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Home , Ahijah the Shilonite, Gad (prophet)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DEUTERONOMISTIC HISTORY AND THE HERITAGE OF THE

Rainer Albertz

The ratio of Deuteronomistic literature to the heritage of the prophets appears to be contradictory. On the one hand, the Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy 1–2 Kings 25*) almost ignores the “classical prophets” of doom; on the other hand, the heritage of several of these prophets was maintained and fostered by editors, which have to be characterized by their style and ideas as Deuteronomistic, too. Since no less than three Deuteronomistic editions of prophetical books could be reconstructed and identified during the last decades,1 the vivid inter- est of certain Deuteronomistic editors in the literary heritage of the prophets becomes obvious. By comparing the Deuteronomistic His- tory with these Deuteronomistic editions of prophetical books with regard to their individual theological shape, their specific political interest and their social orientation, the present article tries to offer a better answer to the intriguing question of how the phenomenon of “Deuteronomism” should be determined.

1. The Problem of Prophecy in the Deuteronomistic History

Prophets play a prominent role in the books of to Second Kings ,’ is mentioned no less‘ , נביאin their present form. The word ’,prophetess‘ ,נביאה than 100 times, supplemented by the feminine man of god,’ is‘ ,איש האלהים which occurs twice. The related term -seer,’ twice. Taking all desig‘ ,חזה mentioned 57 times, and the word nations for diviners together (161 occurrences), we arrive at a similar

1 The Deuteronomistic Book of (JerD), the “Book of the Four” (, , , ), and the “Book of the Two” (, Zechariah), see below pp. 352–61. 344 rainer albertz frequency of these designations in all the prophetical books including , Jeremiah, Ezechiel, and the 12 Minor Prophets, which total 163 instances. Thus, as far as the frequency of terms for diviners is con- cerned, Former Prophets and Latter Prophets are nearly equal. If we turn to the historical critical hypothesis of the Deuteronomistic History, which is supposed to underlie the Former Prophets, but which also included according to its discoverer Martin Noth (1967)—at least in its later stages—most of the book of Deuteronomy, the prominence of prophets is reduced to some degree in this reconstructed literary unit. In the last decades, it has become apparent that the majority of the prophetical narratives found in the have to be regarded as post-Deuteronomistic insertions.2 According to Susanne Otto (2001, 41–149), only the Naboth story (1 Kgs 21), the Ahasiah story (1 Kgs 1*), and the story about the -revolution (2 Kgs 9–10) originally reflected the prophetical activity of and in the Deuteronomistic History. Apart from these, only the narratives on early prophets such as (1 Sam 1–3; 7–15*) or (2 Sam 12; 1 Kgs 1), and parts of the story about Isaiah’s resistance in the Assyrian crisis (2 Kgs 18–20*)3 probably constituted integral parts of the Deuteronomistic History. Thus, the number of prophetical narra- tives in the Deuteronomistic History was rather limited. Nevertheless, even in this reduced shape, there is a considerable influence of prophetical traditions on the Deuteronomistic History. Its authors did not only constantly allow many prophets to appear on the stage of history during the entire monarchic period, stylizing them as fellow or counter actors of the kings, but they also knew no less than ten male and two female of these prophets by name.4 The his-

2 The famous drought composition around Elijah (1 Kgs 17–18) and the narrative on Elijah at Mount Horeb (19) are post-Deuteronomistic insertions, as Otto (2001, 151–96) has convincingly shown. The same is also true for the collection of war sto- ries, in which different prophets are acting (1 Kgs 20:1–43; 22:1–38; 2 Kgs 3:4–17; 6:24–7:20, see already Schmitt 1972, 32–51, 68–72, and Otto 2001, 202–19); moreover, as the inter connection with 1 Kgs 19 shows, the entire “Elisha Biography” (2 Kgs 2–8*; 13:14–21), although of older origin, was not included in the Deuteronomistic History before the postexilic period, see Otto 2001, 220–46. 3 According to Hardmeier (1990, 87–138), the narrative originally comprised 2 Kgs 18:9–19:7, 32aβ–34, 8–9a, 36aβ–37. 2 Kgs 20:12–19* constitutes, in his opinion (1990, 454–64) an epilogue to it. 4 Thus, the prophets Samuel (1 Sam 3:20), (22:5), Nathan (2 Sam 7:2), She- maiah (1 Kgs 12:22), the Shilonite (11:29), Jehu (16:1), Elijah (21:17), Elisha (2 Kgs 9:1), Jona (14:25), and Isaiah (19:2); and the prophetesses (Judg 4:4) and (2 Kgs 22:14).