example of prophecy. And I understand the motivation for reading the story this way. But there’s another way that makes much more sense to me.
Pete
Remember, the authorship of the Deuteronomistic History. That didn’t come to an end until at least the sixth century, or even later. You may also know that Josiah, who shows up at the end of Second Kings, is absolutely the best of the 40 kings of the North and South. He was the most Deuteronomic of Kings because he cleaned up the cult, and brought back strict Deuteronomic practices. He’s the hero of First and Second Kings. My position—and this is the common one—is that the exilic, post-exilic editors or authors of the Deuteronomistic History, they injected their hero into this primordial sinful act—Jeroboam’s alternate cult—and thus they are pointing us to their central character who’s going to clean all this up, Josiah.
Pete
Now, Jeroboam, he does have a rough time in First Kings and after being told that his sinful deeds will be dealt with by Josiah, he gets a couple of prophetic brow beatings, but he refuses to turn from his evil ways. And next he meets the Prophet Ahijah, who tells him his dynasty will end quickly as we will find out with the death of his son Nadab, that’s the end of the first lineage, end of the first dynasty. And also his young son—this is Jeroboam’s young son, Abijah, he also dies in the story. This is not a good vibe for Jeroboam. It’s a very troubled man with a troubled kingship as depicted by the Deuteronomistic Historian.
Pete
And as I said, you know, Jeroboam winds up being the poster child in the Deuteronomistic History for disobedience to God. Toward the end of the story, we read the following words from the prophet Ahijah, and this is chapter 14, verses 15-16. He says, “The Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; he will root up Israel,” that’s the North right, “out of this good land that he gave to the ancestors, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates,” that’s the river. This is talking about the Assyrian exile in 722. And he’ll scatter them, quote, “because they have made their sacred poles,” which are cultic objects of worship, which are provoking the Lord to anger “He,” the Lord “will give Israel up,” Why? “Because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned in which he caused Israel to commit.” So Jeroboam is the cause for the exile of the North, like the story of the man of God and Josiah, here, too, we’re seeing some editing work by someone living after the events of 722 and pinning it all on false worship of Yahweh by the North.
Pete
Okay, let’s move ahead a few chapters to the story of Ahab and Elijah. And that’s chapter 17 and it takes us to pretty much the end of First Kings.
Pete
So first, let’s talk about King Ahab. Well, he is the son of Omri, who, at least according to hints we get from archaeology, was a really big deal—Omri, I mean, was a big deal. Omri is the one who founded the northern capital of Samaria, which is like what David did for Jerusalem in the South. So that’s a big deal. He’s also mentioned in extrabiblical sources, sources outside of the Bible, namely in the Mesha Inscription, which is a Moabite monument. Moab is a nation to the east of the Jordan River right across from the Israelites, and a constant problem for them. But Mesha, this is a Moabite monument that recounts King Mesha’s victories over Israel to regain some of Moab’s territory. This is like action happening in the ninth century BCE. And Mesha’s adversary here was Jehoram, and Jehoram is Omri’s great-grandson. Okay, just hang with me, folks. The thing is that Mesha talks about all this oppression that’s coming from Omri in the beginning of the dynasty. So only still has an impact and effect on the thinking of at least the Moabites, the North is just known as “Omri land” or something like that he was probably a pretty big and important figure.
Pete
Also, another inscription from the ninth century—this is called the “Black Obelisk,” which is a monument celebrating the victories of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. Who cares? I’m going to tell you why. Specifically, the monument recounts the tribute being paid to him by “Jehu, son of Omri.” Now, we’re gonna get into this more in Second Kings, but that’s a bit odd since Jehu was definitely not a son of Omri. In fact, he wiped out Omri’s entire dynasty and took over the kingship for himself. See, by referring though, to Jehu as “son of Omari” it simply means, “Jehu, king of Israe.” See, apparently only had quite the reputation, so much so that his name was associated with Israel generations after his time.
Pete
You’d never get that from reading the biblical narrative, because you know, Omri have been the most powerful and successful King in Israel’s history, from an international point of view, but he gets exactly eight measly verses of coverage. Which alludes to some opposition he had at the beginning of his reign, his founding of Samaria, and how he did more evil than any king before him. The Deuteronomistic Historian, however, chooses to spend his time on Omri’s son, Ahab and his 22 year reign, and his constant state of conflict with the famous and righteous and godly prophet, Elijah. And Elijah shows up in chapter 16, verse 29, and is there through chapter 21, again, almost to the end of the book. And in fact, his story really ends and Second Kings chapter two—this is Elijah—when he ascends into heaven, and Elisha, his protege succeeds him. But that’s another story.
