01_Biblica_1_E_Kalimi_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:15 Pagina 482 482 ISAAC KALIMI I. Solomon’s Birth and His Place among Bathsheba’s Sons in Chronicles In the so-called Chronistic history (composed in the Persian pe- riod; ca. 400-375 B.C.E.) 2, the Chronicler recounts the story about the Israelites’ wars with the Transjordanian kingdoms – the Am- monites and Arameans, essentially as it appears in his source, the Book of Samuel (1 Chr 19,1–20,3 // 2 Sam 10,1-19 + 11,1a-b + 12,26-31) 3. However, he omits from his composition the story about David’s affair with Uriah’s wife and his murder, and David’s marriage with Bathsheba which led to the birth of Solomon (2 Sam 11,1c–12,25). All that masterful and sophisticated literarily struc- tured narrative appearing in Samuel 4 was completely left aside from the potential readers of Chronicles. Furthermore, the Chron- icler omits not only the detailed story of 2 Sam 11,1c–12,25 but also any reference to it. When he presents Solomon and his mother, for the first time in his book, he writes: “Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel” (1 Chr 3,5), instead of “Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite”, as is presented in his Vorlage (2 Sam 11,3.26) 5. The intention of the Chronicler is obvious: to “purify” For the dating of the Chronistic history, see I. KALIMI, “The Date of the 2 Book of Chronicles: Biblical Text, Elephantine Papyri and El-Ibrahimiah’s Aramaic Grave Inscription”, An Ancient Israelite Historian. Studies in the Chronicler, His Time, Place, and Writing (SSN 46; Assen 2005) 41-65; ID., “1 and 2 Chronicles”, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible (ed. M.D. COOGAN) (Oxford 2011) I, 120-132, esp. 125. In contrast to some scholars (e.g., A.G. Auld), my opinion is that Samuel- 3 Kings were the primary source of the Chronicler. On this issue, see in detail I. KALIMI, “Kings with Privilege: The Core Source(s) of the Parallel Texts be- tween the Deuteronomistic and Chronistic Histories”, RB 119 (2012) 498-517. See I. KALIMI, “Solomon’s Birth Story within Its Biblical-Historical Set- 4 ting, Literary and Theological Frameworks” (2 Samuel 10–12), forthcoming. LXX and Vulgate versions of 1 Chr 3,5 read [bv-tb. Targum Chronicles 5 explicitly identifies: “Bathshua, who was Bathsheba”. “The variation [wv-tb / [bv-tb is because of homophony of the b and w; cf. E.L. CURTIS – A.A. MADSEN, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles (ICC; Edin- burgh 1910) 99. For the form Bathshua, cf. 1 Chr 2,3; Gen 38,2.12 (Judah’s wife). The name Ammiel in Chronicles instead of Eliam in Samuel is a result of a different placement of the theophoric element; compare whyla/lawy, hynky/!ykywhy. In his commentary on 1 Chr 3,5 David Kimchi states that the names Bathshua/Bathsheba as well as Ammiel/Eliam are variations of the same names. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati