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We all know about King David and King Solomon, but what about the kings Omri and Uzziah?
Of the more than fifty monarchs who sat on the throne of the Jews for over 1000 years, most of us can recall only a few. What we do remember about them has been colored by legend and embellishment. In Kings of the Jews, Norman Gelb tells us the real stories of them all. And in doing so, he reveals how a remarkably resilient people survived divisions, discord, and conquest to forge a vibrant identity that has lasted to the present day.
Kings of the Jews explores some of the most dramatic periods in Jewish history: those of the united Israelite kingdom under David and Solomon, the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Babylonian exile, and the destruction of the Second Temple and the Roman conquest of Jerusalem.
With illustrations, maps, chronologies, and index.
- Sales Rank: #2171582 in Books
- Published on: 2010-03-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.90" h x .60" w x 5.90" l, .75 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 190 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Although Saul, David, and Solomon are the best known kings of Israel, a total of 52 men and two women served as monarchs between the years 1020 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. Their stories are told in this well-researched account by historian Gelb. After Solomon died in 931 B.C.E., his realm was divided into Judah and Israel. For the next 109 years, each kingdom had 19 kings and, in addition, Israel had one queen. They fought with each other and with neighboring states; the rulers often came to a bloody end. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and little is known about the fate of its inhabitants. The Jews of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, were exiled into Babylonia in 587 B.C.E., and upon their return became subjects of the Persians, then Greeks and Syrians, until the rebellion of the Maccabees. Maccabean rule was followed by the Hasmoneans, who gave way to Herod, king under the Romans, from 37 to 4 B.C.E.. When the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the Jewish monarchy finally ended. This useful narrative recalls the contributions of Israel's many kings and brings them back to life. (Apr.)
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Review
"A total of 52 men and two women served as monarchs between the years 1020 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. Their stories are told in this well-researched account by historian Gelb. . . . This useful narrative recalls the contributions of Israel's many kings and brings them back to life."—Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
"He set out to offer contemporary readers an instructive and readable account of what happened to the Jews during the 1,000 years before the Common Era and the first 70 years of the Common Era. He has fully succeeded in meeting this laudable objective."—National Jewish Post and Opinion (National Jewish Post and Opinion)
"This riveting exploration is a testament to the remarkable resilience of the Jewish people as they survived and thrived despite divisions, discord, and conquest, forging a vibrant identity that continues to endure."—Lookstein Center (Lookstein Center)
"Gelb offers his readers a clear sufficiently detailed narration of the history of the ancient monarchs for people who want a general understanding of the history of Judaism and its national leaders."—Jewish Eye (Jewish Eye)
"Norman Gelb paints a vivid picture of Jewish life during the time of each monarch’s reign . . . This riveting exploration is a testament to the remarkable resilience of the Jewish people as they survived and thrived despite divisions, discord, and conquest."—International Journal of Jewish Education Research (International Journal of Jewish Education Research)
"An accomplished writer, journalist, and historian, Norman Gelb has written a fair-minded history of the kings of the Jews of ancient times . . . I cannot praise this book too highly."—Walter Abish, MacArthur fellow and recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award (Walter Abish)
From the Publisher
An accomplished writer, journalist, and historian, Norman Gelb has written a fair-minded history of the kings of the Jews of ancient times... I cannot praise this book too highly." -Walter Abish, MacArthur fellow and recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award
"Norman Gelb paints a vivid picture of Jewish life during the time of each monarch's reign... This riveting exploration is a testament to the remarkable resilience of the Jewish people as they survived and thrived despite divisions, discord, and conquest..."- International Journal of Jewish Education Research
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
An Illuminating and Inspiring Work
By Henry Grinberg
Norman Gelb is the author of no fewer than eleven highly acclaimed books, principally studies of some of the cataclysmic events of the 20th century, including "The Berlin Wall"; "Ike and Monty: Generals at War"; and studies on the British (among whom he has lived for many years), Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the Anglo-American North African invasion of 1942.
In his latest work, Gelb turns to an entirely different matter. "Kings of the Jews" tells of a compelling and fascinating saga that lasted almost a thousand years, of the kings of the Jews. After setting the ancient biblical scene, he commences with the distinguished names of Saul, David, and Solomon and marches through century after century of rises and falls, typified by names of monarchs that have, and have not, inspired commemoration. Some figures were truly glorious, others truly despicable.
