Dead Sea Scrolls
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 53, No. 1 – Fall 2010
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
2nd ed.By EugeneH. Merrill. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. 560 pages. Paperback, $39.99.
cPopularly viewed as a conservative Bright ( John Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981]), Kingdom of Priests was an attractive textbook because Merrill provided a synthesis of current scholarship within an overall framework of Israel’s history that was written well and accessible to students.
The same year Kingdom of Priests was published, Baruch Halpern’s The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History was also published and became a catalyst for a protracted debate within the scholarly community. Up to this time, history of ancient Israel textbooks followed the same methodology of viewing the Hebrew Bible as a text that contained historical data—the debate was centered on the extent of historical data found in it. The past two decades saw a wind of revisionism sweeping through biblical studies—especially in regards to the history of ancient Israel. The issue of the historicity of the biblical narrative and the nature of Israelite historiography became central to the writing of Israelite history. Merrill has been an active participant in the field of Old Testament history and theology, various genres in the Hebrew Bible, and hermeneutics. He has brought this insight into the updated edition with a new chapter addressing the nature of Old Testament historiography and the field of historiography and biblical studies.
The text and format of the original edition has virtually remained the same. Kingdom of Priests introduces each phase of Israelite history (e.g. Patriarchs, sojourn, conquest, united kingdom, etc.). While critical scholars would accuse Merrill of mimicking the biblical text, a closer reading of the text will demonstrate that Merrill has provided a synthesis of the biblical narrative against the extra-biblical historical texts and archaeological data.
The strengths of Kingdom of Priests is that Merrill weaves together Old Testament Theology, literature, and history to provide a contextual-historical discussion of the Hebrew Bible. Merrill writes specifically for a conservative audience, avoiding bogging down the discussion with apologetic statements addressing critical scholarship. Nevertheless, students of Old Testament history will be cognizant of discussions that address critical issues. Students, pastors, and lay persons who are unfamiliar with the debates will be introduced to the wealth of insights that previous generations have received. The weakness of the volume is that Merrill’s incorporation of the over two decades of archaeological research and discoveries since the first edition is sporadic. In his defense, biblical archaeology has grown as a separate discipline with its own journals, academic meetings, and associations separate from biblical studies. The first edition incorporated the archaeological data up to the 1980’s; it is unfortunate that this new edition does not.
Kingdom of Priests remains one of the books that will need to be read by any student of the Bible and a reference for any scholar’s or pastor’s library.
