Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:1 (NA 2001)
Article: 2 Samuel 8
Author: Robert M. Good

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TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 129

2 Samuel 8*

Robert M. Good

* Professor John H. Marks at Princeton University introduced me to the ancient Near East and to Old Testament studies. I would like to thank him, particularly for advising my senior thesis on Darius Hystaspes.

Summary

2 Samuel 8 may reflect an inscription or text contemporary with the reign of King David. It has a number of features that could be explained if an inscription lay behind the biblical text, the most striking of which is its repetitive naming of the monarch, paralleling Darius’ Behistun Inscription.

A.R. Millard has made a good case recently for the possibility that authentic old Israelite records lie behind Old Testament narratives in the books of Kings. He showed that simply changing an early Aramaic royal inscription from first person singular discourse to third person narration produces a text that reminds the reader of narratives in the Deuteronomistic History.1 Millard’s approach gives a refreshing alternative to the dictates of the so-called biblical minimalists, who assign a late date to the composition of the stories about early Israel and allege that most or all of those stories are fiction. My purpose in this article is to suggest that 2 Samuel 8 may reflect an inscription or text contemporary with the reign of King David.2 The ancient text could have had as its propagandistic purpose to affirm David’s claim to the throne of Israel, conceivably against the putative claims of the rival house of Saul, or possibly in defence of a novel institution. Indeed, 2 Samuel 8 could be described by Millard’s own words, as a bombastic public declaration ‘designed to ensure continued respect for

TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 130

the kings and veneration of their names by subsequent generations’.3

One of the tenets of biblical minimalism has been to deny that Israel’s King David ever existed. Discovery of the Tel Dan ‘House of David’4 inscription should have laid this claim to rest. Unhappily it did not.5 Supported by the Tel Dan Inscription,6 A. Lemaire and E. Puech have restored ‘the house of David’ in the Mesha Inscription (or Moabite Stone),7 buttressing the view of tho...

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