A Revival of the Succession Narrative and the Case against It

Abstract

This article questions Joseph Blenkinsopp's recent defence of the ‘Succession Narrative’ against John Van Seters's views, set forth in The Biblical Saga of King David (2009). In this debate with Blenkinsopp, Van Seters discusses the extent of the literary work that includes within it both the ‘Succession Narrative’ and the ‘Story of David's Rise’, the genre that is most appropriate for this work—whether history of a recent past or saga of another age—and the social and historical setting in which it was written. Van Seters defends his view that the David Saga was a story written in the fourth century BCE about David's reign, a work of literature which was critical of the monarchy and any hope of its messianic restoration.