Fr. Dave's Thoughts - April 25, 2025
Dear friends,
Last week, we finished our conversation about the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Old Testament. We explored the idea that the Pentateuch is an oral tradition that was written down by representatives of four different Jewish traditions somewhere between the 950 BC and 587 BC. These five books are an account of the period in Jewish history between 2000 BC and 1200 BC. I hope you enjoyed reading about the Pentateuch.
The next section of the Old Testament as we have it in our Bible is that of the Historical Books. These are Historical Books in the order they appear in our Bible:
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 and 2 Samuel
1 and 2 Kings
1 and 2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
In its most basic form, this section of the Bible continues the story of the Pentateuch by telling the stories of the Israelites’ conquest of the land of Canaan, their intermittent alliances under the judges, the United Monarchy, the Divided Monarchy, the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians, the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians, and life back in Israel after the exile period. These books narrate a major portion of the history of Israel and Judah that occurred over about a 700-year period. It is important to understand that our Jewish brothers and sisters don’t have these books in a nice, neat section called the “Historical Books” like we do. In the Jewish Bible, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings constitute a section they call the Former Prophets. The books of Ruth, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are grouped in a section of the Jewish Bible called “Writings.”[i]
There is a bit more to be said here however. Historical writings claim to be bound by the facts, and intend to record people, places, and events as they literally were. Biblical authors and editors, whose work in some cases was in the process of being formed over several centuries, were less concerned with documentable facts than modern historians would require themselves to be. Certainly, there would be those out there that would disagree with me on this, but if we are going to understand the Old Testament, we need to understand that these writers would often develop these stories to accentuate their dramatic appeal. The narrator at times would weave textures of metaphor and imaginative description, often adding aggrandizing elements to lend legendary and archetypal proportions to characters and themes.[ii] The story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel chapter 17 is an example of this kind of drama and character development. Another example is the wonderful story of Samson and Delilah found in the book of Judges. So, given this perspective, you can see that, in many ways, these books defy our modern understanding of what it means to be historical. However, these books are not fictional accounts either. Bruce Metzger and Roland Murphy in their introduction to these books in the New Oxford Annotated Bible have called these books a theological and didactic historiography. I think this is a really good description of what these books are. They are clearly theological writings that teach morality through the stories of the Israelites’ encounter with the living God.
There is one last thing I want to develop before I move on in case you want to read these books from a different perspective. During our discussion of the Pentateuch, we talked about the Deuteronomists and their influence, in particular, on the book of Deuteronomy. The influence of the Deuteronomists extends through this historical section as well. Most scholars agree that the books from Joshua through 2 Kings, with the Book of Deuteronomy serving as an introduction, make up what is called the Deuteronomistic History. There is a consistent theological theme at work here that many scholars have attributed to the Deuteronomists. You may want to read the Book of Deuteronomy through 2 Kings and notice the theological perspective of God that is being portrayed there and the other themes that have been developed. The other “collective history” that was written at the time after Israel’s restoration from exile is called the Chronicler’s History. This history includes 1 and 2 Chronicles and may include the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. “Presupposing the earlier Deuteronomistic History, this author for the most part repeated, rewrote, and supplemented large portions of 1 Samuel 31- 2 Kings 25 while also drawing upon other portions of the Bible. The result is a version of Israel’s history that parallels Genesis – 2 Kings, running from Adam through the Davidic monarchy and down to the Persian period when Cyrus decreed that the exiled Israelites might return to their homeland.[iii] Just a thought that you might want to keep this in mind as you read through the Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah.
Next week, we will take a closer look at Joshua and perhaps Judges.
Peace,
Dave.
[i] Tyler D. Mayfield, A Guide to Bible Basics, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 2018; pp. 43.
[ii] The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books, Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy eds., Oxford University Press, New York, NY; 1991; pp. 267 OT.
[iii] Ibid. pp. 268OT-269OT.