Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah

Ian D. Wilson

Makes definitive statements about the place of kingship in ancient Judean thought based on memory theory
Offers a thorough investigation of Judean kingship discourse-including legal, historiographical, and prophetic texts
Suggests a new understanding of prophetic literature's basic function in ancient Judah

Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah

Ian D. Wilson

Description

Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah addresses the question of how a postmonarchic society would remember and imagine its monarchy, and kingship in general, as part of its past, present, and future. How did Judeans of the early Second Temple period conceive of the monarchy? By way of a thorough analysis of Judean discourse in this era, Ian D. Wilson argues that ancient Judeans had no single way of remembering and imagining kingship. In fact, their memory and imaginary was thoroughly multivocal, and necessarily so. Judean historiographical literature evinces a mindset that was unsure of the monarchic past and how to understand it-multiple viewpoints were embraced and brought into conversation with one another. Similarly, prophetic literature, which drew on the discursive themes of the remembered past, envisions a variety of outcomes for kingship's future. Historiographical and prophetic literature thus existed in a kind of feedback loop, enabling, informing, and balancing each other's various understandings of kingship as part of Judean society and life. Through his investigation of kingship in Judean discourse, Wilson contributes to our knowledge of literature and literary culture in ancient Judah and also makes a significant contribution to questions of history and historiographical method in biblical studies.

Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah

Ian D. Wilson

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

1. Ancient Judah and Its Literature: Remembering and Imagining Kingship
Judean Literature and Its Sociocultural Setting
Judean Literati of the Early Second Temple Era
Kingship Discourse among the Literati
Memory, Remembering, Imagining: Past, Present, and Future in Society and Culture
Social Memory and Narrativity: A Good Working Relationship
Moving Forward

2. Torah and Its Guardians
The Law of the King's Deuteronomic Setting
The Law of the King and Its Interlocutors
Moses and Joshua, Kings and Conquerors: Revising Monarchy in a Postmonarchic Milieu
The Law of the King as a Mnemonic Frame

3. Cruxes of Leadership: The Transition(s) to Monarchy
Setting Up Samuel
The Trouble with Transitions
Gideon and Abimelech: Serious Family Issues
The Aporia of Samuel, Dynasty, and Divine Promises
Yahweh, Samuel, Saul: Rivalries of Political Identification in 1 Samuel 8-12
Outcomes of Rivalry and Aporia: Kingship's Beginnings in Israel
To the Heart of the Issue

4. Remembering/Forgetting David and Davidic Kingship
David as Character, Plot, Narrative in Samuel-Kings and Judah's Social Memory
Chronicles and Samuel-Kings: Both among the Literati
And the Rest of the Story? The Potentials and Outcomes of Davidic Kingship in Solomon's Narrative
On Book Endings, Davidic Kingship, and Judean Metanarratives

5. The Remembered Future in Prophetic Literature
From Prophets and Prophecy to the Prophetic Book
King Yahweh
The Hedging of David
King Israel
Historical Consciousness, Metahistory, and the Prophetic Book

6. To Conclude: The Emplotments of Kingship and "Metahistoriography" in Ancient Judah
The Rhyming of Kingship: An Outline
Future Prospects

Notes
References
Index

Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah

Ian D. Wilson

Author Information

Ian D. Wilson teaches religious studies at the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus, where he is also Associate Director of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life. His work has appeared in publications such as Harvard Theological Review, Vetus Testamentum, and Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, and recently he co-edited the volume History, Memory, Hebrew Scriptures: A Festschrift for Ehud Ben Zvi.

Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah

Ian D. Wilson

Reviews and Awards

Winner of The R.B.Y. Scott Award, 2018

"[T]he book is exceedingly well written and admirably clear, and thus it is a pleasure to read. A wealth of discursive footnotes clarify Wilson's meanings and positions for unclear and controversial terms and issues, making it very easy to follow the flow of the argumentation. The book will be an important and sophisticated addition to the growing literature on memory in the Second Temple Period, as well as the ways ideas around kingship and David developed in the period."--Jason Silverman, Review of Biblical Literature

"Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah is useful in reframing historiographic methods in biblical studies. Wilson aptly moves beyond the use of memory studies to merely determine the historicity of events of Israel's past Moreover, Wilson's book provides an insightful link to reception history, especially showing how texts continue to function as sites of memory for later writers. Finally, for those interested in political theology, Wilson's book usefully demonstrates the multivocality of biblical literature concerning the institution of kingship."-- Chance P. McMahon, Ancient Jew Review

"In this book Ian Wilson engages a fascinating issue in social memory-how and why Persian period scribal literati constructed a discourse about Judean kingship when kingship was no longer a part of their social reality. With an exceptionally sophisticated command of the theoretical issues, Wilson engages the primary texts with deftness and perceptiveness. Not all will agree with his approach, but every reader will come away with new and provocative insights." --Carol A. Newsom, C. H. Candler Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Emory University

"In this remarkable book, Ian Wilson uses memory studies and other approaches to illuminate one of the most central issues for Hebrew Bible scholars and historians of ancient Israel: the coexistence of multiple, even contradictory discourses on the past and the future of kingship. Wilson is perfectly in command of his topic, and successfully combines theoretical insights with a close reading of the biblical texts. The result is a book that is both cogently argued and highly original. This is a must-read for anyone interested in memory studies and their application to the Hebrew Bible."--Christophe Nihan, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Université de Lausanne