Divergent Divine Memories: Divine National Power, Cultural Memory, and the Deuteronomistic History of 1&2 Kings

The following thesis seeks to read the history as presented by the biblical text as the cultural memory of ancient Israel. Scholars widely regard the historical books (Joshua-2 Kings) as having been influenced by the ideology of Deuteronomy and therefore find a significant compositional level(s) to the text which they call the Deuteronomistic History. The Deuteronomistic History read as cultural memory separates the modernist link between historical referent and its narrative representation and as such highlights the particular social, political, and religious contexts and motivations of those composing this history. The thesis raises the question: does this memory preserve a singular understanding of divine national power? Through an exegetical examination of 1 Kings 18, 2 Kings 5, and 2 Kings 3, the contention is argued that at the earliest iterations of these texts there are divergent understandings of divine national power (monotheistic, monolatrous, and polytheistic), but later phrases of the Deuterononmistic History alongside of changing cultural dynamics in ancient Israel resulted in a re-remembering of these conceptions that eventually became universally monotheistic.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Frye III, Leslie Gray

• 1&2 Kings

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38540