Abstract
Biblical scholars frequently ascribe biblical texts to chronological horizons no earlier than the Iron IIB under the assumption that scribes required the presence of a state in order to produce literary texts. In order to interrogate this assumption, this dissertation offers a redaction-critical study of the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 9–14 in combination with an analysis of Israel’s epigraphic record of the Iron I–IIA and a theoretical discussion of state formation processes. Unfortunately, many scholars reconstruct Israel’s history by marshaling the text of Samuel without performing the requisite textual analysis. Questions about Israel’s origins and history cannot be answered sufficiently on the basis of the final form of the Masoretic Text. In order to correct assumptions concerning scribes and states, and to contextualize properly the composition history of the text of Samuel, I conduct a redaction- and source-critical assessment of the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 9–14 in light of a theoretical study of the nexus between Israel’s Iron Age state formation processes and its contemporaneous scribal capabilities. Assessing the archaeological and epigraphic data hailing from the Iron I–IIA through the lens of Richard Blanton’s dual processual theory of state formation shows that southern Levantine cultural sophistication was well enough developed to support a productive and robust scribal apparatus during the 10th century BCE. Additionally, the epigraphic record from the early Iron Age provides further support for understanding scribes during the Iron IIA as capable of yielding literary texts—including the earliest form of the narratives about Saul. These narratives were later coopted by Davidic tradents and leveraged to support the Davidic line as the principle ruling class over the nascent Israelite monarchy. My redaction- and source-critical analysis of 1 Samuel 9–14 indicates that the Grundschrift at its core was being reworked by prophetic tradents in the 9th c. at the latest. This, in turn, indicates that the old Saul traditions must have been composed at an earlier chronological horizon, concomitantly allowing for wider 10th century Israelite literary production. The socio-political structuration of the Iron IIA indicated by the archaeological record is a fitting context for the production of such literature. It would appear that these texts were not initially drafted at the behest of kings and their courts; rather, the old Saulide traditions were an outgrowth of nascent Israel’s corporate cognitive code.