ISRAEL'S WORST FdNG? THE STORY OF AHAB IN THE LIGHT OF ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE STORIES OF SAUL, DAVID AND SOLOMON Hank B. Slikker Submitted for the degreeof Ph.D. january 2002 Departmentof Biblical Studies The University of Sheffield fm-, 7ctfda CONTENTS Abbreviations page i Summary Introduction Chapter I WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT AHAB 4 Ahab in Early Literature: Septuagint,Talmudic 4 Literature, and Josephus Ahab in Early and Medieval EcclesiasticalLiterature 14 Modem Commentary 17 Chapter2 HOW BAD IS AHAB? 23 1 Kings 16.29-34:Ahab's Introductory Regnal Summary 24 1 Kings 17: Propheton the Run 26 1 Kings 18: Ahab the Compliant King 29 1 Kings 19: Propheton the Run, Part 2 38 1 Kings 20: Ahab, Ben Hadad, and the ArameanWars 39 1 Kings 21: Ahab and the Murder of Naboth 55 1 Kings 22: The Death of Ahab 63 Chapter3 PARTNERS IN CRIME: THE STORY OF AHAB IN RELATION TO THE INFAMOUS CRIMES OF SAUL, DAVID, AND SOLOMON 79 Ahab and Solomon: Kings and Their Queens 80 Ahab and Saul: Kings of Mercy 99 Ahab and David: OppositesMeet 133 Chapter4 READING THE STORIES OF ISRAEL'S FIRST THREE KINGS IN THE LIGHT OF T14ESTORY OF AHAB 155 Part 1: Transferenceof Characterfrom Saul, David and Solomon to Ahab 158 Respectabilityof King Saul 158 Respectabilityof King David 165 Respcctabilit3ýofKing Solomon 170 Normalisin-Ahab 176 Part 2: Rereadingthe Stories of Saul, David, and Solomon in the Shadowof Ahab 179 Rereadingthe Story of Saul's Crime in the Shadowof Ahab 179 Rereadingthe Story of David's Crime in the Shadowof Ahab 195 Rereadingthe Story of Solomon in the Shadowof Ahab 209 Conclusion 222 Bibliography 224 ABBREVIATIONS ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary ANET Ancient Near EasternTexts ASV American StandardVersion AV Authorized Version BDB A Hebrew and English Lexicon ofthe Old Testament BHS BibliaHebraicaStuttgartensia BT TheBible Translator BZAW Beiheft zur Zeitschfft für die alttestamentlicheWissenschaft CBQ CatholicBiblicalQuarterly FRLANT Forschungenzur Religion und Literatur desAlten und Neuen Testaments HUCA Hebrew Union CollegeAnnual IEJ IsraelExplorationJournal JBL Journal ofBiblical Literature JSOT Journalfor the Studyof the Old Testament JSOTSup Journalfor the Study of the Old TestamentSupplemental Series LXX Septuagint MF MasoreticText NASB New American StandardBible NJB New JerusalemBible NRSV New RevisedStandard Version PEGLMBS ProceedingsEastern Great Lakesand Midwest Biblical Societies PEQ PalestineExplorationQuarterly VT Velus Testamentuin ZAIV Zeitschriftflir die alttestainentlicheIVissenschaft i SUMMARY Israel's Worst King? The Stor y of Ahab in the Light of Its Relationship to the Stories of Saul, David and Solomon by Hank B. Slikker In the story of King Ahab (I Kgs 16.29-22.40), Ahab is declaredto be the worst person in the Hebrew Bible (I Kgs 21.25) seeminglybecause he repeatsthe infamous crimes of King Saul, King David and King Solomon. Becauseof the similarities in the behaviourof Ahab with his threepredecessors, however, the story is a story about these three kings as well. As a result of the associations, Ahab's evil status is challenged. Views of the characterAhab in other literary traditions lend credenceto the suggestionthat Ahab does not live up to his bad name, and a close reading of the text of the story supportsthe suggestion. Such a reading leads to seeingKing Ahab as a characterwho is a composite of Saul, David and Solomon at their worst. These correspondencesbetween the four kings lead to several results. Without saying that Ahab is not wicked, the correspondences(relatively) normalise the moral characterof Ahab (in that Saul, David and Solomon may be considered 'normal'), while they diminish the moral characterof the three kings by their associationwith Ahab. As a result, Ahab is viewed in a different and better light than what he is declared to be, while Saul, David and Solomon are viewed in a lesser light. The diminishing after- effect also leadsto rereadingthe stories of Saul, David and Solomon in the light of the story of Ahab. Read from such a perspective, their stories become stained by the being Ahab. stigma of V associatedwith 11 Israel's Worst King? The Story of Ahab in the Light of Its Relationship to the Stories of Saul, David and Solomon Introduction This to that King Ahab does deserve the Bible's thesis aims show CD not a reputationas that the Ahab in 1 Kings be greatestn evil-doer and, moreover, story of in should viewed as more thanjust the accountof Israel's most evil king. Instead, I will argue that the story of Ahab is also about Saul, David and Solomon as well. These four kings4n merge into a collageZD of criminal associationsthat irrevocably binds them together.J.'D These by the three kingsZD associationsare created recalling0 the most notorious crimes of throuch the King Ahab, that the tý criminal acts of C) creatingC)an alliance affects re-reading0 of the