Jonathan H. Walton, «A King Like The Nations: 1 Samuel 8 in Its Cultural Context.» biblica, Vol. 96 (2015) 179-200 page 184

Vol 96 (2015)

Jonathan H. Walton, «A King Like The Nations: 1 Samuel 8 in Its Cultural Context.», Vol. 96 (2015) 179-200

Commentators on 1 Samuel 8 offer a variety of interpretations about what the requested king is expected to replace: judgeship, YHWH himself, or Israel's covenant identity. This article demonstrates that none of these proposals account for the Biblical text adequately. It is proposed instead that the king is intended to replace the Ark of the Covenant. The king will then manipulate YHWH into leading in battle. This is what ancient Near Eastern kings were able to do with their gods, and what the ark failed to do in 1 Samuel 4.

TAGS

Page 184/200
‹
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
›

02_Walton_179_200_179_200 10/07/15 11:58 Pagina 184 184 JONATHAN H. WALTON 184 assertion that Samuel speaks “all the words of the Lord” 24. Even so, a synchronic reading of the Deuteronomistic History makes it difficult to find any fault inherent in the institution of monarchy. We must look elsewhere for the source of YHWH’s displeasure. III. Kings versus Deity Some commentators, rather than focusing on the implications of “king”, instead focus on YHWH’s statement in v. 7: “They have rejected me as king over them”. In their assessment, it is not Samuel and the institution of judgeship that is abandoned but rather YHWH and the institution of theocracy, which are to be replaced with a leader who is incidentally a monarch but emphatically a human. This in- terpretation assumes that divine and human kingship are mutually exclusive; so Firth: “Yahweh’s authority is usurped and put into the hands of a king” 25. Gunn also assumes a zero-sum relationship between divine and human leaders: “[Yahweh] alone is ‘king’ of Israel and to him the people’s desire for an earthly king is a denigration of his own kingship” 26. Tsumura emphasizes the shift away from theocracy: “The fact that the Israelites had been content with the institution of judgeship shows that they admitted that God ruled over them as a king. Now the people reject this fact of theocracy and demand a human king” 27. Eslinger adds, “The request of Yahweh’s people to become like the nations in political structure is, therefore, not only a rejection of the theocracy and its judges, but even more it is a rejection of the covenant. […] Israel will end the relationship less painfully by simply installing a king in a secular government” 28. He then states the thesis as bluntly as possible: “The inauguration of a monarchy signified a practicing atheism” 29. 24 So J.P. FOKKELMAN, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel (Assen 1993) V.4, 346. 25 FIRTH, 1 & 2 Samuel, 114. See also BERGEN, Samuel, 113. 26 GUNN, Saul, 59. 27 TSUMURA, Samuel, 250. 28 ESLINGER, Kingship, 257-8. See also A. WÉNIN, Samuel et l’instauration de la monarchie (1 S 1-12). Une recherche littéraire sur le personnage (Eu- ropäische Hochschulschriften 23, Theologie 342; Frankfurt a. M. 1988) 145. 29 ESLINGER, Kingship, 263, cf. LAUNDERVILLE, Piety, 308.