In the story of King Ahab (I Kgs 16.29-22.40), Ahab is declared to be the worst person in the Hebrew Bible(I Kgs 21.25)seemingly because he repeats the infamous crimes of King Saul, King David and King Solomon. Because of the similarities in the behaviour of Ahab with his three predecessors, however, the story is a story about these three kings as well. As a result of the associations, Ahab's evil status is challenged. Views of the character Ahab in other literary traditions lend credence to the suggestion that Ahab does not live up to his bad name, and a close reading of the text of the story supports the suggestion. Such a reading leads to seeing King Ahab as a character who 
is a composite of Saul, David and Solomon at their worst. These correspondences between the four kings lead to several results. Without saying that Ahab is not wicked, the correspondences (relatively) normalise the moral character of Ahab (in that Saul, David and Solomon may be considered 'normal'), while they diminish the moral character of the three kings by their association with Ahab. As a result, Ahab is viewed in a different and better light than what he is declared to be, while Saul, David and Solomon are viewed 
in a lesser light. The diminishing after-effect also leads to rereading the stories of Saul, David and Solomon in the light of the story of Ahab. Read from such a perspective, their stories become stained by the stigma of being associated with Ahab.

Book Review: What Does Eve Do to Help?What Does Eve Do to Help?and Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament By ClinesD. J. A.Sheffield Academic Press1990178 pp. £28.50 h/b, £18.50 p/b: Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament

Israel's worst king? : the story of Ahab in light of its relationship to the stories of Saul, David and Solomon

An evaluation of the historiographical debates by the early 1990s of the traditions of origins of ancient Israel, especially through questions of literary criticism and, accordingly, the role of literature in shaping the understanding of the past for the communities that produced the Hebrew Bible.

Between history and literature : The social production of Israel’s traditions of origin

The neglected thirteenth-century English poem on the subject of Jacob and Joseph is striking for the addition, within the brief (and fragmentary) but lively narrative, of material that is not found in the Vulgate, and as such forms part of the popular vernacular tradition of the Bible. The text can be related to an Anglo-Norman or French narrative pattern represented in a number of (larger) biblical poems, though it is not as close to the Bible of Herman de Valenciennes as has been suggested. The relationship with the later English Cursor Mundi is also complex. Some of the extra-biblical elements are matched in iconography. In spite of the focus upon the much-retold romance of Joseph, the central figure is Jacob, something made clear at several points. The clearly didactic work (by a clerically trained poet or minstrel) may have been intended for a baronial audience as a warning against injustice.

The Middle English Iacob and Iosep and the Medieval Popular Bible

the world as contingent and uncertain, yet forever in the hands of a just and loving God. This vision, both Greek and Christian, never doubts that the world is always changing and that one cannot step into the same stream twice. Yet it is equally convinced that there is a profound unity. Tertullian’s vision is dominated by the cross of Jesus where the total disgrace of God is the mystery of human salvation; from this he goes back to human creation at the hands of God and forward to final

Jacob and the Dominion of Edom

Study of nature of deities & religious beliefs

Book Review: What Does Eve Do to Help?What Does Eve Do to Help?and Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament By ClinesD. J. A.Sheffield Academic Press1990178 pp. £28.50 h/b, £18.50 p/b: Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament

Citations

Israel's worst king? : the story of Ahab in light of its relationship to the stories of Saul, David and Solomon

Between history and literature : The social production of Israel’s traditions of origin

The Middle English Iacob and Iosep and the Medieval Popular Bible

Jacob and the Dominion of Edom

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