Copyright © 2013 Daniel Scott Diffey All Rights Reserved. the Southern
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Copyright © 2013 Daniel Scott Diffey All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. GIDEON’S RESPONSE AND JOTHAM’S FABLE: TWO ANTI-MONARCHIAL TEXTS IN A PRO-MONARCHIAL BOOK? __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by Daniel Scott Diffey December 2013 APPROVAL SHEET GIDEON’S RESPONSE AND JOTHAM’S FABLE: TWO ANTI-MONARCHIAL TEXTS IN A PRO-MONARCHIAL BOOK? Daniel Scott Diffey Read and Approved by: ___________________________________________ Duane A. Garrett (Chair) ___________________________________________ Russell T. Fuller ___________________________________________ T. J. Betts Date_______________________________ For Anne TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . vii PREFACE . x Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 Statement of the Problem . 1 Contribution . 3 The Purpose of the Present Study . 6 Method . 7 Outline . 14 2. HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION . 18 Introduction . 18 Trends in the Study of Judges . 19 Trends in the Study of Monarchy in Judges . 24 Gideon’s Response and Jotham’s Fable . 31 Summary . 73 3. THE LIFE-SETTING OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES . 75 Introduction . 75 Explanatory and Chronological Notes . 76 iv Chapter Page Ideological Considerations . 88 The Life-Setting of Judges . 109 Conclusion . 112 4. THE IDEOLOGY OF MONARCHY IN JUDGES . 113 The Prologue: 1:1-3:6 . 114 The Body: 2:7-16:31 . 132 The Epilogue: 17:1-21:25 . 140 Conclusion . 148 5. GIDEON’S RESPONSE IN CONTEXT . 150 Introduction . 150 The Gideon Cycle within Judges . 150 The Plot of the Gideon Narrative . 153 The Characterization of Gideon . 174 Gideon’s Response . 197 Conclusion . 220 6. JOTHAM’S FABLE IN CONTEXT . 222 Introduction . 222 The Plot of the Abimelech Narrative . 223 The Characterization of Abimelech and Jotham . 235 Jotham’s Fable . 245 Conclusion . 266 v Page 7. CONCLUSION . 268 The Life-Setting of Judges . 268 The Monarchial Ideology of Judges . 269 Gideon’s Response . 270 Jotham’s Fable . 271 Conclusion . 272 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 273 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AB Anchor Bible AnBib Analecta Biblica AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BDB F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament BHS Biblia hebraica stuttgartensia Bib Biblica BKAT Biblischer Kommentar: Altes Testament BN Biblische Notizen BSac Bibliotheca Sacra BZ Biblische Zeitschrift BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW CBC Cambridge Bible Commentary CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly EvQ Evangelical Quarterly ExpTim Expository Times FOTL The Forms of Old Testament Literature GKC Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch, trans. A. E. Cowley HALOT W. Baumgartner et al., Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament vii HTR Harvard Theological Review ICC The International Critical Commentary IEJ Israel Exploration Journal JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JBQ Jewish Bible Quarterly JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society JHS Journal of Hebrew Scriptures JNES Journal for Near Eastern Studies JQR Jewish Quarterly Review JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series JSS Journal of Semitic Studies JTS Journal of Theological Studies Joüon P. A. Joüon, Grammar of Biblical Hebrew , trans. and rev. by T. Muraoka KAT Kommentar zum Alten Testament NAC New American Commentary NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament NIVAC NIV Application Commentary OTE Old Testament Essays OTL Old Testament Library PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly RevExp Review and Expositor SBLDS SBL Dissertation Series viii SJOT Scandanavian Journal of the Old Testament TDOT G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.), Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament TynBul Tyndale Bulletin VT Vetus Testamentum WBC Word Biblical Commentary WTJ Westminster Theological Journal WW Word and World ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ix PREFACE While this dissertation bears my name, I need to thank many people for their help and encouragement along the way. First, I would like to thank Dr. Duane Garrett for challenging me and pushing me during the past several years. I have learned more from him than I can even begin to express. I would also like to thank the Old Testament professors at Southern Seminary. I have learned much from Dr. Betts, Dr. Fuller, Dr. Gentry, and Dr. Hamilton throughout both my M.Div. and Ph.D. studies. I am also thankful that Southern Seminary continually brought in amazing scholars such as Dr. Kenneth Mathews and Dr. Eugene Merrill. Taking classes from these men was a rare treat. I would also like to thank all of the people at Southern Seminary whom I am so grateful to have met and who have encouraged me in this project in one way or another. Most notably, I would like thank Andy Vincent, who was not only my boss at Southern