Gershon Galil, «The Chronological Framework of the Deuteronomistic History», Vol. 85 (2004) 413-421
This article points out that the series of the minor judges were not included in the deuteronomistic edition of the Book of Judges, and therefore did not form part of the Dtr’s chronology. In the author’s opinion the Dtr constructs a chronological framework spanning 480 years from the Exodus to the establishment ofthe Temple (1Kgs 6,1) and correlates it with the chronological data in Deuteronomy–Samuel.
The Chronological Framework
of the Deuteronomistic History
The Deuteronomistic History [=DH] was composed in the mid-sixth century
BCE. The distinct resemblances in content and form between the
Deuteronomistic editing in Joshua–Kings, on the one hand, and in Jeremiah,
on the other, may have been the work of a single person, who prepared an
extensive composition describing the history of Israel from Moses to
Jeremiah. Deuteronomy serves as an introduction to the DH, whereas the
Book of Jeremiah concludes it. In Deuteronomy the path was delineated and
norms were determined. The main body of Joshua–Kings records the ups and
downs in Israel’s relationship with God. The epilogue, the Book of Jeremiah,
focuses on the destruction of the Temple and the Exile in an attempt to
explain the events and inform the exiles of the message of redemption. The
Deuteronomist [=Dtr] presents the history of the relationship between Israel
and God as intricate and complex, involving sin, repentance, and forgiveness.
The message of the DH is one of hope and consolation: the merciful God,
who has made an everlasting bond between himself and His elected people,
forgave them in the past and he will forgive them in the future. The Exile did
not mean the end of relations between God and His people. On the contrary,
the Lord will rescue them and return them to their land, at the end of the
epoch of the “70 years†(Jer 25,11-12; 29,10) (1).
The Dtr included in the DH a total of approximately 160 numerical
chronological data, most of them in the Book of Kings (ca.120). He compiles
dozens of chronological data from his sources, to which he obviously
attributed great importance. His composition contains information on the
reigns of all the kings of Israel and Judah, without exception, including those
who ruled only a few days or weeks. He also took pains to mention the
synchronisms of all the kings of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms from
the schism to the fall of Samaria, and even arranged the Book of Kings in
chronological-synchronistic order.
In my previous two books, I studied the historical reliability of the
Biblical and external chronological data for the monarchic period, and
concluded that approximately 90% of the Biblical and external data could be
reconciled by means of a relatively simple set of principles (2). In this article,
I would like to reexamine the chronological framework of the DH, and to
discuss the correlation between the chronological data in Deuteronomy–
(1) For emphasis on the positive and optimistic message in the DH see G. VON RAD,
“Das deuteronomistische Geschichtstheologie in den Königsbücherâ€, Deuteronomium
Studies, B (Göttingen 1947) 52-64; H.W. WOLFF, “Das Kerygma des deuteronomistischen
Geschichtswerkâ€, ZAW 73 (1961) 171-186; G. GALIL, “The Message of the Book of Kings
in relation to Deuteronomy and Jeremiahâ€, Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001) 406-414, with
additional literature.
(2) G. GALIL, The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah (SHCANE 9; Leiden
1996); ID., Israel and Assyria (Haifa – Tel Aviv 2001) (Hebrew).