The Royal Dynasties of Judah and Israel - Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte 22 (2016), 59-74 (original) (raw)

(1) Aan examination of all the available sources confirmed the biblical claim of the continuity of Davidʼs dynasty on the throne of Judah. In regular situations, the king would elect his heir, usually the elder son of his principal wife, and after his death this son would assume his fatherʼs throne. Yet, each king had several wives and many children, creating potential ongoing struggles regarding the throne. Under certain circumstances, the efforts of disappointed heirs to take over the throne by force developed into an armed struggle. A vivid picture of the competition over the throne between several candidates appears in the legendary story of the succession of Davidʼs throne (2 Samuel 13 – 1 Kings 2). In some other situations, when Judah was vassal of a stronger kingdom, the powerful overlord might enforce his own candidate over the elected heir to the throne. (2) Except for the short-lived dynasty of Jeroboam, most likely only two successive dynasties ruled the Kingdom of Israel: those of Baasha and of Jehu. The origin of the former is from the highlands of Manasseh and of the latter from the Jezreel or Beth-shean plains. Some of the Israelite kings were not direct descendants of the former murdered king, but were considered legitimate rulers because they belonged to the extended royal family. This conclusion differs from the deliberate picture the author of Kings drew, according to which several Israelite dynasties successively replaced each other. In contrast to the single dynasty that reigned in Judah throughout the monarchical period (mid-10th-early 6th centuries), only two dynasties reigned in Israel in the course of the 9th-8th centuries BCE. Thus, a difference exists in the dynastic succession between the two neighbouring kingdoms, but the difference is less dramatic than what emerges from the Book of Kings.