In opposition to the traditional "maximalist" school, which considers those stories as primary and reliable historical documents, but also to the more recent "minimalist" view that downplays the same stories as mere literary inventions, the book finds evidence to the possibility that the biblical narrative about the first kings of "Israel" does have a sound historical basis; but such a basis is not to be found anywhere near the Judean hills, where the later literary elaboration is set, but in the same Syrian, Neo-Hittite horizon of the archaeological findings cited above.
Those traditions were most probably carried to Jerusalem during the late 8th century, in the wake of the Assyrian occupation of the Syrian area and of the massive displacement of population that it caused. A painstaking examination of the relevant biblical texts, and of all the extant extra-biblical sources, gives further evidence for that thesis.
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