This thousand-year chronicle encompasses the fusion of the Biblical Twelve Tribes who were led by Moses out of slavery in Egypt into one nation under Saul. That nation rose to singular magnificence and territorial reach under David and Solomon, even though the pressures ttacks of warlike, aggressive neighboring tribes to the north, east, and south were constant. However, it was family rivalry after Solomon's death that divided the kingdom into two territories, Israel and Judah, from which it only fitfully managed to recover.
Gelb shows how, after some 200 years of this divided existence, ruled by a succession of monarchs, few of whose names we remember, the Kingdom of Israel was eradicated by Assyrian conquest and its people dispersed. Some 200 years later, it was the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians, subsequent exile and return, conquest by the Persians, conquest by the Hellenes, followed by the revolt of the Maccabees.
The final century of the Jewish kingdom, now known as Judaea, puts us in touch with more familiar figures: Jesus, Bar Kochba, Herod the Great, the Roman emperors Hadrian, Agrippa, and Agrippa II. They recount the wars with Rome, the Jewish resistance movements, notably the Zealots and their tragic, internecine struggles with fellow Jewish resisters, culminating in the fall of Jerusalem itself to the Romans and the destruction of Masada.
Gelb uses his sources effectively and strategically. They comprise works ancient and modern: Biblical writings (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Chronicles, Maccabees, Kings, Isaiah); near-contemporary observers such as Josephus, Tacitus, Herodotus; and an impressive array of more recent historians. He never overwhelms us with bookish scholarship. Rather, his approach and tone are both gripping and measured. To say that his material is compelling would be an understatement.
From the perspective of this Jewish reader, the final third of the book is almost unbearably poignant. It describes the unstoppable, ever-mounting agonies of the kingdoms of Judah, Judaea, and Israel as they face internal dissension, leading to disintegration, destruction, and Diaspora. As we know from our contemporary perspective, those losses and sufferings would not be alleviated until the founding of Israel in 1948.
Gelb has graced us with a work that is both magisterial in scope and inviting in its teaching.
----Henry Grinberg, author of the novel, "Variations on the Beast."
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Gelb handles a difficult subject very well
By Israel Drazin
Norman Gelb narrates a difficult subject in a successful popular fashion. He tells the story of the kings of ancient Israel and two queens who ruled without husbands. He gives his readers what they want to know and what they should know in brief, easy to read English. He touches on the most important points of the monarchs' lives and how they impacted upon their people and history. He did all of this despite the many problems that he was facing.
It is difficult if not impossible to write a true non-controversial history of these kings and queens. Saul, reluctantly chosen by the prophet Samuel, although he despised the notion that his people should be ruled by a monarch, is generally considered Israel's first king. Yet, as Gelb makes clear, there was an individual during the earlier period of the judges, the period when the Israelite tribes were usually led by charismatic leaders, who proclaimed himself king and lived as a king for a short time.
Saul's son Ishbosheth was king after him for a couple of years. He was followed by David and Solomon. But then, until the Hasmonean kings and the kings in Herod's family, usually overlooked by people, but described by Gelb, the Land of Israel is divided and monarchs ruled in two kingdoms, Judea in the south and Israel in the north. Should the historian call the northerners Israelites and the southerners Judeans? Gelb simplifies and calls them all Jews, as most people think of them, and as he does in the book's title, even though the name Jews was not invented until several centuries after the last king of the divided kingdoms ruled. But these were not the only problems that Gelb had to face.
The history is difficult to tell because the documents that relate the history differ radically. Many of monarchs' stories are told in the biblical books of Kings and Chronicles, and in some of the biblical books of the Prophets. But each, without exception, tells different tales and gives different slants even when they narrate the same events. The Talmuds also elaborate on much of the history with ideas that are not in the three biblical sources, and the Talmuds use their version of the history to teach lessons the rabbis considered important. For example, many people are familiar with the story of David heroically killing the Philistine giant Goliath, which is in Kings. Yet Chronicles has another person do this deed. Kings describes in detail how David committed adultery with Bat Sheba and how he had her husband killed, but the story is not in Chronicles. And there is an opinion in the Talmud that David never did anything wrong.
