Methods of the narrative analysis: monarchies in the Ancient Israel

Abstract

This article offers a method for narrative analysis regarding the stories told in the Biblical books of Samuel and Kings. This method provides an opportunity for drawing some preliminary conclusions about the historicity of the events narrated. Key parameters are 1) the high number of small details, which is an evidence that the narrator was close to the event; 2) the narrator’s emotional involvement, which may hint to his personal participation or that of the people from his inner circle in the events described. Stories which comprise a large number of common places, on the contrary, seem to be less historically accurate. As the result, one can subdivide the narration flow as found in the Books of Samuel and Kings into several blocks, which represent different levels of historical actuality and precision.