Samuel and Kings

1- One (1) double-spaced page summarizing the previous week’s work and identifying at least one point in the text or the readings.
Papers Introduction:
A- David Read 1-2 Samuel and 1 Kings 1-2. Read Robert Alter, “To the Reader,” in The David Story, ix-xxviii (https://books.google.com/books?id=T- HxihuxoL0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
• Is the Bible presenting Samuel, Saul, and David as good or bad? What are we as readers supposed to think about the institution of kingship in ancient Israel?
B- Conquest & Exile …
Read 1 Kings 3-16 and 2 Kings 15-25. We will focus on 1 Kings 11-13 and 2 Kings 17, 21-25.
• How is the book of Kings structured? What period of history is covered? Why are 1 Kings 1- 2 here rather than in 2 Samuel? Why did the kingdoms of Israel and Judah fall? Now read Jeremiah 44. What explanations for the fall of Jerusalem are presented here? Read Lipschits, “The History of Israel in the Biblical Period” (JSB 2107-2119) Read Baruchi-Unna, “Geography of Biblical Land of Israel” (JSB 2119-2124) Read Maeir, “Archeology and the Hebrew Bible” (JSB 2124-2129)
***Required text: The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds.