EBOOK
About
David's Successors: Kingship in the Old Testament argues for a new reading of kingship in the Old Testament. Rather than presenting the kings as monsters-with the occasional angelic ruler-this study seeks a more nuanced version of kingship. This book considers the original concept and context of kingship before concentrating on five kings in particular: Jeroboam, Ahab, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah. Much contemporary scholarship is concerned with the re-conceptualization and re-contextualization of kingship that hearkens from a negative perspective on kingship, but this book will fully consider the positive and original vision of kingship. This book is ultimately rooted in a hopeful and joyful view of humanity as found in the Psalms, Sirach, and the Chronicles.
Related Subjects
Reviews
"The book has two considerable virtues. One the one hand, it counterbalances the negative view of kingship that is often prevalent in biblical scholarship with a more balanced picture. One the other hand, it rightly insists that Kings, no less than Chronicles, is a stylized theological account. There is no direct access to the underlying history."
John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale Divinity School
"Garrett Galvin provides a case study of five successors of the legendary King David-Jeroboam, Ahab, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah. Each of these controversial kings is remembered chiefly by what the deuteronomistic history says about them. But Galvin helpfully reminds us that twentieth-century thinking often misunderstands ancient kingship and neglects sources more sympathetic to kingship, such
Richard Clifford, SJ, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Boston College
"Galvin's study of the kings, David's Successors, backs away from many of the typical notions of kingship in the Bible found in standard histories of Israel and Judah or introductions to the Old Testament. This narrative' relies heavily on the books of Samuel through Kings, the deuteronomistic history, with its highly negative view of the kings, read through the critical lens of corrupt and brutal
John Endres, SJ, Professor of Sacred Scripture, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara U