Kings - Final

Question 1

When can the authorship of Kings be dated to?

Answer 1

The authorship of Kings is unknown. The evidence in the final paragraph of Kings points to the possible completion of authorship in c. 561 or 560 (p. 117).

Question 2

How long of a time span does the book of Kings cover?

Answer 2

400 years (p. 117)

Question 3

What is the message of Kings?

Answer 3

The message of Kings and the Deuteronomistic narrative it concludes is that the exile was inevitable (p. 118)

Question 4

How did the exile create a crisis?

Answer 4

The exile created a crisis by seeming to contradict the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. (p. 118).

Question 5

Whose message did the exile verify?

Answer 5

The exile verified the message of prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel as well as earlier prophets like Isaiah and even Moses, who all had expected exile. (p. 118).

Question 6

What was the basis for Solomon to look ahead to an inevitable exile?

Answer 6

During the dedication of the temple Solomon looked ahead to inevitable exile based on the sinfulness common to all humans. (p. 118).

Question 7

What does the narrator’s interpretive commentary on the fall of Israel rest on?

Answer 7

The narrator’s own interpretive commentary on the fall of Israel, which anticipated the fall of Judah, rests on the prophets, who likewise rest on the Torah. (p. 119).

Question 8

How do the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants offer enduring hope?

Answer 8

But these covenants offered enduring hope—through exile, not without exile. (p. 120).

Question 9

What are five major turning points in Kings?

Answer 9

1) Solomon’s downfall and its aftermath.
2) Elijah’s contest against Ahab and Jezebel’s prophets of Baal and its aftermath.
3) King Menahem of Israel selling Israel into vassalage - surrendering the nation’s sovereignty and wealth - to Tiglath-pileser III in order to enjoy his own personal place of privilege.
4) Ahaz, king of Judah, turned to Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, for help with military pressures from Damascus and Israel.
5) Hezekiah of Judah about two decades after the Assyrians had taken the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE.

Question 10

What characterizes the middle section of Kings?

Answer 10

The middle section of Kings interweaves stories of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel with stories of the kings of Judah—the kings of each are dated in relation to the rival kingdom. (p. 122).

Question 11

What is the first turning point in Kings?

Answer 11

The first turning point is Solomons’s downfall and its aftermath. pg123.

Question 12

How does the seeming praise of Solomon’s wealth disguise disobedience?

Answer 12

The seeming praise of Solomon’s wealth disguises a terrible fault line of disobedience by alluding to the law of the king. Pg123
Comparing 1kings10:26-29 and Duet17:16-17, “it is said the king must not acquire many horses …return to Egypt in order to acquire more horses.” Solomon did exactly the opposite of the Deuteronomy 17 commands.

Question 13

What served as an on-ramp to Solomon’s problem with women?

Answer 13

The horse trading and excessive silver served as an on-ramp to Solomons’s problem with women. pg124.

Question 14

How did Solomon go after the gods of his wives?

Answer 14

By building hundreds of worship centers for his treaty wives all around Jerusalem.

Solomon’s wives turned his heart away after other gods. Pg 124-125.

Question 15

What building projects was Solomon working on at the same time as his palace and/or the temple?

Answer 15

Solomon was building hundreds of worship centers for the wives of his apostasy marriages while building the temple and his palace. pg125.

Question 16

How does the narrator reveal that Solomon had perpetual military conflicts with Hadad the Edomite?

Answer 16

The narrator revealed by flashbacks that Solomon had perpetual military conflicts with Hadad the Edomite.
Pg 126.

Question 17

How does the narrator of Kings organize Solomon’s rule?

Answer 17

The narrator organized solomons rule thematically:
First telling of peace and prosperity (3:1-10:25; 4:20-25), then of horse trading with the nations, apostasy marriages that turned away from God, and lifelong military troubles. pg126.

Question 18

When did Jeroboam establish golden calves after the manner of the golden calf Israel worshipped in the wilderness?

