The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography Lovell Nathan
Nathan Lovell proposes that 1 and 2 Kings might be read as a work of written history, produced with the explicit purpose of shaping the communal identity of its first readers in the Babylonian exile.…
Specifikacia The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography Lovell Nathan
Nathan Lovell proposes that 1 and 2 Kings might be read as a work of written history, produced with the explicit purpose of shaping the communal identity of its first readers in the Babylonian exile. By drawing on sociological approaches to the role historiography plays in the construction of political identity, Lovell argues the book of Kings is intended to reconstruct a sense of Israelite identity in the context of these losses, and that the book of Kings moves beyond providing a reason for the exile in Israel's history, and beyond even connecting its exilic audience to that history.The book recalls the past in order to demonstrate what it means to be Israel in the (exilic) present, and to encourage hope for the Israelite nation in the future. After developing a reading strategy for 1-2 Kings that treats the book as a coherent narrative, Lovell examines the construction of