Pete
So, as the story goes, this—listen to this—this is how Ahab is in introduced, this is First King 16 starting in verse 29, and going to verse 34. “In the 38th year of King Asa of Judah.” By the way, this is how the Deuteronomistic Historian gives sort of dates of kings. He doesn’t give us dates, but he gives us relative dates. King Asa of Judah, well, in his eighth… In the 38th year of his reign, that’s when Ahab, son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. That’s just how they do the dating. “Ahab, son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. Ahab, son of Omari, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him,” which includes Jeroboam. “And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat,” Remember, that’s an important name Jeroboam. “He took as his wife Jezebel, a daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians,” and we all know Jezebel, right, “and went and served Baal,” the Canaanite God, “and worshipped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal,” yikes, whatever happened to centrality of worship, right? But he erected an alter for Baal in the house of Baal, and he built that in Samaria, in the capital. So, “Ahab also made a sacred pole,” I’m still reading from the text here, by the way. “Ahab also made a sacred pole,” a fertility symbol that’s connected to Ashura worship, and “Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid his foundations at the cost of Abiram, his first born,” so now we have child sacrifice happening, “and he set up gates at the cost of his younger son, Segub.” Again, child sacrifice.
Pete
Anyway, this is not going well for him. And Ahab is really the worst king of the north according to the Deuteronomistic Historian. I think he’s even worse than Jeroboam. And then enter Elijah the Tishbite, whom God calls to give Ahab what’s coming to him. And this narrative contains some relatively well known scenes, like Elijah reviving the son of the widow of a Zeraphath, confronting Ahab directly, fleeing from Jezebel’s, violence, and some other incidences. And that’s all great, but the two I want to mention are perhaps better known.
Pete
And the first is the story, the famous story, of Elijah’s confrontation on Mount Carmel, of Ahab’s, quote, “priests of Baal.” So they have this king had priests of Baal and Elijah, the prophet of the true God, Yahweh is going to confront him. So Elijah, not known for his tact, gives the people publicly, a choice, whether they will pick Yahweh’s side or Baal’s. And to make the point, Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to a good old fashioned duel. So what you do, is set up two altars, each with a dead cut up bull on it, and let each party call upon their respective God to ignite the offering by sending down lightning—Yahweh and Baal, were both in charge of such things like weather, for example. So we are certainly in Baal’s sweet spot, this should not be a problem for Baal to send down lightning and ignite a sacrifice. Now the priests of Baal go first and despite crying out to Baal all morning, they got no answer. Now at noon, Elijah [Chuckling] just starts mocking them, accusing Baal of being otherwise occupied, you know, perhaps he’s in meditation or taking a nap or a walk or—in a line I never tire of reading—perhaps he has wandered away, which many have taken to mean is an idiom, meaning indisposed, taking a leak, we might say today.
Pete
So this whole thing just sent the priests into a frenzy and they start doing things to evoke Baal’s attention like cutting themselves with swords until they bled. So after a bit of that, Elijah says, “Okay, my turn.” So what he does, he has four jars of water poured onto the offering and the wood to the point where it’s overflowing, and Elijah then prays a short prayer with no cutting, right, no dancing around the altar the way the priests of Baal did, but just a short prayer that God would send down fire and consume the offering—which he does forthwith, including lapping up the puddle of water. Then Elijah ordered the people to seize the priests and kill them. Okay, that’s how that story ends—but not to be derailed by talking about the morality of some of these things—but all these violent passages and stories, they bring up the same question, “What’s up with this?” But we’ll leave that alone for now.
Pete
Now, this is the famous story of the two storm Gods duking it out, but it was no contest. See, it’s sort of like the dual of the 10 plagues in Exodus where Yahweh was contending with the gods of Egypt. And by the way, and you can see very clearly that this is what’s happening, that the plagues are an attack upon the Egyptian pantheon. You can see that in Exodus 12:12, and I have a “Pete Ruins Exodus” series that came out a couple of years ago, or the Exodus commentary that I wrote for the Bible for Normal People. But anyway, it’s there. Okay? So the outcome there with the plague stories, as it is here with Elijah and Ahab, the outcome is lopsided, there’s no doubt about it. It’s complete victory for Israel, the other gods don’t stand a chance.
Pete
And I bring that up, because speaking of Exodus, alright, this is a big point I haven’t mentioned yet, but I need to mention it now—Elijah, is something of a Moses-revisited kind of figure. See, like Moses, Elijah can call upon the elements to make the evil power submit, right? That’s the whole thing about the contest with the priests of Baal. By the way too, just a side here, this certainly paints Israel’s monarchy as less Israelite in more Egypt-like in behavior, right. Right, so the unleashing of the powers of creation in the Exodus story were for the defeating of the bad guys. But here, the bad guy that’s being defeated is nothing less than a king of Israel. Israel is more Egypt-like than God-like at this point.
