Kingmakers and Kingbreakers

In this study, Stephen Germany investigates the literary function of the Philistines and Arameans in the books of Samuel and Kings and reconstructs the compositional history and historical background of the narratives in which they appear. Within these narratives, the Philistines and Arameans serve as archetypal aggressors against Israel and Judah, casting the monarchic period as one continually defined by external threats. At the historical level, this portrayal draws on and reframes a received cultural memory of Assyria's conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, creating new images of earlier defeats of Israelite kings by the Philistines and Arameans as a typological anticipation of this major turning point in the history of Israel and Judah.