Hezekiah and the Compositional History of the Book of Kings

In this study, Benjamin D. Thomas explores one of the oldest and most central issues of the Hebrew Bible - the compositional history of 1-2 Kings. His approach does not proceed from the assumption prevalent since the time of de Wette, namely, that the origins of 1-2 Kings should be explained initially as a process of Deuteronomistic literary redaction rooted in the Josianic reform. Rather, the author reads 1-2 Kings through the lens of other texts with similar genres existing in its historical context. He also seeks to determine the extent of the original framework by mapping its opening and conclusion. Thomas’ results indicate that the framework’s opening was in Solomon’s account and its original climax was in Hezekiah’s account and represented the latter as a royal YHWHist par excellence, the restorer of order who limited sacrificial space to Jerusalem.