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The Prophetic Amalgamator

Following D2 and H, and perhaps B as well, the prophetic amalgamator has one major concern: the prestige of prophets and their disciples. To this end he inserts some very long episodes into the text of I and II Kings focused on this theme. Since he is perhaps the last major contributor to these books, his narratives are preserved uninterrupted, and thus constitute some of the largest swathes of narrative material attributable to one author. Some of this author’s most famous episodes are:

The Bethel prophecy against Jeroboam’s Altars (I Kings 13)
Nabot’s Vineyard, and Elijah’s Castigation (1 Kings 21)
Elisha’s prophecy regarding the price of Grain in Samaria (II Kings 6-7)

These three episodes were all attributed, by Alexander Rofe , to later textual strata based on thematic, linguistic, and stylistic arguments which may be found in his book Prophetic Narratives.

Since this author’s main concern is prophet’s his involvement in the Elisha and Elijah narratives is especially apparent. He continues the trend began by the Anti-Baal crusader and adds more stories to both the Elisha and Elijah legends in an effort to make them even more similar. This was also noted by my teacher Alexander Rofe.

In an effort to further integrate these stories into the Deuteronomistic history as framed by D2, this author makes sure to add legends regarding Samaria, the capital Israelite city in the Prophetic narratives, which doesn’t really feature in D2’s work. The theory that Samaria was a late addition into the text of Kings is supported by many textual arguments, which will be fleshed out in the commentary.