History (Re-)Counted. The Chronological Data in the Book of Kings - Their Literary History and Historical Significance

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Kristin Weingart
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 299243590

The synchronistic notes on the succession date of Israelite and Judean kings as well as their length of reign are a characteristic feature and structuring device in the biblical books of Kings. The research project focusses on these texts and aims at a critical redefinition of the chronology of the Israelite monarchic period.The at present widely accepted and only seldomly challenged timelines are the result of meticulous research which was mainly carried out in the first half of the 20th century. This older research however lead to different solutions which are not compatible in detail, could not take recent extra-biblical data into account and is based on presuppostions regarding the literary history of the Old Testament that are no longer up to date. The objective of the current research project is an examination of the inner scheme of the chronological and synchronistic data as well as the tradition history and the literary history of the relevant texts. A comparison to Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian analogies shall help to shed light on the conditions, intentions and methods of synchronistic compilations of chronological data. Eventually the project aims at a critical reassessment of the historical value of the biblical data for a reconstruction of a historical chronology of the monarchic period in Israel and intends to be a contribution to basic research in the fields of the history of Israel and the history of biblical literature.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants