From the eighth to second centuries BCE, ancient Israel and Judah were threatened and dominated by a series of foreign empires. This traumatic history prompted serious theological reflection and recalibration, specifically to address the relationship between God and foreign kings. This relationship provided a crucial locus for thinking theologically about empire, for if the rival sovereignty possessed and expressed by kings such as Sennacherib of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Cyrus of Persia, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes was to be rendered meaningful, it somehow had to be assimilated into a Yahwistic theological framework. In King of Kings, Justin Pannkuk tells the stories of how the biblical texts modeled the relationship between God and foreign kings at critical junctures in the history of Judah and the development of this discourse across nearly six centuries. Pannkuk finds that the biblical authors consistently assimilated the power and activities of the foreign kings into exclusively Yahwistic interpretive frameworks by constructing hierarchies of agency and sovereignty that reaffirmed YHWH's position of ultimate supremacy over the kings. These acts of assimilation performed powerful symbolic work on the problems presented by empire by framing them as expressions of YHWH's own power and activity. This strategy had the capacity to render imperial domination theologically meaningful, but it also came with theological consequences: with each imperial encounter, the ideologies of rule and political aggression to which the biblical texts responded actually shaped the biblical discourse about YHWH. With its broad historical sweep, engagement with important theological themes, and accessible prose, King of Kings provides a rich resource for students and scholars working in biblical studies, theology, and ancient history. It is an important resource for understanding how the vagaries of history inform our ongoing negotiations with concepts of the divine.
Justin L. Pannkuk is Instructor of Humanities at Culver Academies.
Introduction: Imperial Encounters 1. Woe, Assyria-The Rod of My Anger! God and the Gentile Emperor in First Isaiah 2. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, My Servant : God and the Gentile Emperor in Jeremiah 3. Cyrus, YHWH's Anointed One: God and the Gentile Emperor at the Dawn of the Persian Period 4. In the Court of the King: God and the Gentile Emperor in Daniel 1-6 5 Ruled and Yet Unruly: God and the Gentile Emperor in Daniel 7 Conclusion: The Chapters and the Story
Comprehensive, up-to-date, and detailed, thevolume should be consulted by all those interested in howthe historical realities of empire impacted the biblical conceptionsof Yhwh and how those conceptions appear in theprophetic texts in particular. --Brad E. Kelle, Point Loma Nazarene University "Religious Studies Review" This is an admirably balanced work on the biblical discourse about God and gentile powers. Placing the examined texts in carefully constructed historical contexts and drawing from various disciplines, this study's clear and judicious analyses will provide a surefooted guide for readers and postcolonial critics interested in further exploring the complex dynamic between the political and the theological. --Francis M. Macatangay "Catholic Bible Quarterly" Through the course of this useful, but also highly readable, volume, Pannkuk traces the differing theological understandings of the relationship between YHWH and several Gentile kings, demonstrating how these relationships provide evidence of a range of responses to Israel's political environment. --Brandon R. Grafius "Horizons in Biblical Theology" ... King of Kings should be lauded for its breadth of argumentation, cogency, and insightful conclusions. Moreover, it should be engaged not only for the betterment of extant ideas but also as a launching pad for further investigations. --David B. Schreiner "Review of Biblical Literature" ...this makes an important contribution to the development of monotheism and its corollaries for the Judean/Jewish audience. --H.G.M. Williamson "Journal for the Study of the Old Testament"
