ENGL 340
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  1 Kings

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. How does Solomon compare to David as a character and a king?
2. One way of reading 1 and 2 Kings is to focus on social conflict.  In Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, Hebrew society was fairly simple and consisted of Moses, foreign enemies, and the amorphous Hebrew people.  In Judges, Hebrew society consisted of the judges, foreign enemies, and the Hebrew people.  In 1 and 2 Samuel, the social situation suddenly became more complicated, because we had a king, his court/servants, anti-royalist opposition from within Israel, and foreign enemies.  How has that social situation changed by the reign of King Ahab at the end of 1 Kings?  Who are the main leaders and antagonists in Hebrew society during the reign of Ahab?  What conflicts exist between them?  What seems to be the basis of their conflicts?  How does each side in the conflicts characterize itself?  What images and rhetoric define the conflicting social and political poles?  What really seems to be at issue “between the lines” of the rhetoric?
3. How are women portrayed in 1 Kings?  Is the portrayal of women consistent with earlier portrayals?  What images of womanhood are present in 1 Kings?  How do those images of womanhood compare to the images of womanhood in the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges?
4. Are there repeated motifs and images in 1 Kings (like the repetitions of motifs from the Pentateuch in Joshua and Judges)?  What have become some of the standard motifs or images for describing a military defeat, religious faithfulness or repentance, miracles, evil kings, good kings, etc.?

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