Pete
Now, more on Elijah and Moses, see the Elijah also has a Mount Sinai experience. Although here’s called Horeb, that’s the Deuteronomistic term for that mountain. They don’t say Sinai, they say Horeb. Now, that’s interesting, he’s on the mountain. Also, Elijah is told by God, to stand on the mountain, while the Lord passes by, very reminiscent of that scene involving Moses in Exodus chapter 33. And Elijah experiences a strong wind, an earthquake and a fire which might be taken as the signs of God’s presence as it was in the Exodus story. But First Kings actually makes it clear that God by contrast, is not in these things. So you know, here we have a distinction between Elijah and Moses story. Here, God is to be seen not in these convulsions of nature, but in the, quote, “sheer silence” that follows all this stuff. And sheer silence could be translated as “soft whisper,” or as it is often understood, “a still small voice.” Now the point of this exchange seems to be that now through Elijah, the new Moses, God will not behave as before, through natural calamities. And the word that Elijah receives from God is to go back home. And among other things make plans to rid Israel of the house of Omri, particularly Ahab or its Baal worshippers, and to anoint—a really important point we’ll get back to in the next, chapter two in our next episode—but he is also told to anoint Jehu to do this cleansing, getting rid of the house of Omri. God’s mountaintop command to Elijah, the new Moses, is not a list of new commands, but a reinforcement of the importance of the proper and centralized worship of God and Israel. Again, a key Deuteronomic concern.
Pete
Anyway, there are other stories in First Kings to be sure, and you can read about you know, Jehoshaphat, of jumping Jehoshaphat, king of Judah who was a pretty good King, one of the better ones, in fact, except that he left behind places remaining in the land where the people sacrificed and offered incense and, you know, that’s a pretty common evaluation of First and Second Kings, you know, not bad he gets a B, but major points off for promoting false worship or at least not doing anything about it.
Pete
Now on that—let me draw this to a close here—one thing that’s interested me for years about all this is how common Canaanite worship practices likely were among the common everyday Israelites—so common in fact that the Deuteronomistic Historian and some of the prophets can’t stop talking about it, it’s a constant problem. And one way of looking at this is to simply condemn it as Israelite disobedience, “They know better, you know, it’s right there in the Bible, but they keep on sinning.” But that raises some questions like, did the common people really know better? I mean, could they read? [Chuckles] Was there even a Bible? Did they hear all this by word of mouth? Did it filter everywhere in the kingdom? Did everybody just know? See, the problem is that we have a Bible. We can flip back to First Samuel are Deuteronomy. But that can cause the false impression for us that the ancient Israelites could do the very same thing, that they were actually very bookish like we are, but they weren’t. They weren’t big readers. And it’s not like they could go to their bookshelves and pull out a Bible- Anyway… This is why some—I would actually say many—have put a different spin on this dynamic. The Israelites are doing what comes naturally, living as they are in Canaanite territory and doing Canaanite religious practices, you’re bound to get syncretistic.
Pete
Whatever the origin of their belief in the God of Israel, it probably didn’t come from reading Deuteronomy, which didn’t even exist at the time. Like all cultures that mix, there is assimilation or syncretizing going on. If you want proof of that, just think about how much of western culture, American Christianity has absorbed, has been shaped by. The Deuteronomistic Historian comes along after the fact to ascribe a cause to the Babylonian exile, false worship—more on that in Second Kings. My point is not to make a value judgment here, but to point out what has become a standard academic observation. The Bible is the official word from Israel’s religious leaders and shapers and that stands in tension with how the masses practice their religion. In other words, the Deuteronomistic Historian is attempting to squash popular religion in favor of the original one. And that’s not as crazy as it might seem to some. Think of secular practices that have become part of Western American Christmas, you know, Santa coming down the chimney, a deer with a red nose, decorating a tree with ornaments from your favorite sports teams or vacation spots, right? You know what I’m saying. And then there are purists who decry the secularization of Christmas. That may be an analogy to help clarify what I’m after here. Maybe the purists are expecting too much of the masses, that they tow a particular party line and hold their culture at bay. It’s very, very difficult to hold your culture at bay. None of us does it.
Pete
Anyway, that’s a big topic too big to explore adequately here at the end of this episode. But once you see the Bible as… especially the Deuteronomistic History, as an official, highly contextual, ancient, political, religious document, one that the masses didn’t read. It’s just hard to unsee it from that angle. And it starts to have some implications for how we, as modern readers, approach this book. And you know, as modern readers of faith, approach this book. Now, we’ll likely come back to this in the next and final episode of our Deuteronomistic History in Second Kings. But all this is going to have to wait for that. In the meantime, folks, thanks for listening, and we will see you next time with Second Kings.
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Jared
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Pete
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You’ve just made it through another episode of the Bible for Normal People. Don’t forget you can also catch the latest episode of our other show, Faith for Normal People, in the same feed wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was brought to you by the Bible for Normal People team: Brittany Prescott, Stephen Henning, Wesley Duckworth, Savannah Locke, Tessa Stultz, Danny Wong, Natalie Weyand, Jessica Shao, and Lauren O’Connell.
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