But this is not all. A fifth source is the legends about the kings, such as the legend that Solomon could speak to animals. Gelb mentions legends sometimes, but identifies them as such. A sixth scientific source, made up of many strands, sociological and anthropological and excavations among others, has yielded additional information, such as ancient artifacts from the age of the kings. A seventh is documents from contemporary neighbor nations that comment upon the Israelite and Judean kings. For example, Kings records bad behaviors of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab, but these other documents describe them as very successful rulers. Gelb incorporates this information in his story.
To complicate matters, both the Talmuds and modern scholarship recognize that there are problems with dating and other numbers. We do not know how long Saul ruled or the exact date that David assumed his throne, among other events. Furthermore, the numbers of years that each monarch ruled do not add up, resulting in both of the Talmuds and scholars admitting that there was some overlap, but they differ in how this occurred. Additionally, the Bible frequently rounds off numbers, for example it states in Exodus 1 that seventy members of Jacob's family traveled to Egypt and then names them, but the names are less than seventy. So, too, with the kings. Scripture states that both David and Solomon, for instance, ruled for forty years. Should these numbers be taken literally? As a result of this confusion over numbers we do not know for certain how long the northern nation of Israel lasted. While many scholars say exactly two hundred years, from 922 BCE to 722 BCE, Gelb opts for 931-722 because he allocated only thirty years to Solomon's reign.
But this does not end the difficulty. There are many scholars who question whether David and Solomon ever existed. How does an historian deal with this? And, since each of the seven above-mentioned sources was written to advance the agenda of its writer, which reference should an historian rely on?
Gelb offers his readers a clear sufficiently detailed narration of the history of the ancient monarchs for people who want a general understanding of the history of Judaism and its national leaders without resorting to the problems of scholarship. In a word, he gives them, as written earlier, what they want and what they need to know, and does it well. His primary source is Kings, the book that is better known to the general readership.
Just as he does not delve into the difficulties of scholarship, which his readers are not interested in hearing, Gelb avoids sermonizing about the history. He keeps to the facts as he sees them. However, a reader will see in Gelb's narration that the history of Judaism from its beginnings to the present era have one venomous black mark, a cancerous deadly stain. Virtually every evil that afflicted the Jews, from the days when they murmured and complained against their leader Moses, who was trying to help them, until the present, was the result of internal conflicts, unnecessary and destructive strife among themselves. The nation that Saul, David, and Solomon united would have remained strong if it remained unified and had not divided over a conflict about taxes. This resulted in the destruction of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE and the everlasting loss of ten of the twelve Jewish tribes. Similarly, in 70 CE, the nation and its Temple would not have been destroyed by the Romans and Jews would not have needed to suffer 2,000 years of exile if the several conflicting groups, who not only disagreed, but literally killed one another, would have faced Rome united.
Thus, Gelb's history is interesting, and instructive.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Kings of the Jews
By Norman Gelb
Review of KINGS OF THE JEWS: Exploring the Origins of the Jewish Nation, by Norman Gelb
A readable look at the rulers of the Jewish people, spanning more than a millennium. Gelb presents a compilation of the lives of the Jewish rulers from ancient King Saul to the puppet ruler Agrippa, who saw Jerusalem fall to the Romans. The book profiles the dozens of men and two women who ruled over Judah, Israel and some other manifestations of the Jewish nation through a vast period of history. Ancient Jewish history is both well-documented and highly engaging, and Gelb takes advantage of both characteristics in crafting a book based upon these rulers' lives. Whether the stories are well-known, such as David or Solomon, or more obscure, such as tongue-twister monarchs Jehoahaz or Pekahiah, the material is rich, epic and certain to maintain interest. Gelb's narrative style is highly readable and holds the reader's attention.
The author provides worthwhile historical background throughout, especially at crucial junctures such as the move to captivity in Babylon and the Maccabean revolt. Though an instructive read, this book is not necessarily a fresh addition to the overall body of work in Jewish history,. Indeed most of what Gelb includes is found either in the Hebrew scriptures, i.e., the Old Testament, or the Apocrypha. Gelb's contribution is not so much providing original research or fresh interpretation, but instead making this history more approachable to the modern reader, regardless of prior knowledge of Jewish history. Though the book is a history of the leaders of God's chosen people, in Gelb's chronicle, God has little or no agency. When God communicates or acts, it is only, "According to the Bible" or "as the Bible describes." As such, Gelb's account is rooted deeply in historical critical methods, and readers of established personal faith may find it off-putting to some degree.
An interesting, approachable retelling of a well-established history.
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