Biblical history ends with the triumph of the Judaean community, the
true "Israel," the right to which title is found in the distant past.
The Judaean view pervades the present sources, and whilst its David
and Solomon ruled over a united land, the separation under Jeroboam is
viewed as one of calf-worshipping northern tribes from Jerusalem with
its one central temple and the legitimate priesthood of the Zadokites.
It is from this narrower standpoint of an exclusive and confined Judah
(and Benjamin) that the traditions as incorporated in the late
recensions gain fresh force, and in Israel's renunciation of the
Judaean yoke the later hostility between the two may be read between
the lines. The history in Kings was not finally settled until a very
late date, as is evident from the important variations in the
Septuagint, and it is especially in the description of the time of
Solomon and the disruption that there continued to be considerable
fluctuations.[57] The book has no finale and the sudden break may not
be accidental. It is replaced by Chronicles, which, confining itself
to Judaean history from a later standpoint (after the Persian age),
includes new characteristic traditions wherein some recollection of
more recent events may be recognized. Thus, the south Judaean or south
Palestinian element shows itself in Judaean genealogies and lists;
there are circumstantial stories of the rehabilitation of the Temple
and the reorganization of cultus; there are fuller traditions of
inroads upon Judah by southern peoples and their allies. There is also
a more definite subordination of the royal authority to the priesthood
(so too in the writings of Ezekiel, q.v.); and the stories of
punishment inflicted upon kings who dared to contend against the
priests (Jehoash, Uzziah) point to a conflict of authority, a hint of
which is already found in the reconciliation of Zerubbabel and the
priest Joshua in a passage ascribed to Zechariah (ch. vi.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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