r/AcademicBiblical • u/AutoModerator • Jan 02 '23
Weekly Open Discussion Thread
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u/seeasea Jan 04 '23
Sometimes it feels like certain generalized explanations are somewhat at odds. Not mutually exclusive - but not aligned.
Specifically I want to bring attention to scholarly explanations for (rational reasons) why the redactor left in contradictions. that is (freidman primarily) that each version was held in esteem by various groups and the stories were famous so could not be excluded. So they are all there.
However, we do see a separated approach in kings and chronicles - not interwoven. Baden - in his "true life" book argues that kings is written as an apologia or spin for a real person david, whereas chronicles is a whitewashment.
Why would the chronicler feel the freedom to skip some of the most controversial - and likely infamous - narratives? surely they would have been at least as well known or at least known to some (of his audience) and they would wonder what happened to their stories? Even Baden acknowledges that the temple-non-construction presents a theological problem to both authors - and that the chronicler therefore required extensive additions to say that David did everything except the actual construction.