David's Jerusalem

Israelite and Judahite History in Contemporary Theoretical Approaches

“…A slightly earlier collection of essays by Garbini also explores the meaning of the possibility that the roots of the biblical vision of history lie in the post-exilic period (2003). Wilson’s recent investigation of Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah plots this course by explicitly addressing the nature of the Persian-period memory project as a force in creating the biblical vision of the past, while Pioske’s study, David’s Jerusalem: Between Memory and History , explores what the relationship between physical space and memory over time means for our appreciation of past realities (Wilson 2016; Pioske 2015). Others, as in Meyers’s inquiry into ancient Israelite women or Kessler’s study of Israelite social history, continue to pursue histories that have not yet been adequately told and that have habitually been obscured by traditional approaches to the Israelite past (Meyers 2013; Kessler 2006; 2008).…”

“…What one might call a ‘third way’ in contemporary history is, however, well-represented in discussion of David, Jerusalem, and his monarchy as well. The treatments of Wilson and Pioske, Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah and David’s Jerusalem: Between Memory and History , belong under this heading (Wilson 2016; Pioske 2015). In both cases, as the titles suggest, the question of David’s historicity and the historicity of his rule are entertained, but are very much secondary to inquiries into the role memories of both play in biblical literature and beyond, especially in the period in which the biblical account was taking shape.…”