An Atheist's Guide to the Bible

Historical Books

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The Old Testament books known as "historical" range from the action-filled Joshua and Judges to the priestly Nehemiah. They are of course rich sources of ancient history, but do not forget that they have been edited and tidied up by a series of religious ideologues so we must be careful about treating them as historical fact.

The tales in Joshua and Judges are set in the distant past of the Bronze Age. They are raw and ruthless tales. The heroes are heroic, and death comes swiftly. The events may be roughly contemporaneous with Homeric epic, and the emphatic descriptions of gory demise are often reminiscent of the Iliad in particular. In these times, Yahweh is tribal, distant and all-powerful.

Next, the book of Samuel is split into two sections - 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. These two books chart the epic tale of David's rise to power, his struggle with Saul and his tempestuous reign. The excesses and faults of King David are not glossed over, and the two books make a powerful and emotive narrative.

Following Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings describe the reign of Solomon, the division of the kingdom and the succession of Kings of Israel and Judah.

In the book of Samuel, Yahweh seems close and present. He speaks directly to favoured individuals such as the priest Samuel and is "enquired" of by priests with the necessary divining equipment (the ephod). By contrast in Kings, Yahweh is a bossy parent, merely rewarding or punishing the nation according to the religious policies of each successive king.

Many scholars (starting with Martin Noth in the 1940s) have identified a sequence of books originally composed by a single author - the Deuteronomist, so called because of the similarities with the book of Deuteronomy. The Deuteronomistic history consists of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The Deuteronomist, or "D", is one of the sources of the Pentateuch.

The Chronicles are post-exilic (see Exile) priestly propaganda. 1 Chronicles covers the same ground as 1&2 Samuel, but now Saul is hardly mentioned except to point out his shortcomings, and David is portrayed as doing no wrong. His sins are omitted and he is presented as the heroic forefather of the nation. Similarly, 2 Chronicles covers the same period as 1&2 Kings but only from the perspective of the southern kingdom Judah. Comparing the two accounts gives us an insight into the process of redaction.

Lastly among the historical books, Ezra and Nehemiah were probably written at about the same time as the Chronicles, i.e after the return from Exile. They are poignant views of the re-foundation of the Temple and the finding of the Book of the Law, presumably the Torah or maybe some of the priestly scriptures which Ezra, Nehemiah and their colleagues were at this time editing/composing.

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