Nadav Na'aman
Was the Reign of Jeroboam II a Period of Literary Flourishing?
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- 10.1628/hebai-2020-0021
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Recently, some scholars suggested dating the composition of several biblical works to the reign of Jeroboam II. Among these are the history of the Northern Kingdom, the pre-Priestly story of Jacob, the pre-Priestly Exodus story, the »book of the Saviours,« and the Elisha story cycle. This article systematically analyzes these and other works whose composition was attributed to Jeroboam's reign and dismisses the proposed date of composition. It concludes that the image of the time of Jeroboam as an age of literary flourish is greatly exaggerated, and that there is no support for the claim that literary works known to us from the biblical literature were composed in writing in the court of Samaria during this king's reign.