A Thousand Years of Jewish History

Overview I suspect that there are many who, like me, find daunting the twelve books that stretch from Joshua to Esther, between the Pentateuch and the Wisdom books.  And no wonder:  They cover more or less sequentially a thousand years of Jewish history, from about 1400 B.C. to about 400 B.C.  So perhaps an overview of … [Read more…]

Notes on David

Overview David’s reign as king of Israel is recounted in II Samuel and I Chronicles chapters 10-19 (there is a fair amount of duplication between the two books).  David’s life before he becomes king is found in I Samuel chapters 16-31, where it is very much intertwined with Saul’s.  And David continues to have a … [Read more…]

Notes on Saul

In this post I’ll be writing about I Chronicles chapters 1-10 and I Samuel.  But, despite the title to this post, these texts do not correspond exactly to Saul’s biography, for a couple of reasons.  First, once David is introduced in I Samuel chapter 16, his story and Saul’s are intertwined until Saul’s death in … [Read more…]