Seminary, but also my friend. He has made a lasting impression on my life about what being a humble servant looks like. I hope to imitate his example in every area of my life. One of the greatest blessings during much of the writing of this dissertation was the privilege of being a member and an elder at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I cannot say enough about my love for the people of Third Avenue. This church showed my family and me the amazing wonder of the bride of Christ. Because of Third Avenue Baptist Church, our home will always be Louisville. Most of all I would like to thank my family. I could not have written this dissertation without the amazing support of my wife, Anne. She bore the pains of this dissertation in ways that I cannot imagine. I am also grateful for our children, who were x patient with me in this process as well. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a loving and supportive family. Daniel S. Diffey Louisville, Kentucky December 2013 xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem The ideology of monarchy in the book of Judges has been the focus of scholarly interest for the last several decades. 1 The trends in the interpretation of the Old Testament and of the book of Judges have shifted during that time. With the move from a diachronic approach to the text to a more synchronic viewpoint, the explanation of monarchial ideology both within the Old Testament in general and the book of Judges in particular has been strained and inconsistent. The advocates for source criticism in the book of Judges posited a multiplicity of voices in the text, which included multiple voices on the book’s understanding of 1See Barnabas Lindars, “Gideon and Kingship,” JTS 16 (1965): 315-36; Arthur Cundall, “Judges—An Apology for the Monarchy,” ExpTim 81 (1970): 178-81; Martin Buber, Kingship of God , 3rd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1973); Dale Ralph Davis, “A Proposed Life-Setting for the Book of Judges” (Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1978); William Dumbrell, “‘In Those Days There was No King in Israel, Every Man Did What was Right in His Own Eyes’: The Purpose of the Book of Judges Reconsidered,” JSOT 25 (1983): 23-33; Phillip E. McMillion, “Judges 6-8 and the Study of Premonarchial Israel” (Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1984); Gerald Eddie Gerbrandt, Kingship According to the Deuteronomistic History , SBL Dissertation Series 87 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1986); David M. Howard, “The Case for Kingship in the Old Testament Narrative Books and the Psalms,” Trinity Journal 9 (1988): 19-35; Lawson Grant Stone, “From Tribal Confederation to Monarchic State: The Editorial Perspective of the Book of Judges,” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1988); Marc Zvi Brettler, “The Book of Judges: Literature as Politics,” JBL 108 (1989): 395-418; Uwe Becker, Richterzeit und Königtum: Redaktionsgeschichtliche Studien zum Richterbuch (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990); Robert H. O’Connell, The Rhetoric of the Book of Judges , Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 63 (Leiden: Brill, 1996); Marvin A. Sweeney, “Davidic Polemics in the Book of Judges,” VT 47 (1997): 517-29; Philippe Guillaume, “An Anti-Judean Manifesto in Judges 1?” BN 95 (1998): 12-17; Dennis T. Olson, “Buber, Kingship, and the Book of Judges: A Study of Judges 6-9 and 17-21,” in David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts , ed. Bernard Frank Batto and Kathryn Roberts (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004), 199-218; Serge Frolov, “Fire, Smoke, and Judah in Judges: A Response to Gregory Wong,” SJOT 21 (2007): 127-38; Gregory T. K. Wong, “Is There a Direct Pro-Judah Polemic in Judges?” SJOT 19 (2005): 84-110; Isabelle de Castelbajac, “Le cycle de Gédéon ou la condemnation du refus de la royauté,” VT 57 (2007): 145-61; Sara Locke, “‘Reign Over Us! The Theme of Kingship in Judges 8-9” (M.A. thesis, McMaster Divinity College, 2009); Marty Alan Michelson, Reconciling Violence and Kingship: A Study of Judges and 1 Samuel (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2011); George M. Schwab, Right in Their Own Eyes: The Gospel According to Judges (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2011). 1 monarchy. With the move to the synchronic study of the text credence has been given to the final form of the text. A difficulty, therefore, remains if the book is to be studied from a synchronic perspective, since the book of Judges contains material that is, according to many, both pro-monarchial and anti-monarchial in character. 2 Early studies could reconcile these phenomena by appealing to the source material, but a synchronic analysis has (or at least should have) worked more diligently to reconcile these texts. Synchronic approaches have largely viewed the book of Judges as pro-monarchial, but the majority has also emphatically proclaimed that the book contains two texts that are anti- monarchial: Gideon’s response to the offer of kingship in 8:23 and Jotham’s fable in 9:7- 15.