A global redactional principle within the primary history?

Abstract

This paper investigates the possibility of extending the insights of Gerhard von Rad into the redactional and compositional activity of the Deuteronomic Historian in I-II Kings to what some scholars are now terming the "Primary History" (Freedman 1962.1963 .1987; Blenkinsopp 1992) that comprises from Genesis through to 2 Kings. Gerhard von Rad first published his paper "The Deuteronomic Theology of History in I and II Kings" in his Deuteronomium-Studien, Part B, Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, (New Series, vol XL, GottingenI947)52-64. For the limited purposes of this short study we shall be using the translation of this article printed in The Problem oj the Hexateuch and other essays, (SCM Press; LondonI984)205-221. We should note though that this translation was produced and printed for the first time in 1966 by Oliver and Boyd.