*This page was migrated in July 2022 from my older website, biblicalambiguities.net.
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One might call the first nine books of the Hebrew Bible the Primary History:[1] Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings.[2] This "Primary History" is equivalent to the Pentateuch plus the so-called Deuteronomistic History.
In chronology and narrative, as it stands, one could say that it forms a whole. Not that it was written that way, but that disparate strands of tradition were edited into an over-arching story. It moves from character to character, starting at the beginning of its story and finishing at its end.
These books give the Bible a sort of narrative backbone, comprising one extended narrative from the creation of the world to the Babylonian captivity. They also contain a chronology without gaps that covers this entire period. In terms of evaluating them historically, the two ends are very different. The last book, Kings, definitely deals with a succession of actual historical kings of Judah and Israel. The first book, Genesis, definitely is not a record of historical events. Somewhere in the middle -- and the exact middle point is hotly disputed -- there is a gradual transition from folklore to something more solid.
The boundaries between the nine "books" are not as fixed as it might appear to someone looking at a table of contents in a Bible. The "books" flow one into another, and if someone were to divide all that content into books again a variety of organizational schemes might be possible. As just one example, the two books of Samuel and Kings in Judaism become the four books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings in modern Christianity, and were the 1, 2, 3, and 4 Reigns in the Septuagint.
This summary uses a particular chronology. There are various difficulties in biblical chronology, which I hope to get to later. For now, just know that the numbers given here, though they come from the Hebrew Bible, are not the only possible set of numbers.
Beginning in Genesis, God creates the world, including Adam. We'll call the date of Adam's creation 0 AM (Anno Mundi, "Year of the World"). Adam is the father of Seth (born in 130 AM), Seth the father of Enosh (235 AM), and so on: Adam, Enosh, Kenan (325), Mahalalel (395), Jared (460), Enoch (622), Methuselah (687), Lamech (874), Noah (1056). Noah is the father of Shem (1156), Ham, and Japheth. Noah and his sons survive a global flood and restart the world.
Shem is the father of Arpachshad (1656), and Arpachshad the father of Shelah (1691). Another line of people continues in this fashion: Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber (1721), Peleg (1755), Reu (1785), Serug (1817), Nahor (1847), Terah (1876), Abraham (1946).
Abraham, chosen by God, wanders through various trials and has a son, Isaac, at 100 years old (2046). Isaac becomes the father of Jacob (2106). Jacob fathers twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. In Jacob's old age, the whole growing clan goes down to Egypt (2236). Thus ends Genesis.
Exodus picks with the family of Jacob in Egypt, where their fortunes decline and they fall into slavery. Moses is born (2586), and raised in the Egyptian royal house. Through a series of divine interventions, he leads Israel out of Egypt (2666).
Thoughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the Israelites wander about in the wilderness over a forty-year span. These books are a mixture of narrative and legal material, as Moses, the legislator par excellence of Israel, gives his people laws.
At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies as his people prepare to enter the land of Canaan. Moses' successor, Joshua, gives his name to the book of Joshua, which chronicles his genocidal conquest of Canaan, wiping out its indigenous peoples to make room for Israel.
We come now to Judges. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites, who made the mistake of not completely wiping out the indigenous peoples, repeatedly fall into worshipping Canaanite deities. Repeatedly, Yahweh punishes them by letting foreigners conquer them. Repeatedly, they turn to Yahweh, repenting of their idolatry. Yahweh then sends a sofer ("Judge") to rescue them. Safe again, the people turn to idolatry, at which point God hands them over to their enemies. The cycle goes round and round, spiraling gradually out of control, pushing the reader toward the institution of monarchy.
Samuel is named after the prophet and judge Samuel, the last of Israel's pre-monarchic leaders. He anoints Saul, who fails as Israel's king. Then he anoints David. The conflict between David and Saul goes on for some time, until Saul is killed in battle. David does not immediately take control of all Israel, but engages in a civil war with Saul's successor, who is eventually killed, leaving the kingdom in David's hands. David's kingship is no picnic, and a rape and revenge killing lead eventually to a rebellion by his son Absalom. Samuel draws toward a close as David nears death.
Kings, appropriately, records all the kings who rule in Jerusalem until its destruction in 587 BCE. David is succeeded by Solomon, who rules over an apparently peaceful and prosperous period. The crowning achievement of Solomon is his building of the Temple in Jerusalem, which he dedicates in 3146 Anno Mundi. The AM dates which follow are, in a sense, cheating, in way that I hope to describe in more detail later.
Solomon is succeeded by Rehoboam (3132), whose arrogance and oppressive rule lead to a split, in which Rehoboam and his descendants inherit only the southern kingdom of Judah, while the northern kingdom of Israel goes its own way. Each king of Judah reigns a certain number of years, and various positive or negative comments are made on his behavior. As in the case of Judges, the book of Kings records repeated lapses into idolatry, as God alternately punishes and forgives his people. The book heads toward a final disaster in which the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed and the lineage of Davidic kings comes to an end.
The year is 3576 Anno Mundi; 587 BC.
We are approximately 424 years from the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabees. But that is another story for another day.
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