Protest or propaganda : war in the Old Testament book of Kings and in contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern texts / / by Aarnoud van der Deijl.

• Superior document: Studia Semitica Neerlandica, v. 51
• Author: Deijl, Aarnoud van der.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studia Semitica Neerlandica ; 51.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (720 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Materials /; Chapter One. Introduction, Terminology State Of The Research, Research Questions /; Chapter Two. War In The Book Of Kings /; Chapter Three. War In A Number Of Extrabiblical Texts /; Chapter Four. Summary And Conclusions /; Bibliography /; Scripture Index /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [689]-700) and indexes.
• ISBN: 1283061155; 9786613061157; 9047443411
• ISSN: 0081-6914
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Aarnoud van der Deijl.

In this study, the war stories from the Old Testament book of Kings are compared to ten extrabiblical texts. Narratological analysis is applied to deconstruct the ideology of the respective literary compositions. The Old Testament ideology of war seems to be neither typically Israelite, as Gerhardt von Rad put it, nor commonly Ancient Near Eastern, as Manfred Weippert thought it to be. This poses the question whether the reading experience of biblical war stories is so very different from, for instance, Assyrian royal inscriptions, both in terms of its literary value and its ideological bias. Narratological analysis turns out to be a strong tool for explaining the similarities and distinctive features of the respective texts.