Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 20:4 (NA 2010)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BBR 20:4 (2010) p. 575

Book Reviews

Aarnoud van der Deijl. Protest or Propaganda: War in the Old Testament Book of Kings and in Contemporaneous Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Studia Semitica Neerlandica 51. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Pp. xi + 706. ISBN 978–90–04–16855–8. $199.00 cloth.

This book, the publication of a dissertation guided by K. A. D. Smelik, was written to compare Israel’s ideology of warfare to other nations’ in the ancient Near East using narratological analysis to uncover the ideology of various biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts. Van der Deijl analyzes each of the texts employing the following matrix: introduction (translation, text-critical issues), event (actors, time, and so on), story (tempo, focalizations, and so on), text (repetition of sounds, intertextuality, and so on) and theology/ideology of the text (focalization of the king, evaluation of the war, and so on).

The book opens with a survey of previous research on three topics: warfare in the OT, warfare in the ancient Near East, and the relationship between the two. The second major section of the book analyzes warfare narratives in the book of Kings (1 Kings 12:1–24; chap. 20; chap. 22; 2 Kings 3; 6–7; 18–19), reaching the following conclusions: YHWH directed history, kings should have been models of faith (but usually were not), YHWH intervened primarily by speech (not action), true protection was found in the word of YHWH (not horse and chariots), war was never beautiful or glorious, war between Judah and Israel was not appropriate, and a defeat could be positive (because war acted as a judgment).

The third major section of the book analyzes ten ancient Near Eastern texts, grouping them into five genres. The imperialistic war texts of the great kings (Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal) addressed rebellion (sin against order), while the vassal kings (Mesha, Kulamuwa, and Zakkur) sought to prove their legitimacy by emphasizing their divine election through the important role played by the deity in the war. The priests and prophets (Nabonidus, Cyrus Cylinder, and Assyrian prophecies) directed their texts to the court, reminding the king that divine election comes with a specific goal (such as care for a temple). The chronicler (Babylonian Chronicles) was a variant of the priest, focusing on the Akītu festival and the effect of its (non) observance.

Van der Deijl’s main conclusion is that the Israelite view of warfare borrowed from ancient Near Eastern ideology of warfare but used...

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