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Book Review: Israel Constructs Its History

This collection of 14 essays surveys, and advances, scholarly debate about the nature and purpose of the 'Deuteronomistic History' (DtrH); that is, the essays are an extended argument about Martin Noth's hypothesis that the history of Israel and Judah from Joshua to 2 Kings was composed by a single exilic author in conjunction with Deuteronomy. The book is a translation of a French 1996 original, a translation which is generally fine (though I was amused occasionally to find 'Ezekiah' and 'Salomonic'). The opening essay (120 pages) overviews not only premodern debate about these biblical books and the modern DtrH debate, but also related issues such as Deuteronomistic editing of prophetic books and of the Pentateuch, and the nature of Deuteronomy. Other essays discuss, inter alia, historiography, textual criticism, theology and ideology, and particular texts; and one rejects Noth's hypothesis in toto. Overall, the engagement with the biblical text is conceived in those terms set out by nineteenth-century debate, where Wissenschaft is to do with the analysis of texts into sources and successive redactions in relation to the putative religio-political concerns of the ancient writers. The complex theories proposed resemble those of Pentateuchal criticism. A contemporary concern with questions of ideology, primarily in relation to the biblical text but also in relation to its interpreters, is well represented. Other contemporary concerns with literary and canonical approaches feature only on the margins. The scholar who is interested in debates about ancient and Israelite historiography will find much useful material. Those whose perspective on the biblical text is related to questions of God and faith today, or who are simply fascinated by the memorable biblical narratives, are likely to feel that the book represents a kind of scholasticism which leaves their existential and humane agenda largely (though not entirely) unaddressed.