The Bible's First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon

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Avraham Faust (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Zev I. Farber (Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem)

The Bible's First Kings

Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon

Avraham Faust (Bar Ilan University, Israel), Zev I. Farber (Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem)

$67.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Cambridge University Press
20 February 2025

Old Testaments

Saul, David, and Solomon are dominant figures in the Hebrew Bible, rulers of an expanding Israelite polity before it dissolved into two separate kingdoms. Saul's paranoid jealousy, David's killing the Philistine champion Goliath with a slingshot, and Solomon's meeting the Queen of Sheba are familiar stories to many people, but what is the truth behind the texts? While scholars long believed these three monarchs to have been historical personalities, over the past three decades many have questioned the historicity of this United Monarchy, some doubting even the existence of its founding fathers. This book robustly argues that the Israelite kingdom of the Bible was a real mini-empire, and that Saul, David, and Solomon were kings of consequence – even if the biblical stories reimagine their lives to glorify and vilify them. Combining fresh archaeological evidence with astute readings of key texts, the authors offer a compelling reconstruction of this fascinating ancient polity which, though it lasted less than a hundred years, has bequeathed a remarkable religious and cultural legacy to the western world. Written in a clear and engaging style, this book will be of interest to scholars and general audiences alike.

By: Avraham Faust (Bar Ilan University Israel), Zev I. Farber (Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009526333
ISBN 10: 1009526332
Pages: 464
Publication Date: 20 February 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Avraham Faust is Professor of Archaeology at Bar Ilan University. He directs the excavations at Tel 'Eton, and 'The National Knowledge Center on the History and Heritage of Jerusalem'. His 250 publications include Israel's Ethnogenesis, which won three book awards, The Archaeology of Israelite Society, Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period, and The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Southwest. Zev Farber is Research Fellow at the Kogod Center, Shalom Hartman Institute. He is senior editor at TheTorah.com and the author of Images of Joshua in the Bible and their Reception.