Saul

In this study, Hannes Bezzel examines King Saul and the diachronic genesis of this literary character. The starting point is the »early reception history« up to the end of the 1st century C.E., and more precisely, the Saul-images of Ben Sira's laus patrum, the Qumran document 4Q252, the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, and of Josephus' Antiquitates Judaicae. Based on these studies, the author further pursues the phenomenon of »rewritten Bible /scripture«, first into the Books of Chronicles, then into the redaction history of the Books of Samuel. Here, his analysis finds an older Saul tradition in I Sam 9-10*; 11*; 14,47-51*. Within the scope of an enhanced Samuel-Saul-circle (I Sam 1*; 4*; 9-10*; 13-14*; 29*; 31*) the topic of the Philistines was introduced by means of the literary figure Samuel. Only in a third step was this narrative circle connected with the David tradition in the context of a »History of David's Rise.«