crimes of Saul, David and Solomon since these three kings in turn have been the King Ahab. allied with arch-villain C. In chapter one I present examplesof the characterAhab from extra-biblical writings in which King Ahab is not deemedas villainous as the biblical account says thatheis. My purposein the chapteris to show a rangeof assessmentsof his character which offer support to my literary view of the characterof Ahab that the biblical picture Ahab has its his The lack the of not convinced readersof evil status. of agreement0 over degreeof Ahab's guilt facilitates a stronger literary connectionbetween Ahab and his threepredecessors Saul, David and Solomon, which I will establishlater in the thesis. In chapter two I present my own reading of the story of Ahab, paying particular attention to the introduction and to whether or not the text makes a convincingZ: - case Ahab the I that it does Ahab is againstZD as arch-villain. suggesttý not. not presentedas a king deeds but king the Saul, týwhose own evil are unique, as a who repeats crimes of David Solomon. Thus, the Ahab is like the and readingr:1 story of re-readingtý crimes of thosethree kingsr: 1 throughZ) the person of Ahab. This presentationraises the question to what extent can Ahab be the Bible's arch-villain if he is an incarnation of the three kings.4D In threeI defend Ahab's chapter my readingC) of close narrative associationwith his threepredecessors showing Cý the similarities betweenthe accountsof his crimes and the accounts of their crimes. These associations have the effect of leaving Ahab lookingID like a kingZD in the mould of his predecessors rather than as a king0 who merits a distinction as the incomparable evil-doer. But the association of the three kings brought about through the story of Ahab also has a negativeaffect on our perceptionof the charactersof Saul, David and Solomon when we read their stories in the light of the story of Ahab. In chapter four I show how their character is diminished by their associationwith Ahab. In this the Ahab I be focusing the literary presentingr:- study of story of will J-Don Ahab, but this will not be alongt: - rigidCI lines that exclude the historical Ahab. Often the distinction between them be blurred becauseI will engageZ:- C5 scholars who employ historical parallelssuch as religious, military, social and political considerationsin their attemptsto get a clear understandingof the Ahab of the text. Thus, my discussion often dealswith the Ahab who is presentedas a contemporaryof his historical-culturai milieu. Historical-critical studies often argueZ5 that the KingzD Ahab of the NTFis not the King, Ahab of history. These studies ultimately show that it is not possible to determinethe historical identity of the king in the narrative of. the story of Ahab since the eventscontained in it are often parallel to eventsin the stories of other kings in the books of Kings. 2 My study is basedon the final form of the MT, and translationsof the Hebrew Bible are my own exceptwhere I havenoted other-wise. 1 WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT AHAB Ahab in Early Literature In this chapterI want to offer a senseof what others have said about Ahab in order to show that there is generalagreement that Ahab is not necessarilyviewed as the worst king Israel ever had. While all of the commentsrefer to the historical Ahab, I will not be engagingin debateabout who the'real'Ahab is in terms of history. I am including theseviews becausethey contributeto the picture that I presentin the remainderof the thesis. In the early writings shown below, the LXX presentsAhab as being heavily influencedby his wife Jezebel;Josephus presents an Ahab who wears the virtues of a Roman-type hero; the Talmud presents a mixed critique of a king who is both condemned and praised, while early ecclesiasticalliterature presents Ahab as one worthy of being a good examplefor wayward saints. In the final portion of the chapter I briefly show some later modem historical-critical views of the biblical Ahab. These modem studies are significant in that they establishAhab to be a later addition to the text and thus not guilty of the crimes assignedto him by the biblical editors. 4 The Septuagint In the Septuagint,the Ahab has different than it does in the MT. C) story of a sequence The LXX transposesI Kingstý 20 and 21 so that Naboth's Vineyard (I KgsID 21 NIT) follows the story of Elijah's flight from Jezebel(I Kgs 19 W) and precedesthe two Ahab's Aram (1 Kos 20 22 MT). The in the chaptersabout wars with ZD and ordering0 LXX to draw thematic betweenthe by linking together appears a relationship chapters ZD t:- the stories of Elijah (1 Kgs0 17-19,21 MT) and the stories of the Arameanwars (I Kgsin 20 22 MT). The MT, however, draw and appears to a chronological-sequentialC3 relationship between the chapters suggesting4ND t: - that Ahab's death (I KgsZ5 22) follows Naboth's (1 Kgs 21; discussion below I Kings 20).