Answer 18

From the beginning, Jeroboam established golden calves after the manner of the golden calf Israel worshiped in the wilderness. pg126.

Question 19

What sin of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, did all of the northern kings follow?

Answer 19

Israel’s original sin of making an image of God and thereby breaking the second of the Ten Commandments became the northern kingdom of Israel’s original and ongoing sin.
(the sin of making idols or golden calves, which is breaking the second commandment of Ten Commandments, shrines of idolatry) pg 127.

Question 20

What did the treaty marriage of Ahab and Jezebel lead to?

Answer 20

This treaty marriage led to building a temple to Baal and setting up an Asherah pole in the new capital city of Samaria. Pg 127.

Question 21

What is the effect of northern prophet stories about the mundane daily lives of common people?

Answer 21

To show that YHWH’s interest goes beyond just kings and nations and extends to the disadvantaged protected classes who cry out to him. (127)

Question 22

What was the beginning of the end of Omri’s wicked dynasty?

Answer 22

Elisha anointing Hazael and Jehu who would bring the end to Omri’s line. (128)
Yahweh’s revelation to Elijah on Mount Horeb: Yahweh commissioned Elijah to anoint Elisha, who later anointed Hazel and Jehu.

Question 23

What did King Menahem do by selling Israel into vassalage to Tiglath-pileser III?

Answer 23

Forfeited Israel’s sovereignty as a nation for his own personal place of privilege. This is the third turning point in Kings (128)

Question 24

Why did the narrator make a point of recounting Menahem’s unprecedented evil?

Answer 24

To heap up condemnation on him for trading Israel’s sovereignty for his own personal gain (130)

Question 25

What is Menahem’s evil action said of no other king of Israel or Judah?

Answer 25

Ripping open the pregnant women among his enemies (130)

Question 26

What is the viewpoint of the narrator of Kings regarding Ahaz’s vassalage under Tiglath-pileser III?

Answer 26

That Ahaz willingly initiated Judah’s servitude to Assyria. This is the fourth turning point in Kings (131)

Question 27

When was the last turning point in Kings presented in the textbook?

Answer 27

In the rule of Hezekiah about 20 years after the northern exile. Hezekiah showed his Babylonian guests all the treasures of Jerusalem. Isaiah then prophesied that exile would be sure for Judah, but at a later time. (132, 135)

Question 28

What did the royal spokesperson for Sennacherib accuse Hezekiah of eight times?

Answer 28

Trusting in his God (132)

Question 29

Why are the events of Hezekiah’s rule narrated dischronologically?

Answer 29

The narrator first wants readers to see Hezekiah’s unmatched trust in God (135)

Question 30

Whose pronouncement in Kings guaranteed the doom of Jerusalem?

Answer 30

Isaiah (134)

Question 31

What did Merodach-baladan do in 703 BCE?

Answer 31

He fled from Sennacherib in 710 until he again assumed the throne in Babylon for less than a year in 703. During that time, he sent diplomatic delegates to Hezekiah to stir up unrest against Sennacherib. (136)

Question 32

Though Hezekiah had unmatched faith what did he have too much of?

Answer 32

Pride (136)

Question 33

What portion of the Bible should be read with Kings to explain why Judah had to be taken into exile?

Answer 33

The prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah (137)

Question 34

When exile became an inadequate identity marker in the days of Nehemiah, what event signaled the people’s slavery?

Answer 34

The Levitical intercessors praying before the assembly and vowing to serve God but then seeing the people intermarrying with those outside the covenant (137)

Question 35

Who does Nehemiah connect with the men of Jerusalem in apostasy marriages?

Answer 35

Solomon (137)

Question 36

Why did the people of Nazareth seek to kill Jesus?

Answer 36

Because he likened his ministry to that of Elijah to the disadvantaged and foreigners, even gentiles (138)

Question 37

Who likely is responsible for arranging Solomon’s marriage with Naamah the Ammonitess?

Answer 37

David (139)